Slow Eating

[LBJ10]

We were at the vet today. Wooly has lost a bit of weight. Not so much that the vet is really concerned. But he has lost weight. I’ve noticed that he is much slower when it comes to eating these last few months. I’m afraid that he just isn’t fast enough, especially when you have Leopold who is #1 pig when it comes to food.

So… any ideas for how to allow Wooly to eat more? They both have free roam of their room. I have tried using two bowls, but Leopold always seems to want to eat out of whichever one Wooly is eating out of.   I don’t want to “punish” Wooly by confining him to an area… and I’m not sure if he would want to eat in that kind of a setup anyway. He might be upset if I have to leave him locked up for extended periods and away from Leopold. I suppose I could try it somehow.

For those of you who do not know, Wooly has chronic sinus/ear problems. He’s my special needs bunny. His teeth are great. Ironically, some of the best teeth the vet has seen. He suffers from more or less permanent facial paralysis, which slows him down while eating. I also feel like his inability to breathe freely slows him down as well.

[Dface]

I had something a little similar to that, peep was underweight, yumi was not. Yumi ate EVERYTHING.

I struggled to separate them too, the only solution I ever managed was to get a 2box step set up, and encourage peep to go up . Here he could eat slowly ad in peace and it was easy to keep gobbleguts away.
He’s not a smart bun or a very coordinated one (mostly blind) but he gets up okay-this only works for meal feeds like pellets (or oats and sunflower seeds when working on weight gain) yumi also doesn’t bother to check up there after she’s done eating and peep can go back up later for more food then

Do you think wooly would manage something similar?

[LBJ10]

Hmm… I don’t know if Wooly would go up. Leopold was master of the dog ramp when we had one next to the sofa in the living room.

[Dface]

Hmm, to me the key was to get them separate, and it needed to be a physicla difference as to where they were, for me an up down system worked best so someone wasnt tempted to pilfer food from somebunny else,
so maybe the act of separating them will help Leopold focus on his own food if you can encourage him up the ramp for HIS food?
He should willingly start to go that place if you reinforce it with treats, but never offer treats to either in the wrong place, so there would be no man handling or negative feelings about being separate for feeding times.

You could maybe work on delaying the food for him too-I dont know how well it would work, but something like one of those dog dishes that has all the little shapes in the bottom that makes them work a little harder for their food (just to get him to eat at Woolys pace)

[LBJ10]

I think I have some experimenting to do.

On a side note, I did put the food is two separate dishes last night since I don’t have anything to set up yet. Leopold picked up the second dish and spilled the pellets all over the floor. Oddly, Wooly started eating all of the ones on the floor. Perhaps he likes it better if they can’t shift and move around like they do in the bowl?

[Dface]

I wonder if maybe due to not being able to feel his face properly that he doesn’t like the bowl? i feel like that would be disconcerting

It can take ages to figure out what works for your particular pair , good luck!

[LBJ10]

Hmm… that’s possible too. I’ll just have to try some different combinations of things to see what works.

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