Ideal weight for young nethies!

[Rain]

Hey, I just have a quick question. I feel like Rain might be slightly overweight, because he looks chubby. Even my friends told me he looks chubby. I might be overfeeding him, but that’s because the past week he was having a little hay issues so I gave him extra veggies to help him. He’s fine now, so I reduced the veggies to normal. His current diet is: Orchard Grass/Timothy hay, two leaves of greenleaf (it was three during the trouble week) two Oxbow Simple Rewards treats (I gave two as well during the trouble week to tempt him to eat more) a pinch of oats (usually mixed with hay to encourage him to eat it) and a small handful of timothy pellets. He’s approximately six months old, and he weighs 2.8 pounds. Is this too much for a young netherland dwarf? 

[Mikey]

Almost 3lbs would be pretty large for a nethie. Theyre usually between 1lbs to 2.3lbs. Over 2.6lbs could be risking obesity. Are you sure he is a pure dwarf and not a false? Falses will still be smaller than normal rabbits, but larger than pure dwarves. A false dwarf nethie would be between 2.5lbs and 3.5lbs, normally.

[Rain]

He could be a false dwarf. He doesn’t look fat though. I can feel all his bones, but there’s like a padded feeling to them. I don’t have to press or anything. Or I weighed him wrong. I can’t hold him so I make him sit on the machine while I stand over him. It’s probably not accurate. He looks tiny. And all his littermates were dwarfs too, and looked like dwarves. I hope he’s not obese. I don’t think he is. I don’t know how to post pics so I can’t say. Actually, my weighing machine may be broken or something. It kept changing my weight too. I’ll try again. I think you may be right. Or the machine’s just wrong. He looks chubby, but not obese. There’s also a roll of fur under his neck. Is that bad? It’s not thick. It’s just fur puffing out.

[Mikey]

False dwarves can look like pure dwarves, only theyre a little bigger. Its a lot more common than people think Since hes a little bigger but not overly pudgey, I would assume hes either a bigger pure dwarf or a smaller false dwarf. He is a cutie pie, either way!

My Blue is a mini rex and he has a chest puff like you are describing for your bun. Usually thats a sign of obesity in male rabbits, but my vet has said Blue is perfect weight and has an ideal mini rex body shape, aside from his chest puff. It could have to do with hormone levels through puberty (intersex rabbits are also more common than people think), or it could be a random genetic quirk. If you are worried about your bun’s chest puff, though, it could be helpful to have ti checked by a vet to make sure everythings good

[sarahthegemini]

I don’t know about the weight of a dwarf but two reward treats and a pinch of oats daily sounds like overkill. I’d cut down on the treats regardless.

[Azerane]

It’s really tough to say with rabbits without actually feeling them. Seeing some pics of him might help, but for now I’d cut out the oats, they do have a tendency to cause weight gain.

[Rain]

Okay, I’ll definitely cut those out. I usually use those to bribe him into going back in his cage, but I can just use pellets instead. And since he’s not sick anymore, there’s no need for two reward treats.
What are some sure signs that he’s overweight?
Rain is probably going through puberty right now. It’s his age. Or her age. Again, the gender is uncertain, but in a couple months, I’ll find out. It could be a dewlap if Rain’s a girl. But I do know that dwarf rabbits usually don’t get one. Then again, if he’s a false dwarf, or an intersex rabbit, then that could be normal.
What about his sides? Are they supposed to curve slightly inwards, or slightly outwards? Or have no curve at all and just be flat?

[Wick & Fable]

I’d limit to one treat per day, and break it in half or quarters if you want to do it twice during the day. Try cutting out oats so it’s just hay if possible too! All just suggestions though, nothing concrete.

Also, don’t compare weight to Wick’s. I know I’ve posted he’s 2lbs recently, but he was half the size of his litter mates, so he’s naturally a slightly smaller nethie. Rain may be naturally bigger.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Rain]

He actually looks kinda overweight to me. I can see his white bony thing when I part his fur if that makes sense. Also, where are a rabbits ribs? I want to feel for those too.
I gave him just one treat today and a little bit of oats. I’ll cut out the oats though. I could do the breaking apart of the treat though, that’s a good idea. Then he’ll feel like he’s getting a lot of treats but he’s really not. And it saves money too.
Oh yes I remember reading on a couple of your posts about Wick being a runt so I knew not to compare the two. Rain is a big rabbit for a dwarf. He grew pretty fast but has stayed this size for a while. I’ll keep him on a less treat filled diet and see if that works. Also I will reduce veggies.
Thanks everyone for the tips and helpful suggestions!

[sarahthegemini]

If you’re really concerned, take him to the vet for a weigh in. I don’t know what your vet’s protocol is but at mine, a weigh in with the vet nurses is free. I got my two weighed when I thought Peanut was under. Turns out he’s perfect weight with good muscle mass

[Rain]

I went and got him checked. They said he’s overweight by a POUND. That’s way to much. I’ll try to make an appointment for choosing a better diet to help him lose weight, but until then, what can I do? Should I just take out treats in general? And maybe pellets? Or maybe veggies? Any advice?

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Rain on 2/04/2018 2:49 PM

I went and got him checked. They said he’s overweight by a POUND. That’s way to much. I’ll try to make an appointment for choosing a better diet to help him lose weight, but until then, what can I do? Should I just take out treats in general? And maybe pellets? Or maybe veggies? Any advice?

I’d cut out treats completely. Then after a couple of weeks, if he’s still a bit overweight I’d cut down pellets. How do you offer pellets? If you put them in a bowl, you could try scattering or using a treat ball instead to encourage him to move around a bit more.

[Deleted User]

The mystery is solved? Rain is a boy? Overweight by a pound? In your picture he doesn’t seem overweight to me. Like Mikey, I think it needs to be considered whether or not he’s true or false dwarf. If either of my boys got down to the standard 3 pounds, they would look really skinny, so I think that’s definitely a factor to think about.

[Wick & Fable]

Take a good look at him as he runs around and try and assess whether it seems like he has unnecessary baggage. Limiting down treats and pellets would be good regardless just for his health too. He should get about 1/4c or slightly more of pellets per day. If you could post a private video to YouTube and share the link, maybe we can all get a better idea how rain looks now.

Side note, I just got new hay stacks today. You can see a picture/info about my method here: http://www.instagram.com/p/BeynY6yBCTR/

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[Rain]

Okay, yes, I think that it’s best to remove treats. I give him an eight of pellets I think. I reduced it to like a table spoon the past couple days, but I think it’s the same thing. I could definitely try the ball thing. Exercise is important too.The past week he was producing tiny poos due to hay changes so I gave him three green leaf lettuce things.That could also be the cause. I’m reducing that to one now.
I know he’s overweight. He’s slower and lounges around a lot. Even when he walks, he looks awkward and heavy. I think that’s also why he has a double chin. And he just feels and looks fatter in general. The picture I took was a couple months ago, when he was still a good healthy weight. I think these past two months may have been when he started getting chubbier. It’s because I wasn’t able to resist giving him treats! I know it’s bad though, and it’s already affecting him negatively, so I’ll have to say no. I hate it when he begs. I still can feel his spine though, so hopefully that means he’s not like really obese. I don’t know how I didn’t spot it before. I guess I was so concerned already about other things, that I didn’t really notice. I should have been watching his weight better. I’ll take out treats, cut down pellets and veggies, and see if that hopefully helps after a couople weeks.

[Rain]

This is what he looks like. Someone helped me upload pics and now I can finally do it I think!

Here’s a pic of him standing. I don’t know if I’m just overreacting and saying he’s chubby because everyone else in my family is saying he is, but this is a picture I got of him today. 

[Mikey]

His nose isnt flat, so hes not a pure dwarf. Pure dwarves have box like heads because their noses/front of their faces are very flat.

His body size/proportion ratio looks fine, too. His chest is a little thick, but his tummy, back, and face all look fine in weight. Cutting out the extra treats will help out with any extra weight he has on.

Example pulled from google: http://rabbitbreeders.us/wp-content/uploads/dk-chocolate-sia-sabel.png

[Rain]

Ohhh I see. Yes there’s definitely the box shape with the pure dwarf. Okay so then I think he’s just a little bit tinyyy overweight but I can fix that by cutting out treats. The nurses told me he’s three pounds. So he’s probably a tiny rabbit but not a real dwarf. Okay! No wonder. I knew that it was strange that one dwarf rabbit could have eight babies in her litter at the pet store. I’ve read that they have w lot of trouble and usually have up to four babies.

[sarahthegemini]

It’s hard to tell in pictures as they can look so different from certain angles but he looks okay to me! I wouldn’t say drastically overweight. Cutting out treats will help. Just gotta resist his little face, as he’s very cute 

[Author]

Messages