My Bunny is addicted to unhealthy diet!

[MissRj]

<p class=”p1″>Hello everyone! New Bunny mama is here </p>
<p class=”p1″>First here’s a brief summary about my adorable Bunny Toffee: </p>
<p class=”p1″>She’s 3 months old I got her when she was 2 months and I didn’t have any experience/knowledge of Rabbits before then,</p>
<p class=”p1″>I took the time to educate myself and I can safely say I fully understand how to provide the best happiest environment for my Rabbit including a healthy diet which is the problem!</p>
<p class=”p1″>She only ate Pallets until we welcomed her home but for the first 2 weeks I continued to give her Pallets with a heavy heart because I was waiting for her Hay to arrive (Unfortunately, I can only order it online)</p>
<p class=”p1″>Thankfully the hay arrived quickly and I started to provide her with 90% Alfalfa 10% Timothy and gradually cutting out Pallets everything was fine until I noticed her urine dry off white and when I searched it turned out it’s excess Calcium so I reduced Alfalfa and increased Timothy </p>
<p class=”p1″>I ran out of Alfalfa and here’s where the problem started! She LOVE Alfalfa and hate Timothy, she started begs and runs like crazy and keep searching for alfalfa & her Pallets, she knows where her I keep her Pallets and it’s just breaking my heart to see her in that hyper condition like she’s starving and when I do give her pallets she eats it like there’s no tomorrow!</p>
<p class=”p1″>won’t rest won’t binky won’t sleep until we provide her with Pallets, honestly like she’s drug addicted!!! </p>
<p class=”p1″>What should I do guys? She seems like starving 24/7 and my mom is accusing me of stone heart cause I refuse to give her pallets even when she’s doing this crazy act.. she eats her Timothy hay but only if she completely loses hope</p>
<p class=”p1″>Is she really hungry? Are rabbits usually this hungry and always searching for food? </p>

[MissRj]

<p class=”p2″>I also forgot to mention that she chew the door to the pallets place like crazy although she’s not a chewer -yet?-</p>
<p class=”p2″> I’m concerned about her teeth and what if she ingested it </p>
<p class=”p2″>I’m really not sure what to do </p>

[Bam]

Hi and welcome to Binky Bunny!

First off, a healthy bun will act like it is starving. Rabbits are extremely food-oriented, and that is normal.

For a baby bun like your Toffee, the House Rabbit Society recommends unlimited pellets, preferably alfalfa-based. They also recommend unlimited alfalfa hay. It is however good to try and get the bun to eat grass hay (such as timothy) at an early age, because grass hay is fundamental in the adult bun’s diet.

(Alfalfa hay is yummier though, as you seem to have noticed 😬).

White chalky residue or cloudiness in the urine means the rabbit is getting rid of the calcium it doesn’t need. Contrary to most other mammals, rabbits absorb all dietary calcium, and then the surplus gets filtered out by the kidneys and is peed out. This is the way it is supposed to work. We often see cloudy pee eith young buns due to their diet being extra high in calcium. Calcium is, as you know, important for many things, like the skeleton, the teeth and the muscular function. Your bun is growing rapidly now. I’d not worry about somewhat chalky pee right now.

So, to conclude: wean her onto pellets again, but start with a smaller amount spread out over the day so she doesnt pig out completely and get a stomach ache. Let her have grass hay 24/7 and serve her water in bowl, because buns drink more from a bowl than from a bottle. To encourage her to eat more hay, you can serve it in smaller piles in several places in her area. Many buns like to chew on hay when they go to the toilet, so its good if there is hay near the litterbox.

You can of course order more alfalfa hay and mix it with the grass hay.

[Bam]

Oh, about the chewing: Rabbits chew. There are chew toys that you can buy. If you have access to fresh twigs or small branches from willow or pesticide free apple trees (or rowan, gazel, aspen, linden and several more types of trees), you can give her that. An upside down cardboard box with two door holes cut out on either side works well as both a chew toy and a hide house. Most buns won’t eat the cardboard, just chew it, but you should keep an eye, because some buns actually will eat the cardboard in amounts that could be detrimental to their health.

She probably is extra hungry now, but just feeding her more will probably not be enough to stop her from chewing the pellet door. Once a bun has decided to chew on something, (a behavior jokingly called “bunstruction”), its very difficult to get it to stop. The best solution is often to block the bun from accessing the object it has become very interested in.

[Author]

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