Advice needed on fat bunny U/D please anybody?

Gemma, my foster was weighed today and is a staggering 4KG. Ive had her in the run in the garden, in the dining room and she just dont want to hop about :lol:
Im trying everything to get her excerising including leaving her basically free ranging in the house or outside when i can supervise her.
At the moment shes on science selective, so ive limited pellets and veggies and upped her hay.
Any ideas suggestions welcome :wave: ive not really had a rabbit who is this overweight so any advice would be welcomed.
Also is it an idea to move her to excel lite? or is this no better than her science selective pellets.

Sounds perfect to me. I have heard though that getting them to go up and down stairs is really good too. A bit like step aerobics for us :lol:

Aunty Alison's fat camp consists of a very few SS pellets, lots and lots of hay (but not alfalfa, oat or dried grass), some herbs mixed with the hay and a little green veg but absolutely no carrot or fruits. If a bun isn't used to exercise then I would try and introduce it little and often, and the bun should start to get more active once the weight starts to come off anyway. You could try putting the pellets in a treat ball so they take longer to eat and encourage movement. I wouldn't cut right down to hay only as if they lose weight too quickly it can damage their liver. Slower is better

Can you encourage her to move about? My rats would be huge if I left them too it :lol: I find it hard to control their food because one of them is always sick and likely to lose weight so they have access to lots of food all the time which means the three of them stuff their faces

With Orson when he is free ranging I try to keep him moving by rolling things around the floor or getting him to chase them cat toys, its like feathers on the end of a stick. I used to put him one treat inside an egg box and he would be throwing it about for hours trying to get inside Although now he has figured that one out and can open the box in a second :lol:

Do you feed your pellets in a bowl? How about scattering them in the hay? My buns like looking about for their pellets and it keeps them moving while they eat I also feed pellets in paper bags filled with hay and scrunched closed at the top, they chase them about the run before they get in. Also put their pellets inside toilet roll tubes then stuff hay in the ends and either hang them up or just let them throw the tubes about until the pellets come out. You can get treat balls for rabbits where the pellets fall out as they push them around

How many pellets do you feed? Providing they have unlimited hay they don't actually need lots of pellets Mine get about an egg cup full each once a day

I would be really careful about letting them play on the stairs, I am sure its totally fine but I would be too frightened of injury to let my buns do it x

I'm scattering her food on the cage floor, and im trying to get her to move but she just wont! :lol::lol: ive even locked the cage door to stop her running back in but then she just sits by the door

Anybody else?
I've tried EVERYTHING to get this bunny to move - ive had her outside in the run, on the grass, in the dining room,ive tried locking her cage,scattering her food,limiting pellets with no veggies and she just will not excerise!!
Im at a loss!!

You may just have to wait until she loses a little weight through dieting alone before she starts to move. If she's very overweight and very lazy she might only start exercising once the weight starts to shift and she feels a little lighter and healthier. It can be a slow process getting weight to safely shift from bunnies

The only other thing to try would be bonding her, a companion would probably encourage her to move around some more.

Santa said:

You may just have to wait until she loses a little weight through dieting alone before she starts to move. If she's very overweight and very lazy she might only start exercising once the weight starts to shift and she feels a little lighter and healthier. It can be a slow process getting weight to safely shift from bunnies

The only other thing to try would be bonding her, a companion would probably encourage her to move around some more.

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I agree. One of my buns hardy moved for the few months she was alone at the shelter. Soon as I got her bonded with my 2 she was flying around everywhere and the weight just fell off her.

Bonding i think at this point is out of the question, shes got alot of aggression and fear due to being mistreated, and i think she would probably attack another rabbit if they were put with her.
Im really trying to work through that with her, so she trusts humans again, but im concerned about her lazyness.
Is the excel lite any good, shes on a hand full of SS a day atm, but is the excel any better?

Is there a lite version of SS? I guess the excell would be ok, but you would have to change her over very slowly in case she gets a runny bum. Will she play with you with a ball? My buns love their ball with a bell inside and will chase it and toss it in the air. Or maybe she would use some energy shredding paper or gnawing on wood. can't think of anything else. Sorry:wave:

What about hiding food and a treat ball.

If I remember correctly Excel lite is lower in calories than SS. I used it with good results with Sally earlier this year (the dutchie in my siggie).

She wasn't particularly active at first, but she had very imprinted behaviour from being constantly fed - she would really panic is she had no food, so I would make her work for it! Tiny amounts of Excel lite and spring greens and tons of meadow & timmy hay. No alfalfa, no treats, no carrots.

But the weight loss needs to be gradual. Sally is down to 2.47kg now and we have found a brilliant vet who has agreed to spay her in the spring.

I use Excel lite for my 2 fatty bun buns :lol: they've been fine with the switch and no probs with dirty bottoms

try putting the pellets in paper and tying with string, I have done this to good effect many times. Also using a small card box (like the ones herbal tea comes in or an egg box) works well too. Makes em work harder for the food. failing that set ewok on her (Joke!!!)

duracell said:

try putting the pellets in paper and tying with string, I have done this to good effect many times. Also using a small card box (like the ones herbal tea comes in or an egg box) works well too. Makes em work harder for the food. failing that set ewok on her (Joke!!!)

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:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol: She'd prob chin ewok cos shes so big! :lol:
im gunna try with the cardboard box/egg box!!

Phoebesmummy9 said:

Is the excel lite any good, shes on a hand full of SS a day atm, but is the excel any better?

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handfull? try cutting it down to a dessertspoon and put this in a treat ball (if supervised) she will have to chase it around to get the food out. If you cannot supervise as someone suggested a small hole in an egg carton.

try haning the veggies from the run so she has to reach out and grab them or mix them in with the hay. Again keep it down to a small handful of leafy greens, celery, raddish and dark lettuce. No carrot or fruit.

Getting her to move is the difficult thing and we had some very overweight bunnies come in who hardly ate anything but simply would not move. Bonding with some other bunnies helped for one but the other is still very sedentry so it is difficult to get the weight off.

When Blue got a bit tubby I moved him onto excel lite and put all his pellets in a treat ball. That was he HAD to move around to get the pellets out.

I assume you have checked with a vet that there is no other reason for her inactivity- that it is simply her weight?
Any weight loss must be very gradual-weigh or count out pellets rather than guessing and reduce by a small amount each week.

Also- be warned that mens small handfuls of pellets tend to be bigger than ladies small handfuls of pellets as I once discovered!! I got round this by leaving a small shotglass and saying no more than that full.

sue:wave:

sdf76 said:

I assume you have checked with a vet that there is no other reason for her inactivity- that it is simply her weight?
Any weight loss must be very gradual-weigh or count out pellets rather than guessing and reduce by a small amount each week.

Also- be warned that mens small handfuls of pellets tend to be bigger than ladies small handfuls of pellets as I once discovered!! I got round this by leaving a small shotglass and saying no more than that full.

sue:wave:

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I use a coffee scoop to make sure he gets what he should...J tends to be a little over generous :lol:

I agree a handful is a lot for a bunny on a diet. Bunny fat camp here consists of 5pellets in the am and then hay for the rest of the time and a few greens in the evening. When Mopsey came in she was very overweight and didn't want to move at all. She had her favourite spot underneath my sofa so what I used to do was pick her up, carry her down the garden and leave her there. She was so keen to get back under the sofa that she would make her way down the garden to get there. She came good and lost the 2kg she needed to lose.