veggies and bunnies i am confused

:? My cousin who has a rabbit said i shouldnt give the rabbit too many veggies as its bad for them( maybe 1 or 2 a week),and to give them a bowl full of pelletts instead!!!! but having read some posts on here it seems ok to give them a bowl of veggies a day and a tiny bit of pellets. Please help so i can look after my new bunny to the best of my ability. I am really confused

It's as someone said in reply to your other post: hay should be the basis of a rabbit's diet as it's essential to their teeth and their digestion. If you feed too many pellets/dried food then the rabbit doesnt want to eat the hay (a bit like us if we eat sweets before dinner ) There's a thread in the reference section about the importance of hay.

Think of it as a pyramid with hay at the bottom:
* LOTS of hay
* SOME veg
* a FEW pellets.

So pellets are fine but should be a small amount daily - as I said my two only get 10g each split between two meals. A tablespoon is the general rule for an average sized rabbit.

Some people dont feed pellets at all; their rabbits have just hay and veg (in which case the quantity of veg increases).

thats great thankyou. He has hay in his bed and he eats that. . I will keep him on the veg and cut doen his intake of pellets,

Hi just a quick note, not sure if you now much about buns yet or not, but any change in diet needs to be done VERY slowley, so only increase the veg very slightly as you do not want to cause a runny bum. :shock:

no i didnt know that woops thankyou, i will sort it out tommorrow and do it right

yeah any change needs to be done very slowely as bunnies have a really delicate digestive tract and any sudden change can cause it to go in to shock and cause GI statis which is very serious.

Hay is the most important, and buns should only have about a handfull or less of pellets. Be carefull with veggies though, some rabbits to tend to be quite sensitive and they must be indroduced very slowly and gradually.

Also be careful which veggies you feed them - some are really bad for them, even poisonous. When I was a new bunny owner, I printed off a list provided by some kind soul on here and kept to it religiously. (hint for some kind soul to post the list again as I can't find it. ) Any new veggies, give them only a tiny amount and small quantities of fruit as a lot of it is very sugary and fattening, as are carrots. It sounds complicated but you get used to what they can and can't have and find their preferences. Mine love Spring greens, carrots and kale and spinach. but most of all give them as much fresh hay daily as they need. Mine wee on some of it, throw it round and eat it so I give them fresh in their hay rack twice or three times a day....
Good luck!

Its true that changes need to be made slowly over a course of at least 2 weeks however if you are CUTTING DOWN on something ie pellets, this wouldn't IMO need to be done so slowly, only if you are introducing a new food or increasing the amount of veg.

Your buns diet should consist of 90% hay, a little veg and an eggcup full of pellets.

Its great that you have hay as bedding but do provide fresh hay, perhaps in a hay rack or a litter tray (buns like to munch and poop!) daily - I give mine a large handfull each twice a day. As an rough idea they should be eating a mound of hay about the same size as their body (thats sized not weight!) each day, they like fresh hay not stuff they've slept on. Its a good idea to have hay in different areas of the hutch and run, I put mine in 2 litter trays, a washing up bowl, a hay rack and a wire hanging ball or sometimes struffed in to a toilet roll inner or a tissue box for a change.

You can get some lovely "treat hay" from places like the hay experts which is nice for adding variety.

Dustyrabbit said:

Its great that you have hay as bedding but do provide fresh hay, perhaps in a hay rack or a litter tray (buns like to munch and poop!) daily - I give mine a large handfull each twice a day. As an rough idea they should be eating a mound of hay about the same size as their body (thats sized not weight!) each day, they like fresh hay not stuff they've slept on. Its a good idea to have hay in different areas of the hutch and run, I put mine in 2 litter trays, a washing up bowl, a hay rack and a wire hanging ball or sometimes struffed in to a toilet roll inner or a tissue box for a change.

You can get some lovely "treat hay" from places like the hay experts which is nice for adding variety.

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he is only eating the hay that he has been sleeping on right when i have taken the kids to school i shall gey a loo roll inner stuff it with some hay and put it in his cage and then pop some in a corner of his hutch. he'll think its his birthday, thankyou, the cardboard wont hurt him tho will it????

Does your rabbit go out in a run on the grass? If he does, that'll be a big contributor to his grass/hay quota.

As long as he does not injest it, they do like to chew cardboard but make sure he does not actually eat it. Jimby did this and it sent him in to statis cause it slowed everything down that is why we do not give him anything cardboardy now because he is a gobble machine! :lol:
In large amounts carboard CAN cause a blockage as well.

cardboard is ok to nibble but don't let them eat it! like bisc does!!! :roll:

I printed off a list provided by some kind soul on here and kept to it religiously. (hint for some kind soul to post the list again as I can't find it. )

Click to expand...

It's in the reference section.