Hungry Bunnies

Hi

I have 2 netherland dwarf bunnies (6months old) and I put 4 egg cups of burgess excel (2 cups each) in their bowl each night along with a fresh supply of hay and a little veg. They always eat the pellets right away and by the morning they are all gone so I will put another supply of fresh hay in for them.

The problem is that by the next evening they are always starving and as soon as they see me they will paw at their hutch door for more food - am I not giving them enough or are they just greedy?? I am really worried about overfeeding them as I want them to eat plenty hay for their teeth but at the same time I dont want them to be underweight and I have heard that if they dont munch constantly this is bad for their digestion. Can anyone help me? I am worried about my bunnies, especially because winter is coming and I dont know if I should be feeding them more when its cold?? :? Please help!

Hi :wave: No I think you are doing things just right - the trouble is most buns love pellets - the manufacturers want it that way and make them yummy, when ours were small they would do anything to get to the pellets including climbing up my 4 year old son! So long as they have plenty of fresh hay and water they will be fine.

They sound like typical bunnies:lol: It's when they DON'T want to eat it's time to worry

Are they eating the hay? If not you could try another type of hay.

Thanks for all your replies. I have tried them with various types of hay and they seem to like the meadow hay best and they will normally pick at timothy hay. I think they are just awkward little buns because I know that the timothy hay is best for them

I agree, totally normal Rabbit always act like they haven't been fed in days even if you fed them 10 minutes ago :lol:

You could try a treat ball to put the pellets in as that might slow them down a little and make them work a bit harder for their favourite food. That helps with the exercise. You can also put some of the pellets in with the hay to encourage them to forage.

Bunnies will ALWAYS act like they are STARVING when you are offering something more 'interesting' than hay.
I guess it would be like us living off peas 80% of the day and someone offering us a few chips we would probably go mad for them too!!:lol:

So do not worry as long as they have fresh hay a couple of times a day they will not go hungry. They should be eating around the same size of themselves in hay a day.

Tamsin said:

I agree, totally normal Rabbit always act like they haven't been fed in days even if you fed them 10 minutes ago :lol:

You could try a treat ball to put the pellets in as that might slow them down a little and make them work a bit harder for their favourite food. That helps with the exercise. You can also put some of the pellets in with the hay to encourage them to forage.

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I can vouch for this since today ours accidentally got a double feed. My OH had fed them before going to work and then I got up and fed them, not knowing he already had. They looked like they were starving and wolfed them down!! Funny little things! :lol:

katie2000 said:

Thanks for all your replies. I have tried them with various types of hay and they seem to like the meadow hay best and they will normally pick at timothy hay. I think they are just awkward little buns because I know that the timothy hay is best for them

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Why is timothy hay best for them? I would have thought meadow hay would be best as it will also have meadow weeds in it. I got one of my bunnies from a rescue and she recommended buying bales of meadow hay because of the long strands and the weeds it contains (it's also heaps cheaper).