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Do moulting bunnies look skinny as well as scruffy?

susie bun

Wise Old Thumper
My mother (who knows very little about rabbits and thinks I know too much:roll::roll:) thinks I should be feeding Spenser more pellets, and that he is getting skinny. He is certainly scruffy, but what can you expect when a rabbit with fairly long hairs is moulting. I have no idea what weight Spenser is, but will try to find out when he goes for his myxi booster next month. He is very picky with veg, but eats a small bowl of pellets morning and evening. Anyone else got skinny-looking bunnies just now? :?
 
Yes i do lately, and i think it's to do with decreasing pellet intake so i have increase it to a handful of pellets a day. I have little hands- so i guess that would be about 25grams-50grams. I also give 100grams of hay-(works out at too big bowls of hay) and rarely give veg now as it was upseting their digestion. I do give carrots( no more than one per day per bun, every few days normally), cucumbers( which don't seem to upset digestion), and herbs though as often as i can. I worry about spring greens however, but am happy to give cauliflower leaves, not sure why but my buns handle them better regardless of how much i give.

I do have a bunny who can't eat veg or hay so i fill his bowl up with a handful or more of pellets.

I found 10grams of pellets far too little for my lot, but that is just me xxx

p.s i always feed more pellets at this time of year, ready for the cold weather. My outdoor buns only- my indoor buns get about the same.
 
My mother (who knows very little about rabbits and thinks I know too much:roll::roll:) thinks I should be feeding Spenser more pellets, and that he is getting skinny. He is certainly scruffy, but what can you expect when a rabbit with fairly long hairs is moulting. I have no idea what weight Spenser is, but will try to find out when he goes for his myxi booster next month. He is very picky with veg, but eats a small bowl of pellets morning and evening. Anyone else got skinny-looking bunnies just now? :?

Most of the pellets tell you what you should be feeding according the size of your bun on the packaging, I work to body size in hay, good handful (size of buns head) in dried/pelleted food and same again in fresh greens and mine are fine. It all depends on activity levels aswell but, 80% of the diet should be hay, 10% pellets/dried food, 10% fresh leafy greens/veg. You should be able to feel the ribs and back bone but not see them as such they shouldn't be prominent, if in doubt I would nip down the surgery and get him weighed and checked over. Does Spencer eat lots of hay/grass? Pics would be good :wave:
 
Thanks both. :wave: Will get a pic, although not a recent one as the weather has been so bad and he is outside. He has recently started using both levels of his hutch, so gets some exercise even when he can't get out to the run. Spenser's head is much bigger than two egg-cups of pellets, which a few people on here have recommended. Here is a picture of him sleeping three days ago. He's moulted a lot more since, and looks leaner. If it's dry tomorrow I'll get another picture.

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Is Spenser a lionhead or lionhead cross? Mr Cookie Bun is a lionhead, he's heavily moulting at the moment and he looks awful :cry: He looks really thin now and he looked the same this time last year so I increased his food and he ended up rather chubby :oops:
 
Is Spenser a lionhead or lionhead cross? Mr Cookie Bun is a lionhead, he's heavily moulting at the moment and he looks awful :cry: He looks really thin now and he looked the same this time last year so I increased his food and he ended up rather chubby :oops:

Yes, he is a lionhead cross. At the moment he has wee quiffs on his mane which can be seen better when he is sitting up of course.
 
Awwww he is cute, it's difficult to say actually from the pic really, I don't feed just pellets, mine have Chudley's Rabbit Royale and a tablespoon of excel into a handful of that. I'd say go by the recommendations on the bag of food. Does he like Oat hay https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Hay...ay.235.html?osCsid=p0795e96gp2dlhisn5c2fdide4

That's really interesting. Spenser's previous owner fed Royale, but I found he has selective feeding so changed him to excel. I did the change gradually, so by the time it was complete he was eating most of the Royale bits. He's had an oat hay from a sample pack, but went off it when I bought a big bag. :roll::roll: Thanks for your help - he's my first bunny and has only been with me 4 and a half months.
 
Some of my bunnies are looking awful atm with all the moulting :( my himi looks especially thin compared to pre-moult, but she doesn't seem thin, just less puffy!

I have to admit that I feed a little more pellets than would be suggested, esp for the bunnies that seem to be full of red bull they just don't stop moving
 
Blackie went down to 1.02kg when his teeth were bad, and only went up to 1.06 at his check up after, despite eating loads, but he is hyperactive. I now sneakily feed him a few extra pellets each day, and he's gone up to a healthy 1.26kg :D

Clo went from 1.8kg to 1.45kg after moving out to the aviary and running around a lot more, but he was a chubby guts before.

Buns use up a lot of energy moulting, so if you feel Spenser needs a few more pellets then give him some :)
 
Thanks all, that's reassuring. I have already been out with a few extra ones, which quickly disappeared (giving fuel to my mother's theory that he is half-starved). He even felt energised enough to munch a bit of carrot! :D Apart from moulting, he will be using more energy as he has just in the last week been using both levels of the hutch. :D
 
Sun is shining here, so I should get a better picture of skinny Spenser at some point today. Don't like to disturb him at the moment as he is taking his morning doze! :love:
 
Just to add my comments, as i dont like to read and run... (haha Blackers!:p)

Biscuit's moult made him get a little skinny so i upped his pellets by about half, and scatter a few around and in his hay box and he's got a bit more bunny fat on him now, but doesn't look at all overweight. I picked this up from reading on here :)

Didnt realise it used up so much more energy.

About the starving thing Susie_bun, ignore that, from my experience and again from waht i've read on RU, you can feed a bun at any point during the day and even if they were massively overweight, they would still try and steal it from you like they hadn't been fed for days. Think its a bunny trait to make you feel bad and get extra noms! :wave:
 
vet wasnt happy with Alvins weight he was under 2.2 which she thinks is his ideal.. hes just had quite a long moult as well as a minor blip with his eating.... thumps has posted often that moult requires alot of energy so upping pellets during this time should help alot i reakon :D:D:D
 
Thanks Graham and Donnant - Spenser says thank you too as he will be getting a few more pellets. :D This is also something I'll need to consider during the winter, as he's a hutch bunny. I don't grudge him the pellets, but I know you have to strike a balance between not underfeeding and having a bunny who won't nom his hay. :wave:
 
its really hard to get right, cut the pellets for thier own good and they get all skinny on us :roll: one day we will all there huh :D:D
 
Here is a picture of Spenser taken today. I've taken several today, but don't know how to post more than one photo at a time. :oops::oops: He does look a bit pathetic here, but I'm going to post a more flattering photo of him in Stories and Photos shortly. I think my main battle is to resist giving him too many pellets as he has only recently started eating his hay well. Poor lad, moulting can't be fun.

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