Is my bunny underweight?? What should I do?

[Captain Holly]

I can feel her bones really easily and they are a bit sharp

She is about 3-4 months old

Her current diet is alfalfa and oat hay mix 24/7

3 table spoons of Timothy hay pellets per day (this is how much she agrees to eat)

3-2 little pieces of leafy greens

and a tiny piece of fruit

What should I do?

I read somewhere that oats are a good way to help her gain weight.. If so, how much should I give her?

(Where I live I can’t get a hold of alfalfa pellets so this is not an option)

[DanaNM]

The only thing I notice with her diet is that she is on timothy pellets, but young bunnies should get alfalfa pellets. Are you able to order them? I’m surprised you can’t get them, because often it’s harder to find timothy pellets. It’s good that she has alfalfa hay available though. I would bump that up, because young bunnies need the protein in the alfalfa. Have you gotten a vet’s opinion?

. . . 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.  

[Captain Holly]

If I will order, it will get here 3 months+ from now which will be useless
But I will increase her alfalfa intake

The vet couldn’t see anything wrong I’m afraid, but I don’t trust him cause we are pretty far behind bunny wise in that department…

Hope I will be able to fat her up one day! 🙂 (not to much, just enough so she will be healthy)

thanks for replying !

[DanaNM]

OK hopefully that will help! You can also give bunnies oat groats to help put on weight, but this usually isn’t for young growing bunnies. So I think first I would try to increase alfalfa as much as possible and start tracking her weight. As for how many oats, I would start with a small amount, maybe 1/2 a teaspoon and see how that goes?

. . . 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.  

[LBJ10]

I assume she doesn’t have any parasites that may prevent her from putting on weight. From the pictures, she looks lean… but not necessarily underweight. It’s hard to tell with her fur. Young rabbits can be pretty lean until they reach full size, at which time they will fill out a bit.

I agree with keeping her alfalfa intake up. That should help fuel her growing body.

[Captain Holly]

Will do!
How much do you think will be too much?
like if I can reach 2 teaspoons a day should I stop there ?

[DanaNM]

That seems like a lot to me. I would focus more on alfalfa and weigh her regularly. As LBJ10 mentioned, young bunnies can be pretty lean and that’s OK.

. . . 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.  

[LBJ10]

I agree. That sounds like a lot of oats. Too much could cause GI problems. If you can get her to eat more pellets, even if they are timothy, that would be better. Do you know what the ingredients of these pellets are? Most rabbits like pellets. I’m wondering if these aren’t very tasty.

[Captain Holly]

They are not really tasty!!
This is what happened- I had only access to low quality pellets, they had no hay in the ingredients.
I needed to give her something so this was the choice for the moment…

But then I found high quality pellets (what she eats now) and as you can expect the reaction from her side wasn’t great

[Moonlightbunny66]

If you have a farm feed store anywhere near you, it’s likely they will have alfalfa rabbit pellets. I also saw them at Walmart if you have one where you live. When you switch her pellets, start by adding in a bit of the new pellets to the current ones then increase until it’s just the new pellets. This should prevent stomach issues from switching her diet too quickly. It also might help her get used to it. Hope this helps!

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