Ravenousness at all times?

[SpottyBunny]

I searched the forum for a few days before I decided to ask this question, but I think it’s pretty specific.

Roscoe (mature English spot x) weighed 3.7 lbs coming off of living outside. The vet wasn’t concerned about his weight a few weeks back. He was on Baytril for the first week for a likely UTI, and I haven’t seen signs that he still has it. I haven’t recently weighed him, but he’s definitely heavier and more rounded. I may be able to use my kitchen scale to help determine this.

He gets 1/8 c of Oxbow adult pellets, and 2 c leafy greens. I’m going to begin splitting feedings between AM and PM. Is there a right way to transition? I feel like I should give him more pellets, but worry about excessive weight. Oxbow‘s site recommends 1/8 cup for under 4 lbs and 1/4 cup for 4+ in the next weight bracket. What do you guys do for buns who are in between?

I pack tight his hay feeder 4-5x a day and his cage is clear of any loose pieces. He zooms around a small bedroom for 4-8 hours a day on average. 

[Bam]

An overweight bunny would be better off with an increase in leafy greens than in an increase in pellets. Inside he’ll probably need less calories since there is no difference in temperature (or very little) between night and day: thermoregulation costs a lot of energy. I’ve had a chubby (overwight by 300 outrageous grams!) bunny and I cut back on his pellets and increased the leafy greens so he lost that weight over 3 months. He didn’t seem to suffer any malnutrition. After all, a bunny’s main source of nutrition should be grassy hay so they are unlikely to be malnourished if you have good quality hay.

As long as he has hay at all times he won’t starve even if you start feeding him only once a day. Just try and find him a hay that he likes so he doesn’t start eating blankets and whatever other non-food he can get to.

[Eepster]

Do you know for sure he’s an english spot cross, and what he is crossed with, or are you just guessing based on appearance? Breed standard for an englsh spot is like 8lbs. Hang on I’ll go look it up…

[Eepster]

Okay, looked it up, 5-8 lbs by US standard, 6-8 lbs by UK standard.

So, if your bunny is a mostly an english spot, and whatever he’s crossed with isn’t a tiny breed, 3 1/2 lbs is not even close to over weight.

[SpottyBunny]

I have no idea what he is. He has dark grey eyelids and a butterfly on his nose, along with a dorsal stripe and spots. He’s probably mixed with something smaller. I don’t think he’s overweight but I want to prevent him from going overboard.

ETA: possible mini rex as other breeding. The size would explain it.

[Eepster]

I saw a couple of pictures of him in one of your other threads, and I actually got more of the impression of a the way marking go wrong on a hotot than the way they go wring on an english spot.

The hotot is supposed to have perfectly white coats except for the eye circles, but poorly mark ones often have color on the ears and a other facial markings. Also, they are either supposed to be rather large blanc d’hotots, or dwarf hotots similar in size to nethies. I think a dwarf hotot crossed with some other random breed might look like yours, very poorly mark and missing the dwarf gene.

[SpottyBunny]

Ah!  Thanks for the idea.  I think that may be the case– I can see the hotot with the eye circles.   He has maybe three little tan coloured spots on his bum.  They’re hard to tell at the moment with the yellow fur.

This might explain why he’s probably a decent weight for his size.  I assumed that because he was likely an English Spot x, it made him a little on the small size for his breed characteristics. 

[Author]

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