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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum DIET & CARE Overweight

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    • BunnyLass568
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        Sorry for posting so much lately! We took Blossom to the vet on Saturday (April 10th) and she told us that Blossom was overweight. I try to give her playtime but she just lays down and does nothing. How can I help her lose some weight?

        ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


      • DanaNM
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          What is her diet like? And no need to apologize!

          Changing up her play environment can help (swapping around tunnels and hides), and there are lots of enrichment toys for feeding (like hiding pellets in things, etc.).

          . . . 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.  


          • BunnyLass568
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              1/4 cup of pellets (though I don’t do that much now, not sure how much it is but it’s not much), hay (of course) and 2 cups of veggies when we have it. I’ll try the switching of tunnels and I’ve been looking in to the enrichment toys like the Tokihut foraging mat and the Living World Teach n Treat toy but I currently don’t have the money for them.

              ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


          • DanaNM
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              1/4 cup of pellets is a lot. How much does she weigh? I would cut down to 1/8 cup or even a tablespoon and see how that goes. Adult bunnies really don’t need many pellets, some vets don’t recommend them at all, esp if a bun is overweight (when my Bertha needed to lose weight my vet told me to just stop all pellets). You can start weighing her regularly with a kitchen scale.

              It also is possible for bunnies to gain weight on hay and veggies alone, but I would start by reducing her pellets.

              . . . 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.  


              • BunnyLass568
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                  She weighs 10.1 pounds I believe. All the research I did said adult rabbits needed 1/4 cups of pellets, now I feel horrible. Thank you for the help!

                  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


              • Hazel
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                  Agreed, 1/4 cup is a lot of food. Just for reference, my bun weighs 3lbs and gets 1/8 cup.

                  What kind of pellets are you feeding?


                  • BunnyLass568
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                      I don’t really know to be honest. My parents pick them up at the nearest hardware store (since I can’t drive); I pestered my mom to call them (since I have a lot of anxiety, especially talking on the phone) to find out what was in them. Well she picked them up and asked an employee what kind of quality they were and the employee said that “it’s just like Oxbow pellets just cheaper. I give them to my rabbit and they’re fine.”

                      ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


                  • Ellie from The Netherlands
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                      That can be a bit of a shock when your bun is overweight, because they’re so fluffy it’s difficult to notice. I was so embarrassed when the vet told me he needed to lose 20% of his bodyweight to be healthy again 😯 Our bun got fat after his neuter because his energy levels dropped a bit. The vet told us that rabbits have a metabolism that’s designed to get out every calorie and to put it into fat, because in nature they eat foods that are poor in nutrition. Pellets are very energy dense, and it’s easy for a rabbit to get fat on them. We made the following changes, and our bun lost weight over the course of a couple of weeks:

                      We switched to grain-free pellets to eliminate starch and sugars, he gets Terra Expert timothy pellets these days. To maintain his weight we feed him 25 g of pellets for every kg bodyweight, which is 32,5 g. To make him lose weight we fed him 25 g per day. It’s such a small amount that it fits in an egg cup.

                      To activate him we hid his pellets in a box with shredded paper, so he had to dig for it. We had a treat ball as well which we put on the tightest setting, so he had to run after it. He was a bit frustrated at first but he started to like it when he became more excited for food. He also became more hungry for hay, so we used that in toys and hung his hay rack a bit higher so he needed to stretch.

                      I hope all these experiences here will help you. Please don’t feel embarrassed that it happened: it’s common in rabbits and the only embarrassing thing would be to do nothing about it. Glad you asked how you can help your bun 🙂


                    • Bam
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                        For rabbits as for people, caloric control is way superior to increased exercise, when the goal is weight loss. Exercise is great for many reasons, incl for people or buns who happen to be a bit on the heavy side (or “pleasingly plump” as my bun Bam preferred putting it), but it won’t fix a weight problem by itself.

                        Some vets recommend putting the bun on a hay-only diet, but a rabbit savvy vet wouldn’t do that. (The bun may not eat the hay, and go into stasis. A bun who isn’t used to eating lots of hay bun may not be able to extract enough nourishment from the hay even if she does eat it.)

                        My rabbit-savvy vet put my pleasingly plump Bam on a strict regimen of 1 tablespoon of pellets/day divided into 2 servings (2 tablespoons if you use extruded pellets, because they weigh 1/2 of what Oxbow type pellets weigh), 1 small salad (small saucer) of leafy greens, and unlimitied hay. Since my Bam pretty much refused hay, my vet okayed fresh grass as well as hay. (Be careful with fresh grass, though, if you are in the northern hemisphere, because this time of year, fresh grass is very rich and must be served in great moderation, starting with a small amount. Come summer, grass is much less rich and can be given freely.)

                        You want the weightloss to be slow. Weigh your bun weekly and write down the weight in a weight diary. This is important, because we think we’ll remember, but trust me, over time we don’t 😀 It is extremely difficult to see weight gain/weight loss with the naked eye, because of the afore mentioned fluff, so weighing is very important. I weigh my bun in a bowl on digital kitchen scales.

                        Your bun will most likely act like she is starving, and you will feel like you are the cruellest person on earth. Stay strong! It’s all good as long as you see plenty of poop.

                        .

                         


                      • LBJ10
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                          Hmm… 1/4 a cup does sound like a lot of food. BUT she is a 10lb bunny, so it probably isn’t WAY too much. Probably more like a tiny bit too much. At least when it comes to a high quality pellet. Since you don’t know what’s in these pellets, it’s hard to know how much she should be getting. I would definitely try to find out if they are timothy-based or alfalfa-based. That could make a HUGE difference calorie-wise.


                          • BunnyLass568
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                              10lbs is overweight for her. The vet never told us what her ideal weight should be but I estimate that it should be 6-8lbs (we don’t know her and Thumper’s breed(s)) and I’ll try to find their phone number and call to see.

                              ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


                            • BunnyLass568
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                                I want to apologize. I re-read my other reply and it sounded snippy and that wasn’t my intention. I’m really really sorry.

                                ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Pets-Passed away: Hailey (9 years old, half rat terrier and miniature pincher, Feb-5-2019),Monster (13 years old, mixed breed, Lhasa Apso and some form of terrier, Sep-14-2020), Demon (14 year old Lhasa Apso, Aug-3-2022) Blossom (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-7-2024) Thumper (6 year old bunny breed(s) unknown, April-12-2024)💔💔💔💔


                              • LBJ10
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                                  You were being snippy? I didn’t read it like that. No worries. Even if she’s “supposed” to be an 8lb bunny, 1/4 cup of high quality pellet still isn’t an insane amount of food. You could cut it back a little, but I think a bunny her size should get more than a couple tablespoons worth. It depends on the bunny though, what else they are getting, and what kind of pellet it actually is, of course. 🙂


                              • DanaNM
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                                  Don’t feel bad at all! My Bertha was about 11 lbs at her biggest, and she was still overweight on 1/4 cup food so our vet had us cut it back to 1 tablespoon (and eventually had us just stop all pellets). I agree that the pellet brand can make a huge difference as well, because most feed-shop brand adult pellets are not formulated for maintenance weight. With bigger bunnies it helps their joints to be on the trim side, so our vet wanted her to lose a bit.

                                  . . . 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.  


                                • Bam
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                                    My apologies, I missed the fact that she is 10 pounds 😬That would make it difficult to weigh her in a bowl. (I had a bun who was 6.6 pounds and he really filled out the bowl!)

                                     


                                  • DanaNM
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                                      I weighed Bertha by holding her and standing on a digital scale. It wasn’t perfectly accurate, but she was way too big for the kitchen scale!

                                      I also tend to go more by feel than weight. You should be able to feel the bumps of the vertebrae, but not the whole bone, if that makes sense? I like to be able to feel the hip bones as well, but not too sharply.

                                      . . . 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.  

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                                  Forum DIET & CARE Overweight