Won’t eat new pellets – nutrition advice?

[Heaven]

Hey guys, Heaven here

A little question about my 3 month old lionlop. When I adopted him he’d been eating cheap pellets for adult rabbits so I purchased a big bag of Oxbow for young rabbits. Problem is he refuses to touch them! I’ve tried 50/50 and even just sprinkling them over his old pellets, but he picks every single one out!

The vet suggested I give him one serving of old pellets a day + 3 servings of veggies (eg kale in the morning, watercress at lunch, chard for dinner) + unlimited alfalfa hay and he should be getting adequate nutrition.

It’s a shame to waste the Oxbow pellets but I’m not sure what else to do… any advice?

[Bam]

I think you should keep trying to switch him over. Buns can be very reluctant (=stubborn) when it comes to new food. It’d be a shame to waste the good Oxbow pellets. Your vet’s suggestion is fine though, nutrition-wise.

[Heaven]

Posted By bam on 1/16/2018 3:34 AM

I think you should keep trying to switch him over. 

Thanks bam! Any suggestions for how I can get better results?

The Oxbow bag says for the first week mix 1/4 with 3/4 of their old food – but that’s assuming they eat the whole lot? My bun Sam has gotten very adept at picking out all his old pellets & leaving the Oxbow ones at the bottom of the bowl!

[Deleted User]

Funny that he doesn’t want the young rabbit pellets, normally it’s the other way around! how long have you been trying to make this transition? I think buns have this “a-ha moment” where they will seem to be super stubborn about something but then one day it just clicks and they decide “oh, this isn’t so bad”. I had that with Ophelia when I tried to transition from alfalfa to timothy hay and she just refused to eat timothy. It took about three weeks to get her eating timothy! You just have to be more stubborn than they are XD

[Heaven]

Thanks guys! What would be the best way – keep mixing a little with his current food until he eats it? Give him only the new food until he’s bored of hay & hungry enough to try some?

[Deleted User]

I would just keep giving him a mix of 3/4 old food and 1/4 new food, hopefully after a week or so he will start eating the other pellets. If not, change it to a mix of 1/2 and 1/2. I’m fairly certain that eventually he will get the message and realize if he doesn’t eat the new food, he’s only getting a half serving!

[Sirius&Luna]

I commented this on another thread where you asked, but perhaps you didn’t see it there. I think the important thing is to only give very small amounts of the mix:

try giving the pellet mix often but in small amounts. So give a tablespoon of each, and don’t top up until he’s eaten them all. Often if there’s a whole bowlful they’ll just pick around the ones they don’t like.

My bunny didn’t like being switched at all. For about a week he determinedly picked out the old pellets, but as soon as I gave him a smaller amount, he realised he actually liked the new ones better and began picking around the old pellets and only eating the new.

[Heaven]

Useful info thank you!

I just saw @Wick posted a similar answer in another thread regarding hay – that if a rabbit is a selective eater, mixing foods actually heightens the selective eating.

[Author]

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