How much pellets and what veggies?

[Kailaeve1271]

I’m trying to lean my rabbits to eat less pellets. All three are under 5 pounds, 2 females and 1 male. When thy eat pellets they won’t touch their hay and they barely touch their veggies. What is the least amount of pellets you can give them? I’ve heard you can go pellet free but I’m terrified I won’t be able to fill their nutritional needs. I was also wondering what do most people feed their bunnies? I’m currently giving both types of leaf Lettuce, 1 treat (rotated daily of any in small amounts: carrot, cucumber, tomato, apple, or banana), and an herb (rotated: basil, parsley, rosemary, or cilantro). During the winter, they also get fresh kale, cabbage and bok Choy from the garden occasionally.

[Kailaeve1271]

Oh I forgot to mention, all three are lionheads. I’ve been giving them sunflower oil to help grow out their coats and it is helping tremendously. They went from small puff on their neck that made me question if the previous owner told me the right breed to 2 inch manes with beautiful tiny chin fluffs and a small amount of extra fur on their hunches. Their baby, who I hand raised from literal birth (momma was pregnant from the previous home), has a huge mane and while I know the parents will not have the same as her, I’m hoping I can help them make it better. I just read recently sunflower oil, despite what I read, is a big fat NO for bunnies so is their something better and healthier that I can give them?

[Yilina]

Hi Kailaeve1271!

The House Rabbit Society (https://rabbit.org/faq-diet/) recommends 1/2 cup of pellets per 6 lbs. body weigh + 1 cup of greens for 2 lbs of rabbit body weight. As you know, if you want to reduce the amount of pellets they are taking (or even stop feeding them pellets), it’s important to do it slowly, as not to upset their guts. You can start by giving them a bit less pellets and a bit more veggies and see how they adjust, and change the quantities as you see fit. The same site says: “When you feed a lower quantity (or no) of pellets, you must replace the nutritional value without the calories, which is done by increasing the vegetables. Also, a variety of hay must be encouraged all day long, we do this by offering fresh hay a couple of times a day.”

As for the veggies, here is a list of recommended/dangerous vegetables for rabbits: https://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables-and-fruits-for-a-rabbit-diet/. In my case, I give my bunny 3 types of veggies per day that I rotate according to what I can find in the market.

Unfortunately, I don’t know anything about sunflower oil, but I’m sure somebody else here can help you with that.

[Kailaeve1271]

Thank you! My bunnies get as much hay as they want although my pellet problem is that they want none. I’ve been giving them about 1/4 for my male (he’s around 4 pounds. He doesn’t eat as much as I think he should in all honesty but his ribs feel fine so maybe he has a low metabolism) and my two females get about 3/4 of a cup for both of them since they like to share bowls even though they have 2 (The younger was born the tiniest runt I’ve ever seen, in fact I thought she was a peanut, and she now weighs just under 3 pounds. The older/mother of the other is the largest of my buns at about 6 1/2 pounds. Both feel healthy as well). I think that’s about right with the measurements given.

The females get about 7 cups of veggies for both so maybe they need a little more before I start considering decreasing their pellets. They mainly just play in their hay so that’s my concern with them. My male gets about 1 or 1 1/2 cups because he hates everything other than pellets which is really concerning to me

As for sunflower oil I hope someone can shed a little light on the subject as well

[kurottabun]

My bunny is slightly over a year old and we feed him 2 tablespoons of pellets per day – 1 in the morning and 1 in the evening.

Have you tried feeding other kinds of grass hay? I recently introduced orchard grass and Kurotta obviously prefers it over his usual timothy hay. He didn’t have a big problem in regards to not eating enough hay before this, but he definitely loves orchard grass more. There’s also meadow hay etc that you could try out to encourage hay eating.

[bbbunzo]

Our vet said it’s strange, but my bun’s favorite is oat hay. He will tolerate most other hays but he actually hates orchard hay. He also doesn’t like herbs outside of parsley and cilantro. I bet you can find some healthy options they will like (it sounds like you’re doing a really nice job). Some bunnies are just a little picky, I guess I will say though, he became MUCH less picky after I started giving him less salad stuff so that he would eat enough hay. I try to monitor his poops to make sure does.

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