What’s best for my rabbits?

[Charlotteee95]

Hi! 

First time rabbit owner here! 

I have got two beautiful mini lop brothers named Ben&Jerry. 

As i write this post they are about 16 weeks and since they have been home (came home to us at 13 weeks) they have been on a diet of Nature’s Touch from Pets at Home although its great and both rabbits have loved it, I wasn’t too sure on the portion size i should be giving them of it? 

Its also £6 for 1.4kg of the stuff.. 

So i been researching and found a lot use Burgass pellets so i went out an bought some an trying to introduce and even now as my 1.4kg has run out all my bunnies seem to want to eat is leafy greens and i find my pellets don’t even get touched. I still find the same amount in the bowl first thing and last thing of the day and i don’t know what to do. 

Is it ok for my bunnies to be purely on greens, veg and hay? 

Should i revert back to Nature’s Touch? if so how much should i feel them if they weigh 0.8kg? 

Or should i try another form of pellet?

[bunnybuns]

Hello!

Bunnies under 5 months are growing rapidly and need higher levels of protein and fibre for their bone and muscle development. Bunnies (under 5 months) need their dry food to have atleast 15,16% of protein. My Mile which is 1 year old gets 1/4 cup a day and Bella (3 months old), i give her about 20 grams of pellets which consist of 15% protein and 15% of fibre. Mile loves pellets but Bella just nudges them, eats a few and gets back to the hay. Young rabbits under 6 months cannot be given vegetables and leafy greens cause it can cause diarrhea and other digestive problems which no bunny owner wants to experience. I suggest you feed them alfafa hay until they reach adulthood which is 6 months old. You can start mixing the two hays (alfafa and your choice of hay) around the 6th and the 7th month and starting the 7th month, eliminate alfafa hay and start feeding some of these hays: orchard grass, timothy, meadow, oat, barley, wheat. As you may learned from what i told, no, young rabbits can’t be on a free-pellet diet. Although you can exclude the pellets gradually or give them smaller amounts when they have grown up a bit.
Hope i helped you in some way! – Nina =)

[bunnybuns]

Hello!

Bunnies under 5 months are growing rapidly and need higher levels of protein and fibre for their bone and muscle development. Bunnies (under 5 months) need their dry food to have atleast 15,16% of protein. My Mile which is 1 year old gets 1/4 cup a day and Bella (3 months old), i give her about 20 grams of pellets which consist of 15% protein and 15% of fibre. Mile loves pellets but Bella just nudges them, eats a few and gets back to the hay. Young rabbits under 6 months cannot be given vegetables and leafy greens cause it can cause diarrhea and other digestive problems which no bunny owner wants to experience. I suggest you feed them alfafa hay until they reach adulthood which is 6 months old. You can start mixing the two hays (alfafa and your choice of hay) around the 6th and the 7th month and starting the 7th month, eliminate alfafa hay and start feeding some of these hays: orchard grass, timothy, meadow, oat, barley, wheat. As you may learned from what i told, no, young rabbits can’t be on a free-pellet diet. Although you can exclude the pellets gradually or give them smaller amounts when they have grown up a bit.
Hope i helped you in some way! – Nina =)

[tobyluv]

Bunnies can start having greens at 12 weeks of age, so it’s fine that yours are eating them. You do want to go slowly when first introducing greens. At their age, they are still growing and will benefit from eating pellets. If they don’t like the new ones, go back to the first brand. As to the quantity, it’s usually stated that young rabbits, under 6 months old, can have unlimited pellets. But you really don’t want them to eat too many, so don’t keep refilling the bowl if they empty it in a short amount of time. Maybe you could try 1/2 cup of pellets a day, per each rabbit, so if they eat out of the same bowl, give them 1 cup each day. If they don’t finish that in one day, you can decrease it a little. After 6 months, you will limit pellets and feed by weight. A medium size rabbit (5 to 7 pounds) would get about 1/4 cup of pellets a day. The pellets should be plain, with no seeds or colored bits added.

I assume that your rabbits aren’t neutered. Even though they are brothers and have grown up together, at 16 weeks of age they should not be together if they are not neutered. Up to now, they have had a baby bunny bond, but that stops when the rabbits hit puberty. When the hormones come flooding in, there will likely be aggression, territory issues, etc. With aggression, there is fighting. Rabbits can severely injure each other when they fight. They will need to be housed separately and cannot be let out for play and exercise together. After they have been neutered and about a month has passed, you can start the bonding procedure, to ensure that they will have a permanent bond.

Here are 2 good articles on bonding:

http://rabbit.org/faq-bonding-multiple-rabbits/

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/tabid/53/CategoryID/9/PID/940/Default.aspx

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