New pellets and a better diet.

[Rippy]

Hello,

I have two Bunny’s a 8 month old Lionhead and 5 month old Holland lop. They are my first two Bunny’s and I always get a feeling I am doing something very wrong with there diet which is causing occasional stool problems with them. Now I decided to buy new higher quality pellets next week but there are a few problems with that as well.

What I am feeding them now:

http://www.beaphar.co.uk/productinfo/10/small-animals/

Bephar XtraVital -  Its made in Netherlands and it doesn’t export to the USA and it is a pellet mix.

Composition: Crude Protein 15.3%, Crude fat 2.9%, Crude fibre 13.4%, Crude ash 6.2% and it has smashed corn, grain and beans in it as well which I know are not very good for Rabbits.

So its a mix which means that I have a hard time making sure that they get an even number of bits each day. They pick out the good stuff and leave the what they don’t want. It is quite expensive in comparison to other food, low fiber and I throw 1/3 of it away because they just wont eat the only higher fiber pellet in the mix.

The Bunny’s diets:

Shmoo is 8 months old.

After his neuter he had unlimited pellets for a while but I have since decreased it to about 70g per day and 2 leafs of lettuce in the morning and 2 in the evening. He seems to like fresh food slightly more then his pellets and I plan to start introducing him to other fresh vegetables soon such as dandelions because they also grow in our back yard, presley and carrots in a few months. His stool is mostly normal but small (always been like that). He will occasionally leave a cecotrope for me to pick up but he mostly eats them and I suspect that this is the result of the low fiber high energy pellets and really he will leave a poop on the mushy side but others will be normal. He will occasionally eat a bit of paper, cardboard or untreated pine in miniature amounts but well within acceptable limits.

Pika is 5 months old.

She has quite a few stool problems. As she was growing up I fed her almost unlimited pellets which I have decreased to about 90g in the past two months. Each day she left almost all her cecotropes in her cage and then rolled around on them but I try to pick them up or clean as fast as I can – still as a result she smells like…well don’t need to say it do it. My vet said that the low consumption of cecotrope can be normal. During the last 3 weeks I have been decreasing her pellets to 40g a day and she now consumes more cecotropes but she will still leave a few for me to clean up. Her stool can sometimes be a bit deformed and mushy but never diarrhea and not more then a few poops. She doesn’t like fresh food very much but loves the pellets she also eats alot of hey and her poops are very big. During her play time I need to make sure she won’t eat too much cardboard or wood as she mostly doesn’t spit it out after destroying things but rather just eats it. Ill try vegetables again in a week or two.

 

Choices of new pellets:

I live in Europe – Slovenia and there is very little choice of higher quality food and toys for small and exotic animals while the market for Dogs and Cats is very good. I did some research and there is not much to choose from as most of the food is low quality pellet mixes and I would want to get away from that.

1)Extruded Timothy Rabbit Food:

http://www.harrisonpet.com/index.ph…amp;pid=31

Crude Protein:15%, Crude Fat 2.5%, Crude Fibre 18%

This is the best food the pet stores in my town have. Its not that healthy but its cheap and I can go and buy it any time so that is an advantage but this food isn’t my first choice.

2) Bunny Nature Green Dream Basic

http://www.bunny-nature.co.uk/rabbit_gd_basic.html

Raw Protein 13,7%, Raw Fat 2.5%, Raw Fibre 21.0%

Now this is the best Bunny food I can get here but I would have to order it via mail and I’m not sure they offer free shipping which would put it at Oxbow price range. But the advantage would be that I could have it the next day when I need it.

3) Zupreem Nature’s Promise

http://www.zupreem.com/our-food/sma…abbit-food

Crude Protein 14.0%, Crude Fat 1.0%, Crude Fibre 28.0%

I saw the Dry food rating topic and I know this food is healthy. Only problem is that i would have to order it from Italy or Germany but I found a store which will ship for free for a purchase of 60€ or more. This would be the “bang for the buck” if i compare the price of my current food at 13€ for 2.5kg (5.5lb) (and another 1/3 ending up in the garbage), while I can get 34€ for 9kg (20lb) of this.

4) Oxbow Bunny Basics 15/23 or “T”

Don’t think this food needs an introduction and they have it at the same store as Zupreem. It is priced at 13€ for 2.27kg (5lb) so considering the throw away still cheaper then my current mix.

 

So what to do ?

I’m almost sure I want to order from abroad but in this case it would be wise to always have a minimum of 1 month worth of food. And if I do ill end up buying a minimum of 15-18kg (33lb – 40lb) of food to get the free shipping…what if they don’t like it? And how much of it would they eat in a month?

Well thank you for the advice.

[jerseygirl]

From the list you’ve given I think the Zupreem looks to be the best option. If you do order 9kgs, you can actually freeze pellets in an air tight container to retain some freshness. If you find it is too bigger quantity – what about advertising to see if anyone is interested in buying half a bag?
It might be an idea when trying new pellets to order a small bag 1st off – or contact the company and see if they’ll send you a sample for a small fee.

Pellets really only form a small portion of their adult diet (unless you have difficulty getting hay and need to feed more pellets to compensate). What type of hay do you feed your two? Is Smoo a good hay eater also? It does sound as if he needs more fibre in his diet.

For the younger one, have you ever had the poop tested for parasites? It is quite common for young rabbits to have coccidia which can produce mushy type poos.

[Rippy]

The reason I am looking at the big bags is because you get more for less but the 10lb bag is still at a decent price. If there is a chance the big bag will go bad before they eat it then I might as well get Oxbow but that is something I still have few days to consider.

I feed them Meadow hay but yes Shmoo isn’t a big fan of hay but he still eats tho it would be nice if he ate more. Pika never had a poop test done but there where a few problems with mush and some sneezing when I got her so I took her to the vet and over the course of 3 weeks she received 3 injections of antibiotics and two four day courses of medicine in her water.

[jerseygirl]

I buy about 5kg bags and I freeze 3/4 straight away. The rabbits seem to still like them. Also, I used to feed meadow hay too but I found that they would pick out their favorite bits and ignore the rest. Do you find Shmoo doe this? Do you have other hays available you can try? Ideally, if the majority of the diet is hay then you don’t need too many pellets at all. It is a challenge though to get them eating hay over pellets – I know that for sure!!

[Rippy]

Shmoo isn’t as picky about hey at all…he just don’t eat much of it but Pika seems to be a bit more selective.

Hm I think I might have a problem…I didn’t change anything apart from the fact that there morning play time ended up being 30 minutes later today. Shmoo was playing and jumping all normal pooped a bit and groomed Pika. But after 45 minutes or so he just went into his cage like does when he looks for food but went to his nap place instead. Didn’t even check for food – I gave him fresh pellets, lettuce which he loves and a treat but he refuses to eat it. Pushed the bowl to him and he just pushed it away with his head like he said “no”. Now he is just resting there…I’m pretty sure he was eating before he got out (not much as he gets food at this time)…was active and I’m sure he didn’t hurt himself.

Update:

Uh false alarm…its probably the rapid weather and pressure change and I am feeling it too  (guess there is no bunny aspirin) . He just started eating again 1h later then he normally does.

[Beka27]

I’m glad you’re getting them on a better pellet. Both the Zupreem and Oxbow would be good choices. I’m not the best at conversions but you’ll want them both down to a very limited amount of pellets, since hay and green veggies should be the largest part of the diet. A better, and reduced amount of pellets will definitely help with their poop issues.

[Rippy]

I decided to switch them to Oxbow Bunny Basics “T” and got the bags a few days ago. Now I’m having some problems trying to switch them over. For 4 days now I have been giving them there old pellet mix with Oxbow and I am making progress with one Bunny but not the other. Pika is a very good eater and when she is done with her old pellet she will soon start on the new brand so I am making good progress with her. Now the bad news is that I am going nowhere with Shmoo. When he is done with his old pellet he just switches over to hay so I have no idea how to make the transition work for him. He might eat a few because I did give him two pellets as a taste and he ate them. He does eat a decent amount of fresh vegetables each day so I was thinking about doing it like this (he might hate me for it). Reduce the old pellet from normal to zero in 10 days and always give him some of the new pellet. Now once he starts eating it I would increase the new pellet from 1/4 to a normal amount in the next 10-14 days.

Or is there anything that I can do different?

[Beka27]

What if you gave the new pellet first… then wait about 5 minutes and add some of the old… would he start eating the new right away?

[Rippy]

He has the pellets in his bowl 24h a day so that would not change anything.

[Monkeybun]

Shmoo is at an age where he doesnt need to have unlimited pellets. you should start tapering it off, lowering his daily amount.

[Rippy]

I’m sorry for not making this clear. He does not have unlimited pellets, he gets his pellets at 10am and 7pm which he will eat before the next meal. The pellets that stay in the bowl for 24h are Oxbow..because he wont eat them . Now I can’t make a gradual switch because of it.

[Monkeybun]

ahh gotcha

[Beka27]

What if you gave pellets through out the day… only a 2 or 3 at a time, almost like treats? Ideally, he would be switched over gradually, but in his case, you may just have to stop giving the old and watch for any ill-effects. Keep reducing the old at the same rate you are doing with your other bun, and eventually, there won’t be any left. He will either begin to eat the Oxbow, or maybe he will choose to be pellet-free, which is a possibility with hay and veggies as the sole diet. Many people have buns on pellet-free diets.

[Author]

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