Should I be worried about my bunny’s diet?

[Mel94]

Recently, I weaned Thumper off of muesli after 5 years of being on it. Unfortunately we hadn’t found a brand of pellets that he’d like to replace the muesli with, so we used veggies instead. He usually eats a piece of carrot every morning, now we give him some cabbage and green beans too. Now, I know that they’re not good for bunnies to eat regularly so over the past through weeks, we started buying a variety of new veggies for him to try. He’s so fussy, so he won’t touch any of them. Here’s what we’ve tried him on…

Kale, romaine lettuce, little gems lettuce, cauliflower with the leaves, parsley, mint and carrot tops. In the past he’s refused cucumber, cilantro, celery, spinach, bell peppers, broccoli and probably more that I can’t recall right now. 

 I’ve tried offering it to him in my hand, leaving it in his cage (each veggie separately), putting it all together for him as a veggie bowl with the ones he does like, I’ve heard sometimes they prefer lettuce to be a few days old, so I left it in his cage for him in case he changes his mind.

 I tend to over-worry a lot about him, I keep convincing myself that I’m letting him down in some ways.  I feel like the veggies he does eat aren’t enough to give him the nutrients he needs and stop him being hungry. He always has veggies in his cage for him (not bad/moldy) and I keep his hay rack topped up at all times. I just feel like he’s missing out on key components of his diet with his fussiness – pellets and veggies. I read that pellets were only supposed to be given in small amounts so I thought I could make up for that in veggies, but it worries me if he won’t eat much of them either. On his recent check up at the vets, they said he was completely healthy and their only concern was him being fed muesli, but his age worries me in case something happens.

 

Has anyone had a similar situation with their bun or know of any nutritional snacks I could give him that he could eat to make up for what he doesn’t eat? I know that for bunnies that don’t eat hay, they do hay cookies to give them the nutrients, is there anything like that for this situation? Thank you for any help.  

 

 

 

[HereComesTheBun]

I don’t know very much about pellet free diets, so hopefully someone with direct experience will see this post. But unfortunately, I think your bun does need some more variety in his diet. It’s great that he’s eating hay, but although pellets are supposed to be given in small amounts, if you’re going pellet free, you’ll want to give him a wide variety of vegetables to make up for the vitamins and minerals that he’s not getting in the pellets. The House Rabbit Society has an article on pellet free diets, which you may find interesting: http://rabbit.org/pellet-free-diet/. Bunny Approved also has an interesting article: https://bunnyapproved.com/bunnys-pellet-free-diet/.

Do you think he’ll be more receptive to pellets or other greens if you take out the carrot, cabbage, and green beans? 

[Mel94]

Thank you for your reply and for the link, I wasn’t intending to go pellet-free, he still has pellets available to him in his bowl every day, it’s just that he never touches them, so I thought veggies might be better to replace the muesli with. I figured he’d never eat anything over his muesli because of the treat elements, so I thought removing the muesli and giving him more veggies while I look for some different brands of pellets he’d like in the meanwhile would be ok, but him being awkward with the veggies is difficult. I thought considering how big the list of rabbit safe veggies were that he’d like at least a few of them to keep him sustained throughout the day. I don’t know what to do, I want to do my best to give him a healthy diet and I really don’t want to have to give him back the muesli if I can help it, but I don’t want him to become unhealthy at all. I just wish he’d co-operate and know that I’m only doing this because it’s what’s the best for him. When he doesn’t have cabbage in his cage, he usually goes for his hay instead. In fact, he tends to fill up on his hay mainly throughout the day. He tends to let the cabbage sit there for a while before eating it, even if it’s time you’d expect him to be hungry.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I’d keep pellets in his cage and available-he’ll go for it eventually.

I would definitely move to more green leaf lettuces, the cabbage and beans aren’t ideal.

Keep offering veggies-a few times in a row. I think it’s an adaptive trait to avoid toxins that they will not eat something the first few times it’s presented. They actually teach that if you are surviving in the woods-first touch it with your hands, if you don’t have a reaction touch it to your face, if you don’t have a reaction touch it to your lips, if no reaction you can probably eat it. I think rabbits likely do this too. Anything new is snubbed, but if you offer repeatedly (remove and offer again the next day) after a few days they’ll eat it!

[Mel94]

He seems to go either one of two ways when presented with new foods – (usually this way) ‘what is THIS?! You’re expecting me to eat it?’ or ‘Food?! Gimme!’

Just to update, he still hasn’t acknowledged any of the greens mentioned above. We can also add carrot tops and watercress to the list of veggies he won’t touch. He seems to enjoy being awkward..

[Mel94]

Adding dill and coriander to the list of greens he won’t touch.

I was stroking his back today and I felt all of the vertebrae on his spine and other bones. >.< I'm so worried for him, but I know my boyfriend and my mum will just think I'm being hysterical because I have an anxiety problem. I don't know what to do to get him to eat a better diet. :/

[Bam]

You should always be able to feel a bunny’s spine. Even when my bunny Bam was fat, I had no problem feeling his spine. (He then went on a diet and lost 300 grams, so he got rid of his obesity-problem, which was largely due to bunny müesli). It’s just how their anatomy is.

What you can do is weigh him in a bowl on a kitchen scales and write his weight down. If you weigh him once a week you’ll be ale to spot any undue weight-loss quickly. In general, animals are better off a little on the lean side than on the plump side – problem is we see so many over-weight pets nowadays that plumpness has more or less become the norm and we are inclined to think of normal weight pets as being under-weight.

If your bunny eats, drinks, produces nice round droppings, no sticky poop, (except on rare occasions, that may always happen), eats his cecals and is active, I don’t think you need to be worried. From what I’ve been seeing of him on your Insta, he looks like a very healthy bunny. And I don’t think he looks skinny.

[Mel94]

Thank you for the reassurance bam. I have some positive news, my little munchkin has randomly decided he quite likes pellets after all! He’ll happily eat his daily portion of pellets if they’re within his sawdust rather than in his bowl. They’re Science Selective (or Selective Science, I always forget which way round it’s supposed to be :laugh We’ve also found him a new veggie to eat too, a pack of British Greens from Tescos. He gets two leaves a day along with 2 of his beans and 1/4 of a cup of his pellets and of course, unlimited hay. We managed to weigh him recently, he’s 4.3lbs and his breed is supposedly a Nethy x Rex so from looking online, I think that’s healthy. I’m happy he’s on track now after he was making me worry for so long!

[Bam]

That really sounds great! They really can be stubborn like that with food, and then suddenly decide it’s rather yummy after all.

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