My bunny is only eating Lettuce, What should I do?

My Bunny, Jude who is 7 months old went to the vet last week for a drippy eye and fleas. The vet gave him a few different shots, 2 antibiotics and a shot for heart-worm, and Baytril and Prednisone for oral injection daily. He broke the plastic on his food bowl, so we bought a feeder with a strainer on the bottom for the dust. We feed him a generic food mix of Alfalfa pellets, and freeze dried vegetables. We learned in the beginning that he wasn't too fond of the Alfalfa pellets and picks through to eat the freeze dried vegetables. We frequently feed him carrots and lettuce. About 48 hours ago, my boyfriend filled the feeder and put fresh carrots and lettuce in the bunny's cage. Jude immediately ate the lettuce but all of the food and carrots are still there. We just fed him a handful of lettuce and he ate it like he was starving, so we gave him a little more. I didn't give him his dose of Baytril last night to see if that's why he wasn't eating, but that didn't help. Should I just feed him lettuce? Or could it be the medication making him not eat?

Hello, I am sorry that your bunny has been poorly. I am afraid that I am not very knowledgeable of bunny illnesses, or medications. My guess would be that it could be because of the illnesses he has/had and/or the medication. However you need to keep an eye on him to check that he doesnt go in to stasis - this is where the bunny stops eating altogether and doesnt poo either. It can be really serious so keep an eye on things. Others on here will be able to give you much better advice than I can so I hope someone comes along soon to help you.

What kind of lettuce are you feeding him? Is it romaine? Other types of lettuce can be bad for their tummies. I would probably try and encourage him to eat carrots and try small amounts of other leafy greens such as kale or spring greens, but only in very small amounts to begin with if he has not been used to eating those.

I hope he starts to recover soon and hope someone else will be along with advice shortly.

Hi :wave: Lettuce is not good for rabbits, especially if it's being fed in quantity.It's best to feed small amounts of collared greens, brussel sprouts and other dark green leaf veg, and unlimited hay. He should be eating lots of hay to keep his teeth in good order. Did your vet rule out the drippy eye perhaps being caused by a dental problem. It would be best if you could wean him off the mix and try to get him on to a pelleted type food. It is very common for bunnies to exhibit selective eating on these mixes. It's a bit like us being given the choice between sald or chocolate..no contest . Carrots should be given only as a treat because of their high sugar content. Please keep us updated..

Lettuce can be toxic to rabbits! Don't you have anything else you could try?

Did the vet check his teeth when he was there before? Selective feeding can be down to dental problems. Does he eat much hay?
The weepy eye could also indicate dental problems. I think another vet trip might be a good idea if he's not eating very much...

Also, as far as I know, rabbits don't get heartworm, so I'm not really sure what that injection was for :?

Sorry to hear about your rabbits.

Is he drinking properly?

Sorry to hear about your rabbit. Is he drinking properly?

I agree that Dental problems are a real possibility despite your Rabbit only being 7 months old.

Did the Vet check your Rabbit's teeth?

A Rabbit's diet should be made up of 80-90% hay/grass so it all your Rabbit has been eating for 7 months is veg he is likely to have overgrown teeth and/or molar spurs.

Also, I note that your Vet has given steroids (Prednisone) These are not generally the first choice of anti-inflammatory for Rabbits due to their potential side-effects (Immunosuppressant/GI ulceration). Could the Vet not prescribe a non steroidal anti inflammatory instead ?

http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/showthread.php?t=176719&highlight=vegetables+safe+rabbits

Hopefully this link will be useful, and give you some ideas of new foods to try. Please introduce them very gradually though.

Hi your rabbit really needs to have unlimited and lots and lots of hay available daily, this is very importeant for his teeth and digestive system.
Then a handful of veg daily and a small amount of pellets.
Veg that can be offered are spring greens, cauli leaves, dandilion leaves, basil, mint, dill, corriander, parsley...NO lettuce as it will give bun upset tummy and has no nutritional value, he needs dark leaf veg, start with small amounts if his poops are ok you can gradually offer more variety and quantity but Hay is very important to a rabbits diet, it also stops them from being bored and so will munch on the Hay ...does he have toys to chew...you can buy these in pet shops and again will help his teeth and prevent boredom, toilet roll holders stuffed with hay are a simple idea, willow sticks and similar toys, alfalfa rings is a good one as your bun is only still quite young as he gets older + 1yrs alfalfa should be given sparingly so it may be an idea to switch his pellets when he's older to switch to Burgess Excel or Science selective.
I'm not best person to comment on health illnesses and meds so I'll leave that bit to those that have more experience

Update on Jude

As of the past 3 days, Jude has started eating more and more of his food which is good. Yes he has unlimited hay and we have never fed him lettuce in excess. All fresh vegetables are only ever a treat. The vet did check his teeth and said they were very healthy. I've only been giving him the Baytril once a day and the 5mg of predisone every other day. His eyes aren't drippy anymore and the pinkness around them is going away. Another question my boyfriend had, when we give our bunny a bath we are very conscious not to get water close to it's ears, so we keep the water away from it's face all together. I use a washcloth with a little bit of soap to wash his face, but his face is still stinky. Jude is an indoor rabbit. He sleeps in a cage with water, food and unlimited hay and has the majority of the day to run around the living room in our apartment. Is there a way to get the smell out of the fur on his face?

e_lincoln526 said:

As of the past 3 days, Jude has started eating more and more of his food which is good. Yes he has unlimited hay and we have never fed him lettuce in excess. All fresh vegetables are only ever a treat. The vet did check his teeth and said they were very healthy. I've only been giving him the Baytril once a day and the 5mg of predisone every other day. His eyes aren't drippy anymore and the pinkness around them is going away. Another question my boyfriend had, when we give our bunny a bath we are very conscious not to get water close to it's ears, so we keep the water away from it's face all together. I use a washcloth with a little bit of soap to wash his face, but his face is still stinky. Jude is an indoor rabbit. He sleeps in a cage with water, food and unlimited hay and has the majority of the day to run around the living room in our apartment. Is there a way to get the smell out of the fur on his face?

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:wave: What do you mean by 'stinky face' what does it smell of? Rabbits are usually very good at self grooming and therefore should only need a bath or washing if there is some 'foreign' substance or excrement that needs to be softened and removed. When you say that you bath him, how often are you doing it?

If you bath a bunny too much, it loses the natural oils in its fur that help keep it clean. It's like if you wash your hair every day, you'll find it gets greasier quicker because it doesn't have the natural oils to protect it from dirt x

I take it that you are bathing his eye because it has been weeping from your first post. If so I wouldn't use soap, there is a mild detergent you can get from vets called hibbiscrub or I would just use baby shampoo or just water if it is still gunky. If the eye is no longer weeping then I wouldn't wash it. If the skin under the eye is sore then a little sudocrem which is a anticeptic baby moisturiser can help keep the liquid from the eye off it and help to clear up any infection that might be setting into the skin underneath.
If it doesn't start to improve after a couple of days then I would go back to the vet again.

Foodwise he should be eating a 100% pelleted rabbit mix as that is the only way you can guarantee that he will be getting the right nutrition rather than picking out the bits that he likes. Almost all rabbit pellets are alfafa based so I wouldn't worry too much about the contents but try and find the highest fibre feed you can, preferably more that 16%. You should gradually switch him over to that over a few weeks so as not to upset his tum.
Veg should be given every day, not just as a treat and as people have said, lettuce and carrots should be limited and they should be feed a variety of different veg probably mainly based on leafy greens but they can eat most veg, herbs & fruit that humans can except root veg, sweetcorn & avocado, limiting sweet food like carrots & fruit and ones which are very high in calcium like parsley, spinach (also high in oxalic acid) & kale.

e_lincoln526 said:

we have never fed him lettuce in excess. All fresh vegetables are only ever a treat.

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Rabbits should get fresh veg daily, not just as a treat.....but not lettuce. Cabbage is better.

I am sure someone could point you in the right direction of the list of safe veg that is somewhere on the forum....sorry, I can't find it :?

Moochs favourite is spring greens :wave:

Another update on Jude

Thanks for your responses. As for vegetables we give Jude a handful of lettuce or broccoli or other greens we have in the fridge and carrots about once a week at night time. So he is getting it daily but also has his food. He's about 8 months old and I read in a Rabbit book that when they reach adult size about 8 months, they are given their food in meals, Half in the morning and half at night, so we'll switch over to pellets when this bag of food is gone, but do it eventual to not make him sick. When we bath him I use a soft kitten shampoo, much like baby shampoo. We never wash his face to be sure that he doesn't get water in his ears, and his face smells sour, maybe urine? I also read that when adult male bunnies aren't neutered they spray their urine to mark their territory and we have noticed this on the wall the bunny's cage is next to so we put a towel on the back of his cage. We have 2 female cats about the same age as the bunny. They get along fairly well, but don't play together. He's also been scratching up the carpet and I know that synthetic fibers are bad for bunnies to eat, so I was advised to buy a spray to keep him away from the places he's been scratiching.

here's a really good guide for what vegetables you can feed.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/Food/feeding_en.pdf

don't forget that broccoilli can make you gasy so it's extremely likely that it'll make your bun gasy, carrots are also very high is sugar so should be given in limited amounts. if you decide to change over to pellets they should be given a very limited amount. mine get about 10 pellets in the morning and thats it. glad you got him seen to via the vet and i hope he continues to make a full recovery for you.

Just to add to that, instead of buying the pellets when the mix is all used up, I'd buy them now and give him a few with the mix, then increase the amount of pellets and decrease the amount of mix each day.