Hi everyone!
My bunny Moose is about 4 and 1/2 months old and I got him when he was around 3 months. So he was originally bred to be a show bunny but they found a disqualification so his previous owner decided to give him away as a pet bunny. I have been really struggling with his diet because he produces a lot of cecotrophes. I see them in his cage usually in the afternoon and definitely overnight although I know he eats some of them (I’ve seen him) but not all of them. They seem normal (no diarrhea) but I am concerned since I read that I’m not really supposed to be seeing them? He doesn’t really eat a lot of hay, some days he does and some days he does not at all. I live in an apartment and he has a very very spacious cage with a big litter box and lots of fresh hay every day but I also let him roam around free when I am home and he has a favorite corner in my room where I have this ruffly rug and so I decided to put a container with hay there and sometimes he’ll dig in there and loves to flop there as well.
For hay I initially fed him Oxbox: orchard timothy and oat mix but then decided to try the small pet select sampler to see if maybe he just did not like Oxbox hay. He still was not super excited about it so I had some hay herb toppers and sprinkle about a teaspoon on top of his hay to see if that’d make him eat it. He still was not super into it. Then I thought it was because of too many pellets. How many pellets should I be feeding him? I usually give him a handful in the morning (I’d say about 1/4 cup) and then a handful at night. I have been transitioning from his old pellets to the new ones I bought for him. He used to eat Kalmbach Silver (He loooooveees the Kalmbach silver, even I think they smell really good! But we dont have a supplier nearby) but I got him Oxbox pellets for young rabbits. Since I realized these have alfalfa in them and Moose is also not crazy about them at all I just bought some Small Pet Select for Timothy based pellets so I will be transitioning him to those and see if he likes them better.
His previous owner also used to give him 6 cheerios a day, she said it was a good way to tell if he was suffering of GI because no rabbit would say no to cheerios unless something was wrong! so he still eats those and seems fine, I also started feeding him small about of herbs like cilantro and maybe one kale leaf here and there or some spring mix. I do not give him fruit often at all, maybe a half of a raspberry once every three days or so since I know he is still young and I’ve heard mixed opinions about this. I also feed him one oxbow natural science digestive tablet a day, I got in the habit of doing this since the day I got him but I could probably stop doing this correct?
I am so sorry I know this is a lot but I really am not sure about what to do! Lately Moose seems hungry to me, he is been bitting his food bag a lot and just being skittish, etc. usually he does this when he is hungry. He tends to mellow out once I give him his pellets and what not…
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So glad he’s all good now <33