Sproggie14
Warren Scout
My buns are causing me worries at the mo and I wondered if anyone can offer any insight or advice?
Potted history - I adopted Kitkat (female, neutered) in December 2005 when she was thought to be about 18 months. So she is now 6, possibly a little more. She lived outside originally with her hubby Shadow until he got ill (still don't know what it was) and they moved indoors. When he died we adopted Ginger and they lived together indoors until he passed away in May this year (probably due to dental issues). Then Wynston joined us and he and Kitkat have been living happily indoors together since. Wyn is much younger (only about 2 himself) and this seemed to bring Kitkat out of herself a little.
When I've weighed Kitkat at the vets previously she was around 2kg. When Ginger was ill I invested in some larger scales so I could weigh the bunnies myself and found that she had gone down to about 1800g. I carried on monitoring this for a few weeks and she continued to lose little by little until, at the end of June, she was just over 1700g.
Now, I usually restrict the bunnies pellets to try and encourage them to eat their hay and grass so at this point I decided to try giving her the full recommended amount of pellets a day in two meals. In one week she went from 1710g to 1830g! I was pleased to have found a way to get her weight back up but still concerned about the impact on her teeth so I looked into the best pellet for teeth and decided on the Oxbow Bunny Basics. It took a bit of sourcing and then we had delivery issues so in the meantime I went for a middle ground amount of pellets. Two weeks later (15th July) she was back to 1770
About this time I noticed some changes in the bunny room. The place was being trashed during the day, litter thrown around the room, wees in odd places that sort of thing. I began to worry that someone wasn't right as Ginger did the same thing when he was ill. They also stopped eating their hay and grass. I initially put this down to it being the bottom of the bag and a bit dusty.
Anyway, the Oxbow arrived and we started weaning them over from their old food to the new. They weren't impressed. To monitor what they ate we fed them exclusively from a bowl, whereas normally they have their pellets in a treat ball.
I weighed Kitkat again on the 25th July and she was down to 1640g :shock: and now felt noticeably thin. So we went to the vets the following day and they checked her teeth which seemed ok and felt her abdomen which felt a bit empty but no obvious issues and listened to her tummy which all sounded fine too.
So we agreed with the vet that we would put them back on purely the old food and see how her weight responded.
Since then Kitkat is eating her old food but she's not right. The hay and grass are still untouched by either of them despite being fresh batches. Kitkat seems to only really eat when encouraged to do so, eg by me handing food to her, rattling her bowl or topping it up with some dried herbs. She spends most of her time in the house area and is generally subdued and disinterested in everything. But there are no obvious signs of anything wrong, no apparent symptoms.
Wyn seems quieter too and less keen to be touched. He is also ignoring hay and grass. He is moulting terribly and has been for a few weeks so I don't know if this is linked in somehow. He lost weight along with Kitkat for a few weeks in June but has been gaining weight steadily since their pellet rations increased and is now a healthy 2300g.
One other thing to mention, we got a group of guineas at the end of May. Although the bunnies were used to fresh food before that, the volume and variety has increased considerably since they arrived. There hasn't been any diarrhoea or anything which would suggest to me that this is causing them any issues (indeed they go mad for it, even now) but I thought I should mention it in case it's relevant.
So, sorry it's so long and waffly but I'm a bit stumped. I don't know if I'm being an overly panicky Mum or if we have a problem. I don't understand why they've stopped eating their hay and grass and why someone is trashing the room. Why is Kit only really eating when encouraged? Perhaps the treat ball stimulated her to eat and she's bored with eating from a bowl? Is this whole thing just a strop caused by me trying to change their food or is there something else going on?
I weighed her again yesterday and she'd gained 10g which I guess is going in the right direction. If there's no major improvement then she'll be back to the vets on Monday but I'd be really grateful for any thoughts and ideas anyone might have in the meantime.
Potted history - I adopted Kitkat (female, neutered) in December 2005 when she was thought to be about 18 months. So she is now 6, possibly a little more. She lived outside originally with her hubby Shadow until he got ill (still don't know what it was) and they moved indoors. When he died we adopted Ginger and they lived together indoors until he passed away in May this year (probably due to dental issues). Then Wynston joined us and he and Kitkat have been living happily indoors together since. Wyn is much younger (only about 2 himself) and this seemed to bring Kitkat out of herself a little.
When I've weighed Kitkat at the vets previously she was around 2kg. When Ginger was ill I invested in some larger scales so I could weigh the bunnies myself and found that she had gone down to about 1800g. I carried on monitoring this for a few weeks and she continued to lose little by little until, at the end of June, she was just over 1700g.
Now, I usually restrict the bunnies pellets to try and encourage them to eat their hay and grass so at this point I decided to try giving her the full recommended amount of pellets a day in two meals. In one week she went from 1710g to 1830g! I was pleased to have found a way to get her weight back up but still concerned about the impact on her teeth so I looked into the best pellet for teeth and decided on the Oxbow Bunny Basics. It took a bit of sourcing and then we had delivery issues so in the meantime I went for a middle ground amount of pellets. Two weeks later (15th July) she was back to 1770
About this time I noticed some changes in the bunny room. The place was being trashed during the day, litter thrown around the room, wees in odd places that sort of thing. I began to worry that someone wasn't right as Ginger did the same thing when he was ill. They also stopped eating their hay and grass. I initially put this down to it being the bottom of the bag and a bit dusty.
Anyway, the Oxbow arrived and we started weaning them over from their old food to the new. They weren't impressed. To monitor what they ate we fed them exclusively from a bowl, whereas normally they have their pellets in a treat ball.
I weighed Kitkat again on the 25th July and she was down to 1640g :shock: and now felt noticeably thin. So we went to the vets the following day and they checked her teeth which seemed ok and felt her abdomen which felt a bit empty but no obvious issues and listened to her tummy which all sounded fine too.
So we agreed with the vet that we would put them back on purely the old food and see how her weight responded.
Since then Kitkat is eating her old food but she's not right. The hay and grass are still untouched by either of them despite being fresh batches. Kitkat seems to only really eat when encouraged to do so, eg by me handing food to her, rattling her bowl or topping it up with some dried herbs. She spends most of her time in the house area and is generally subdued and disinterested in everything. But there are no obvious signs of anything wrong, no apparent symptoms.
Wyn seems quieter too and less keen to be touched. He is also ignoring hay and grass. He is moulting terribly and has been for a few weeks so I don't know if this is linked in somehow. He lost weight along with Kitkat for a few weeks in June but has been gaining weight steadily since their pellet rations increased and is now a healthy 2300g.
One other thing to mention, we got a group of guineas at the end of May. Although the bunnies were used to fresh food before that, the volume and variety has increased considerably since they arrived. There hasn't been any diarrhoea or anything which would suggest to me that this is causing them any issues (indeed they go mad for it, even now) but I thought I should mention it in case it's relevant.
So, sorry it's so long and waffly but I'm a bit stumped. I don't know if I'm being an overly panicky Mum or if we have a problem. I don't understand why they've stopped eating their hay and grass and why someone is trashing the room. Why is Kit only really eating when encouraged? Perhaps the treat ball stimulated her to eat and she's bored with eating from a bowl? Is this whole thing just a strop caused by me trying to change their food or is there something else going on?
I weighed her again yesterday and she'd gained 10g which I guess is going in the right direction. If there's no major improvement then she'll be back to the vets on Monday but I'd be really grateful for any thoughts and ideas anyone might have in the meantime.
