Recommended Feeding Schedule

[Jusma]

Can someone suggest or share how and when you feed your rabbits.

Mine seems to eat 80% of her daily hay consumption during the night when it is inside its cage. In addition to this, I give her a large cauliflower leaf or an equivalently sized cabbage leaf, when I close the cage for the day. I also give a small serving of various veggies during the morning and about ten pellets through out the day.

Does this schedule seem OK? I see a lot of healthy poop when I clean out the litter box in the morning, but if my morning serving of vegetables is not big, then the rabbit seems to get relatively more dull.

What would be an ideal schedule to follow to keep her active and energetic through out the day.

[Mimsy]

I give unlimited hay. It’s in her litter boxes, 1 in her pen and 2 else where in the house. I get hay by the bale so I’m not exactly careful about worrying about wasting a lot, so as a total guess I’d say she eats a little over a pile of her body size a day in hay.

Leafy greens I go over the norm, which I believe is something like a minimum of a cup per pound of bunny. Willow is 4 and half lbs and eats about 1/2 to a lb of leafy greens a day. Thats probably a lot more cups than is required. We give her some every time someone opens the fridge, or she begs and nips our toes while in the kitchen. I don’t believe there is really a limit to how much fresh greens they can get, making sure they get a variety and limiting some of them, such as spinach. Here is a list to help you choose which ones you can feed a lot of, and which ones should be limited. https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/VeggieList/tabid/144/Default.aspx

We have not started limiting pellets yet, because she is still growing. I’d say she eats about 2 to 4 tbls a day of pellets.

Other veggies and fruits-she gets little slivers as treats. That would be anything such as carrots, apples, banana’s, berries, cauliflower or broccoli flowerettes ect.

Willow has never been overweight in the least bit. Probably due to being a very active bunny and she enjoys leafy greens and hay moreso than higher density foods such as pellets.

[Azerane]

Bandit never ate much hay overnight, most of his munching happened during the day.

Hay was available all day, he would eat about his body size or a little more every day. First thing in the morning he would get 1 tablespoon of pellets, around lunch time I fed him greens, then in the evening he would get another tablespoon of pellets. At night when we shut him away for bed time he would get a treat.

If you find she is progressively more inactive during the day, that’s only natural for rabbits. Since they’re most active at dawn and dusk in the wild they do spend much of the day resting. From about 11am – 4pm was Bandit’s most inactive time. If you find that she’s more energetic after feeding greens and that’s when you want her to be active, by all means feed the greens then. The time of day you feed a particular food will not cause any harm.

[Jusma]

I actually also wanted to know whether I am feeding it enough for a two month bunny. There is never any vegetables left for a second helping. It always goes down within 5 minutes.

In addition, there actually seems to be a direct, and not inverse, relationship to her eating hay and vegetables. The more vegetables she’s had in the day, the more hay and water goes down in the night.

Just need a good advice on how to pace her feeds. I don’t mind when she’s active. As close to nature as possible.

[Azerane]

If she’s only 2 months I recommend increasing the amount of pellets you’re feeding. Most recommendations are for free feeeding of pellets at that age, but since you’re currently only feeding such a small amount, I would perhaps increase it to 1/4 cup daily for a week, then at least 1/2 cup after that until 6 months of age. While you don’t need to keep feeding that many pellets when she’s an adult, you can certainly cut way back, it’s best to feed young rabbits decent amounts to ensure they’re getting all the nutrients they need for proper growth.

Bunnies are little pigs when it comes to greens, I would be surprised if there was any left after five minutes

[StachesMommy]

My bunny is fed unlimited hay and pellets but she never does finish her bowl of pellets. I put about 1/2 a cup but that will carry over the next day. The hay, I do need to refill quite a bit especially the alfalfa. “Bunnies are little pigs..” Lol yes!!! Mine eats all day and all night it seems… She is still young though. She has doubled in size within the last month too. She will be 4 months the 16th. I always see her eating at least every hour when I’m around. During the day right around 1-3 she is the most sleepiest but she still does get up to eat and then plops back down to sleep. I don’t really know what happens at night but when I wake up she is begging for more food and run time. And there is hay and everything just everywhere! Lol… I just started my bunny on veggies so she only gets 2 inch pieces of red leaf romaine and a leaf of basil. It’s been about a week and half since introducing those greens and she seems fine so I’m planning on upping the baby romaine amount but I read somewhere not to give basil daily. Not sure if that’s accurate or not.

[CrazyGemini22]

I feed my two rabbits twice a day. I give half in the morning and half at night when I come home from work. In between I give them a cup of lettuce.

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