New Bun Mom, LOTS of questions

[rachaelnutt]

Hello Community! This is my first post here. I’m a new bunny mom to a Holland Lop who’s about 9 weeks old. I’ve kept many pets in my lifetime and have raised kittens, puppies, hamsters, snakes, you name it! The rabbit world is very foreign to me and while I’ve done a lot of research, I still feel ill equipped. 

I’ve had the little guy for about a week now and recently I’ve noticed some different things in his behavior. 

For the first few days, I incorporated his old pellets in with the pellets I bought along with timothy hay. He seemed fairly normal then, but I had read that rabbits need more leafy greens and hay rather than pellets (which he was predominately eating). I’ve given him about two slivers of green bell pepper every other day, yesterday I gave him some kale and parsley, and I had given him spinach about 3-4 days ago. He kind of slumps around in his cage now. Just sort of lies there (which could be due to the fact that he’s warm. Trying to keep it cool in his room, but I live in the south and it’s humid and hot). Today I bought a new feeder for his pellets/hay and put some parsley, green pepper, and a few slivers of carrot into his ceramic dish. What I’ve noticed is that he’s hardly touched the pellets/hay and I’m not sure what to do to get him to eat it. Likewise, he’s poo has been wetter than usual since putting more fresh food in his diet and it’s leaving a mess on his hind legs and his bum. 

Any suggestions? I’m nervous he’s not well from the dietary changes. I’m not sure what the breeder had fed him before. Any tips to get him to eat more hay? 

Also, just as a side note, any tips on helping him use his litter tray? I’ve been soaking his urine up in a paper towel and placing it under the grate. He’s young and I know I need to be patient but any tips in that area would be great as well.

[WRXFamily]

It is generally a good rule of thumb to slowly introduce bunny safe veggies. One new veggie every 3 days is about good. Do you know how old your bun is?? Is he neutered??? Veggies should be introduced after 12 weeks of age as youngsters have sensitive tummys. I would hold back on the fresh foods for now. Also if he isn’t neutrered yet there aren’t a lot of things you can do to make litter training totally perfect. Hope this helps.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By rachaelnutt on 5/11/2017 2:11 PM

Hello Community! This is my first post here. I’m a new bunny mom to a Holland Lop who’s about 9 weeks old. I’ve kept many pets in my lifetime and have raised kittens, puppies, hamsters, snakes, you name it! The rabbit world is very foreign to me and while I’ve done a lot of research, I still feel ill equipped. 

I’ve had the little guy for about a week now and recently I’ve noticed some different things in his behavior. 

For the first few days, I incorporated his old pellets in with the pellets I bought along with timothy hay. He seemed fairly normal then, but I had read that rabbits need more leafy greens and hay rather than pellets (which he was predominately eating). I’ve given him about two slivers of green bell pepper every other day, yesterday I gave him some kale and parsley, and I had given him spinach about 3-4 days ago. He kind of slumps around in his cage now. Just sort of lies there (which could be due to the fact that he’s warm. Trying to keep it cool in his room, but I live in the south and it’s humid and hot). Today I bought a new feeder for his pellets/hay and put some parsley, green pepper, and a few slivers of carrot into his ceramic dish. What I’ve noticed is that he’s hardly touched the pellets/hay and I’m not sure what to do to get him to eat it. Likewise, he’s poo has been wetter than usual since putting more fresh food in his diet and it’s leaving a mess on his hind legs and his bum. 

Any suggestions? I’m nervous he’s not well from the dietary changes. I’m not sure what the breeder had fed him before. Any tips to get him to eat more hay? 

Also, just as a side note, any tips on helping him use his litter tray? I’ve been soaking his urine up in a paper towel and placing it under the grate. He’s young and I know I need to be patient but any tips in that area would be great as well.

Firstly you shouldn’t really start giving veggies until the rabbit is at least 12 weeks old. And you certainly shouldn’t try so many at once – you’ve bad him for a week and you’ve already tried bell pepper, kale, parsley,  spinach AND  new pellets?! That’s way too much at once. You need to (when he’s older) introduce each veggie slowly. One new veggie per week. And start with a tiny amount and gradually increase as long as his tummy tolerates it.

When changing pellets you need to do a very slow transition ideally over the course of a few weeks. That’s why he’s having poopy butt problems. 

[Mikey]

At 9 weeks old, he shouldnt have too many greens too often yet. Stick to one or two that he likes, and use them as treats for now. You can start to add more greens and different greens after he turns about 3 to 4 months old. If hes over eating on pellets, youll want to start limiting him to one cup a day. Unlimited hay at all times, of course In general, buns six months and older need about 75 percent hay, 20 percent greens, 4 percent pellets, 1 percent treats. Since hes still a baby, his diet should look more like 75 percent hay, 24 percent pellets, 1 percent treats/greens 

Litter training might be on and off for a while until after he is neutered, and then it will slowly get better

Clean his butt off with a damp warm wash cloth to get all of the pee and poop off of him. If it stays too long, it can cause burns and/or irritation on his skin which can be hard to heal. This should get better as you adjust his diet

[BanditCamp]

If he is a baby bunny I would also suggest some alfalfa hay as it’s calcium rich and makes bunnies strong or timothy is ok with oxbow alfalfa pellets for babies (fortified food) he might be lounging because he’s hungry? My bunny sometimes gets laggy if he doesn’t have a huge pile of hay to bury his face in.

[rachaelnutt]

This is all great information! Thanks so much for answering! Like I said, I feel like I’ve done a lot of reading, but sometimes information can be mixed and not consistent. I’ve found it’s better to ask those who’ve actually dealt with things personally and so far this the website/forum has been a great resource!

I feel so bad for the little bun, knowing I’ve put his tummy through that. He was kind of “eh” when I came home tonight, but after a few snuggles and letting him roam around a little bit, he seemed a little bit more chipper. I’ll definitely stick to the hay/pellets for the next few weeks.

The breeder I got him from said she’s never neutered her rabbits (obviously, since she breeds them) but that she doesn’t recommend neutering them since it can be harmful to them? What are your experiences with neutering?

[BanditCamp]

This all entirely depends on his age, even an aproximation is helpful to is if you can provide it.

Neutering at the proper time prevents some unsavory behaviors such as territorial spraying, aggressiveness, and of course sexual habits. But the best benefit of all it extends their life and makes them calmer overall, getting your bun neutered is not a big deal if he’s young as I had bandit done at 2.5 months old. I personally had it done before his teen days and he might lose litter habits or behavior changes.

For boys they bounce back and his recovery time was 2 days and I made sure he didn’t chew his stitches and got as much rest, water and made sure he went to the bathroom regularly.

[Mikey]

Neutering and spaying is needed for health issues. One of my males had testicles that would swell horribly and cause him a lot of pain. The vet almost had to do an emergency neuter on him. Neutering is very helpful to get rid off aggression caused by hormones, which is very common, and removed the chance for testicular cancer. Spays are needed because up to 80 percent of female rabbits will get uterine cancer by the age of three; better a spay instead of cancer treatments.

Neuters are very simple on rabbits. Most bounce back within 24 hours

[sarahthegemini]

Hate to say it but many breeders don’t know what’s best for the health of rabbits.

[rachaelnutt]

Hotwheels (the name of the rabbit, which is a long story in itself) is 9 weeks. I was told that neutering him could potentially kill him, which is why I haven’t thought about it, but I definitely need to call around to some vets then. I appreciate all of the input, truly! Again, lots of questions and very new to this. Definitely like having him around and want to make his life a good one .

[Mikey]

Neutering at 9 weeks would have him killed, but neutering him when his testicles make an appearance wont kill him unless you have a horrible vet Neutering is done for the health of the rabbit and many bounce back super quickly, or atleast within days. Make sure the vet who preforms on your bun has a less than 1percent fail rate and make sure they are certified to work on rabbits. Also ask for pain meds to bring home for a few days, just in case

[Author]

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