When can I start giving greens to Blossom?

[Lintini]

The lady at the store told me to not give her greens for another week, Blossom is accordingly 7 weeks old. Of course I am not positive, just what I was told. I did sneak her a quarter size chunk of romaine lettuce and she enhaled it. Do I really need to wait another week to introduce more greens to her? I was reading that it’s the pellets that actually give them the runs tho, not the greens? Well if anyone has any advice I’d love it because I would like her to have a great diet! Plus, her pellets are so much more fun to dig in than to eat lol! Silly little girl!

[Monkeybun]

I didn’t start giving Monkey greens til she was about 3 months old. Not sure how it does with younger tummies… I’m cautious tho. I don’t give them new stuff often, and when I do, its a tiny amount for at least a week with no other new stuff during that time.

[Lintini]

Yea I don’t want to make her sick, it just feels weird giving Indy and Bun some and not her. Like I’m jipping her of some tasty nom noms! I won’t sneak her anymore then; it was very tiny but still – at least I know she likes it though, my guinea pigs wouldn’t touch greens when I first got them. I thought they were crazy!

Thanks Les!

[Monkeybun]

I felt guilty for giving Monkey her usual mix while not giving Moose the same hehe. He gave me such pitiful little looks… poor little man

[RabbitPam]

Are you giving her alfalfa pellets and hay or regular? For very young bunnies, the alfalfa is good for them, but you will need to wean her off those in about a month or so.

I think an occasional romaine dark leaf is fine. Don’t give her any variety. Keep it with that since you can gradually start her on it daily in about two more weeks. Let her eat one green that agrees with her for a full week or two before introducing another one.

This is why restaurants have children’s menus. You don’t serve the lobster thermadore to the kids, just the small plain fish. She is a baby compared to the other two, and doesn’t need to keep up.

[Elrohwen]

I started at 3 months, though I’ve even been told 6 months by some people. I would wait until 3 months, but I’m just cautious like that.

[Beka27]

You can feed her greens now. Ideally, baby bunnies will begin nibbling on their mom’s veggies when they start eating solid food, same as them starting to nibble on mom’s pellets and hay… So at 7 or 8 weeks, she should be able to handle it in very small amounts, and only feed one basic green. Romaine would be perfect for this. Give a small amount daily for a couple weeks. If she’s handling it well, you can try adding another basic green for a couple weeks. In no time, she’ll be eating as much as the other two!

Veggies do not cause soft poo or diarrhea. This is a myth. What can sometimes happen is that young babies will get soft poo, but that is usually caused by a parasite in the gut, rather than diet. A vet can prescribe meds to clear that up.

[Lintini]

Yea her poo’s look fine after eating that tiny piece of romaine – and as you said beka apparently greens don’t cause the runs. I have her on a mix of timothy/alfalfa hay and the alfalfa based pellets from oxbow. They were just feeding her kaytee before so I’ve been slowly moving her over to it.

Thanks for the advice!

[MikeBun]

ah cool. i was wondering about the same thing with jack. since hes blossoms brother and is doing well i think ill try and introduce him to a small amount of romaine and see how he takes it.

[MimzMum]

This greens vs. pellets and the poo question is really making me wonder, I cannot give greens to either Fiver or Pip now because it softens their cecals so much (and apparently makes them unpalatable) that they wind up squishing them all on their feet rather than eating them. Fiver has been without pellets since Mimzy went into stasis last week and I can’t really tell that there’s much difference in his cecal production/ingestion. But if I give him greens, I get the same result.

I watched Fiver with his cecals yesterday, you’d think he was trying to get castor oil off his teeth the way he was licking at them and making faces.

I do know sometimes bunnies can be sensitive to certain greens, (like Jennifer’s Bailey was) so I wonder if that is something else you should watch out for, Lin. Also when I give greens to Mimzy, he turns his nose up at his hay…so just be sure she still eats plenty of that and doesn’t fill up on ‘sweets’.

[Sarita]

MimzyMum, I think you should try to get consistency with Fiver. Continue to give him the greens – greens are good because they have fiber and they help keep the gut going as well because they also hydrate. I have to wonder if you continued feeding the greens instead of feeding just a small amount and then take them away and then give them back that you might not be upsetting his intestine. Also if you are giving any kind of treats that could be more of a culprit than the veggies. I think consistency is the key.

[MimzMum]

Thank you, Sarita, I’ll give it a try. I just hate seeing him have sticky poos smeared on his feet and since he’s so skittish he’s hard to get clean.
Now that list that was posted this week with the bunny veggies regimen has given me some new ideas as to what to try to feed them, but I guess we’ll start with what we’ve used so far first.

[jerseygirl]

ditto on the treats ^. I find that is usually the culprit with messier poop. Some treats I have to limit to once a week. Others I can give more often as they don’t seem to have an effect – like apple peel or willow. Mine even regard brussel sprouts as a treat (hehe). Jersey more than Rumball. He’s a fan of parsley and carrot tops. Feeding their favourite veg when they’re not expecting it is a treat to them.

[MimzMum]

Bunnies can eat apple peel?? 0_o Geez, I’ve been going to too much work, I always peel their apples for them. *forehead slap* Isn’t that where most of the sprayed pesticides lurk though? Even on well washed fruit?
Of course, Fiver does not like fruits (weird bun) but I’ll keep that in mind for Mimzy for some extra fiber this week.

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