The best dried food for a rabbit?

Hi folks.

I was recommended I give my 7 week old baby dried pellets and am feeding her "Burgess Supa Rabbit Excel Junior and Dwarf". She also has hay.

Does anyone else use this or is there a better one I could be using?

Also I dont want to get into the habit of giving her snacks and I want to keep her diet plain and simple for now as she is only a baby - but what are the best things to supplement her diet without upsetting her tum?

Thank you for helping me - I really appreciate it - I did get some books but they just told me the basics.

Andrea x

There are quite a few different types of pellets - which are definitely preferable to a mix as it stops them being selective about the bits they eat. A very popular one is Science Selective, which my two have. Excel is a good food, but can sometimes cause excess caecal poops in bunnies which can be a particular problem in summer as you don't want flies to be attracted.

As with any food you need to gradually introduce anything new over quite a few days so it doesn't upset their tummies. If you want to give Lola a treat you could get some different types of hay - mine have Timothy hay available all the time, but at bedtime they also get a handful of Readigrass which is very like freshly cut grass - it smells lovely and is very green - and they also get a handful of oat hay at night.

For treats I have banana chips for my two and they get one banana chip a day at bedtime - they are now trained to know that when I shake the banana chip box it's time to go back in their cage, and it also means if you need to get them back in their cage at any other time they will come when called. The banana chips I give are literally just dried banana - no added sugar or anything, which some rabbit banana chips can have.

At this time of year you could pick a small amount of grass and a dandelion - again increasing the quantities gradually - and plantain if you have any - these are all great natural treats.

Mine have allen and page natural rabbit pellets. They are higher in fibre than Burgess or Science selective and my rabbits go mad for them.

Thank you

Lola seems to be pooping a fair bit and getting "balls" stuck to her bottom which cant be pleasant for her and not for me neither

I have read about the banana fixation bunnies can have - do they love it that much?

I shall look at the other brands as she seems to be leaving a few "bunches of grapes" in her cage.

Any idea where I can buy it - I am such a novice its embarassing!

you can get Burgess Excel diet from Pets at Hone stores which is about the same fibre as science selective. some p&h also do science slective. Any good pet store will do one or the other. A&P you get from horse food suppliers (look in yellow pages) but you have to buy them in massive sacks & might not be able to use all of them before they go off.

A good way to stop caec's being left behind is to reduce the amount of pellets you give them & bump up the hay. It's a sign of too much nutrition as they don't need to get the extra vitamins from eating it a second time (thats usually the difference between squishy long poo & dry round poo)

as said before you should take about a week to switch over.

Mine adore bannana....their bottoms dance with glee when they get it.

~ Cat ~ said:

Thank you

Lola seems to be pooping a fair bit and getting "balls" stuck to her bottom which cant be pleasant for her and not for me neither

I have read about the banana fixation bunnies can have - do they love it that much?

I shall look at the other brands as she seems to be leaving a few "bunches of grapes" in her cage.

Any idea where I can buy it - I am such a novice its embarassing!

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In that case you may want to think about changing her food - what is happening to Lola is typical with Excel - my previous bunny used to have poos like that regularly and I didn't realise it was his food. It was only coming on here and reading how many people had bunnies with the same problem that I knew to gradually move Bell and T onto something else.

Of course it may not be connected at all but something to think about. My two have never had a poo problem since being on SS.

Yes, bunnies love bananas - you can give them fresh but not too much, and always very small amounts to start with. My two go mad for their banana chips - I get a huge bag at a time from Zooplus and they last ages because they only get one at a time.

You can get Science Selective from quite a few pet shops - or they may be able to get it in for you - and there are lots of online shops that sell it. The Allen and Page pellets are really good but they come in bigger bags and are a fresher food so need to be eaten up a lot quicker so it may be expensive for one bunny, though there is one website I can think of that sell it in smaller bags. I was going to transfer mine onto it but it only lasts around three months and I would probably not even have used half of it in three months so decided to keep them on Science Selective.

Being that she is so young still it might be unwise to change her pellets at the moment. Excel Junior and Dwarf is a good feed for babies but as she is having excess cecotrophes perhaps you should cut the pellets back just a little. How much (in weight) does she have each day and at what times?

Agree with above poster, don't change food at the mo just reduce amount of pellets and maybe add a very small amount of porridge oats if sticky poo occurs.:wave:

~ Cat ~ said:

Hi folks.

I was recommended I give my 7 week old baby dried pellets and am feeding her "Burgess Supa Rabbit Excel Junior and Dwarf". She also has hay.

Does anyone else use this or is there a better one I could be using?

Also I dont want to get into the habit of giving her snacks and I want to keep her diet plain and simple for now as she is only a baby - but what are the best things to supplement her diet without upsetting her tum?

Thank you for helping me - I really appreciate it - I did get some books but they just told me the basics.

Andrea x

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Barley started on this then moved onto the adult version i think when she was about ayear.Gave her small pieces of veg from the age of 3months.

Thank you so much! I will keep her on the Excel - I think I have been giving her too much food - just tending to fill her bowl up and let her munch away.

Can anyone suggest a feeding regime for her - I would really appreciate it - she is 7/8 weeks old.

She is drinking an awful lot of water - she guzzles it - is this due to the dried food?

My neighbour chopped his cherry blossom tree down today, I have got her a chunk of wood to gnaw on - is this OK???

NO CHERRY TREE!!!!!!!! VERY TOXIC!!!!!!


Cut the pellets down to about one cuped handfull split half in the morning and half in the evening (it should be roughly 2 egg cupfuls each time). As she gets older, cut the pellets down to one egg cupful in the morning & in the evening give her a large handful of veg. Veg needs to be introduced gradually though. A 50 p sized piece of one veg every day for a week, then introduce the next one and so on.

ecudc said:

NO CHERRY TREE!!!!!!!! VERY TOXIC!!!!!!


Cut the pellets down to about one cuped handfull split half in the morning and half in the evening (it should be roughly 2 egg cupfuls each time). As she gets older, cut the pellets down to one egg cupful in the morning & in the evening give her a large handful of veg. Veg needs to be introduced gradually though. A 50 p sized piece of one veg every day for a week, then introduce the next one and so on.

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Thank you - cherry tree has been removed - its all a learning curve - luckily Lola was too enthralled with ehr shoe box - what kind of wood can I give her to gnaw on?

thank you so much x x x

Willow is always a favourite plus you can buy loads of toys made from it. I believe buns can also have twigs from an apple tree

Yeah, I've also heard apple branch's are ok for buns. I'd try not to change what she's eating too suddenly until she's around 12 weeks then gradually add in another type of food over a week or so.

I think cutting back on the pellet/mix food and giving her more hay should keep her sticky bum problem..