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A Big Dilema- Opinions Please

J

Jack's-Jane

Wise Old Thumper
OKs, I'll try to keep this as brief as I can. Maya is a 7 year old Bun who has developed a problem with the 'mechanics' of her jaw. This means that she cannot eat hay, even though she had done so for almost 7 years right from being a baby. Her jaw is now so wonky that she has both Incisor and Molar malocclusion and she requires a full Dental under GA every 5-6 weeks. She has lost a lot of weight and needs to be on ad-lib pellets plus Veg that she can manage to chew.
Maya is bonded with Zac, 3ish year old Rex Buck-good hay eater but obviously prefers pellets if they are there. I cant seperate Maya and Zac just at pellet feed time cos pellet feed time is now all the time for Maya. Zac is FAT and I feel I need to consider spliting them up :( Just putting Zac out in a run during the day means he still pigs out on pellets all night.......

Apart from permanently seperating them ( which really is a last resort ) what else can I do as Zac's health will soon be an issue if I dont get his weight under control.

:?

:cry:

Janex
 
This is probably completely off base but is there a size difference in them?
Could you create a pellet area that only Maya can get to? Like those bird feeders that keep out squirrels or similar?
 
Deelove said:
This is probably completely off base but is there a size difference in them?
Could you create a pellet area that only Maya can get to? Like those bird feeders that keep out squirrels or similar?
Click to expand...


Hmmmmmm thats a good idea. Trouble is Maya is the BIG Bunny so making a feeding area that only she can get into would be tricky :?
They are both equally skilled at jumping up onto things

:?

Janex
 
What about part-separation? With my bonded 9, if anyone needs the vet - I take 2. I then re-bond on their return whether it's an hour later or 12. It's never been as issue even with the "vet smell", but I guess it would depend a lot on your buns personalities & how they cope with being away from partner.

ETA - & this is always the opposite of what i recommend during bonding:oops::lol:
 
Angie65 said:
What about part-separation? With my bonded 9, if anyone needs the vet - I take 2. I then re-bond on their return whether it's an hour later or 12. It's never been as issue even with the "vet smell", but I guess it would depend a lot on your buns personalities & how they cope with being away from partner.

ETA - & this is always the opposite of what i recommend during bonding:oops::lol:
Click to expand...

Its not so much the part seperation. Zac has been out in a run during the day and Maya stays indoors with her ad-lib pellets. But I have to leave a bowl of pellets down for her at night too and of course the first thing Zac does when I bring him in is to scoff the lot.

These past few days I have been feeding Maya pellets by hand and only allowing Zac one or two. But I cant do that 24/7

:?

Janex
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Its not so much the part seperation. Zac has been out in a run during the day and Maya stays indoors with her ad-lib pellets. But I have to leave a bowl of pellets down for her at night too and of course the first thing Zac does when I bring him in is to scoff the lot.

These past few days I have been feeding Maya pellets by hand and only allowing Zac one or two. But I cant do that 24/7

:?

Janex
Click to expand...

Is there any pellets he doesn't like? (No I don't think that would work with my buns either:roll:) Or can he wear a muzzle?:lol: Only other thing i can think off is mesh to separate, but then that's separating
 
Angie65 said:
Is there any pellets he doesn't like? (No I don't think that would work with my buns either:roll:) Or can he wear a muzzle?:lol: Only other thing i can think off is mesh to separate, but then that's separating
Click to expand...

I am yet to find any food Zac doesn't like !! :roll:

I fear I am going to have to divide their pen and maybe just let them have a couple of hours together a day. Not what I want but if Zac gets much fatter he'll get poorly :cry:

Janex
 
I had the same problem with Crunchie and Dixie. Dixie has dental problems (incisors and molars) and Crunchie was a bunny-shaped food hoover :roll:

The only solution I found was to get a double hutch and take the ramp out for a couple of hours every day during feeding times. If Dixie left any food Crunchie would hoover it up as soon as the ramp was put back. It was a lot of hassle, but worked pretty well.
 
Awww Jane this really is a tricky one :(

Do you have any other buns that get constant pellets? I know it would seem very cruel to separate a lovely bonded pair, but if it will help both their health perhaps it's an idea? :)
 
hi jane, i have the same situation with smokey and milly, i have decided to leave milly, even though she is a bit tubby. although she is a bit fat, she has stopped getting any bigger and i know smokey won't be around very much longer, she can then go on a diet. she is so good with smokey and is always beside him, this also helps keep him warm on cooler days, that i think if i seperated them it might finish him off- i don't know how old smokey is, but milly is only a year, so she is young enough to drop weight after things change. please don't take this to mean milly is less important, but she can still clean herself and never has a dirty bum, perhaps i would rethink if that started to happen.:)
 
i have a similar problem with Barney and Nettle in that Barney is fat and needs to lose weight so is on a diet but Nettle is a growing rabbit. Nettle can jump and climb but Barney can't so i put Nettle's biscuits high up so he can get to them and help himself 24/7 but Barney can't get to them. So i don't suppose with your situation she has climbing tendancies which he doesn't?
 
I had a similar problem with Brendan and Fudge a while back. In the end I did decide to seperate them permanently. Fudge seemed happy on her own and Brendan was then successfully bonded to a pair of girls and is now also very happy :)
 
Is there any way that you could rig up something safe with a magnetic cat flap that only Maya could open? I know collars are no good for bunnies, but is there another way you could do it?
 
Thanks for all the suggestions guys. I really dont want to split them up because they always sit together and when Zac is outside he just sits looking to come in. Maya eats her pellets then starts looking for Zac :(

I'll think on this a bit more. Why is everything Bunny so flippin' complicated !!

Janex
 
Dixie has his pellets soaked and his veg grated or shredded, which makes it much easier for him to eat...he can get through a bowlful in no time at all :D , whereas it takes him all day to eat a handful of dry pellets, and he just can't seem to manage large pieces of veg at all.

I don't know if you already do all this for Maya? I'm probably teaching my grandmother to suck eggs here :oops: :lol:

As mentioned in my previous post, I would separate them at feed times and try to make Maya's food as easy to eat as possible
 
Is there any way of giving her something other than pellets so it doesn't matter if Zac eats it too? Will she not even eat really short hay? Hay cubes broken into mouthfuls (this worked with my toothless buns), fresh grass? Maybe you could even look into making a high-fibre, low protein feed yourself? Something that could be given either fresh as a mush or something, or baked/dried to make pellet-size pieces? What about something like a grass smoothie :shock:
 
I too have the same problem with my two. Homer won't eat hay (will eat grass) and Katy eats for England and pinches food out of his mouth. I do what I can to try to keep her away during the day when they are free range but as I need to leave pellets out all night she has her share too.

If you come up with an answer please let me know! I don't want to separate these two either.
 
Could you feed hay pellets (used as horse feed) as these won't be too energy rich for him and she could hopefully manage to eat them. And give her some extra bunny pellets for a bit of extra calorie intake a couple of times a day separately to limit the time they are apart?
 
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