Siha’s diet – Taking over feeding an adopted bun

[Emmie]

I wanted to ask guys who have adopted a bun and changed their diets.

 

With Siha her previous owners fed her a dried grass and a typical rabbit mix food. I have started introducing pellets to her mixed in with her normal food and mixing some grass in with some hay. I have noticed her poop is literally half the size of Thane’s which is funny because she’s twice his size. I have also noticed her produce soft poops and not eat them. There’s been quite a bit of this, which I think could be from stress. I have emailed her previous owners to ask about her regular eating habits. She really doesn’t seem too interested in foods or any herbs or anything! Again, I’m thinking a new environment is probably the cause.

 

She has a pre-spay check tomorrow and I will be asking. Just wanted to hear everyone’s experience with this.

[peppypoo]

I’d agree that a combination of stress and her usual diet is probably the cause of the small poops and uneaten cecals, but you’re definitely on the right track with mixing the new and old diets to switch her over. I’m not entirely sure – do you mean that she isn’t interested in food at all, or just new food? Some bunnies are just particularly finicky and suspicious of new foods, and it takes forever to try new things. For example, my Remy still is convinced that we’re trying to poison him and will sniff new foods for at least a good 20 minutes before taking a tiny nibble. However, I definitely encourage you to keep exposing her to new things like vegetables, and she should warm up to them soon enough.

[Elrohwen]

Changing diet can be hard for some rabbits and stress could definitely be a factor.

My experience was interesting. When I got Hannah, she was on Kaytee timothy pellets, but her owner didn’t have any to give me. I couldn’t find a bag smaller than 10lbs, so I just gave her Oxbow for the first couple of days and she was totally fine. I did get some Kaytee and tried to transition her a bit by the third day, even though she didn’t seem to need it. The bunnies moved in together while she was still eating a blend of about 25% Kaytee and 75% Oxbow. I tried to feed them separately but Otto got into her pellets and ate some of them. A few hours later, he had the worst poopy butt of all time – a huge glob of cecals stuck to him. So basically, Hannah could eat anything and be fine, but Otto had a very hard time on new pellets even though he only got a few bites.

 Oh, and Otto won’t eat any veggies beyond lettuce and parsley. The only reason he even eats parsley is that Hannah was eating it and he eventually decided to try it.So some bunnies are just super picky.

[Emmie]

It seems to be that way with Siha also! I asked her previous owner, and they said they would give her apples each night, definitely not good! They did say she would have a poop butt every now and again because of this.

Vet did a check yesterday for me, no tummy issues, no teeth issues, all healthy! We’re spaying in two weeks time.

It has improved, but she is picky! I will just have to stay with it!

[Author]

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