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slightly overweight bunnehhh: am i doing the right thing?

chloemurray

Warren Veteran
so my nahla is a preloved bunny (i know, norty bunneh mummeh i am!)
and when i got her she was three months old and very underweight. like you could feel bones.:cry:
i was so angry at the woman and demanded to know what she'd been fed on etc, and the woman said she was the runt of the litter and so didn't get much of the food, and that she was fine. i could have slapped her:censored:
anyway. soooo i took her to the vets and they said there was NO reason for her weight loss other than she was not being fed properly.. and to feed her up. which i did, hehe.:lol:

so two/three months down the line and nahla is a bit of a pudd'n. (only a teeny bit overweight though.) to try and keep her at a healthy weight i have bought her a diddy little food bowl which only holds a handful of pellets, (it's so cute, with little rainbow pawprints!:love:), put some of her pellets in a treat ball so that she has to roll it around to get them out, and i've also put her veggies in one of those hanging metal ball things so she has to reach up a little and pull them out. does this all sound like the right thing to be doing? or am i being a bit harsh?:lol:
 
Sounds good to me! I've experienced preloved buns, though generally they can be bad (health, story wise) I feel it can sometimes be a good place to "rescue" buns and help them get a better life. Sadly with my preloved buns, they didn't last past the week, both died within 12 hours of each other. I felt personally guilty for a while.

What you're doing sound good. If she is an outdoor bun I think being a tiny bit over weight is ok as it'll help her deal with the nasty winter coming up, my Thumper is a little bit chunky himself ;) But hes healthy, he also only gets a small handfull of pellets (Bunny Basics) which depending on the weather will either be put in his hutch buried in his hay or in his treat ball. The veg is likely to be helping him/her put on the weight, if it is things like carrots and apples etc and they contain a lot of sugar. I don't feed my Thumper much veg yet, I'm too paranoid that it'll make him ill lol!!! He gets a ring or carrot or a seedless red grape every other morning though.
 
Sounds good to me! I've experienced preloved buns, though generally they can be bad (health, story wise) I feel it can sometimes be a good place to "rescue" buns and help them get a better life. Sadly with my preloved buns, they didn't last past the week, both died within 12 hours of each other. I felt personally guilty for a while.

What you're doing sound good. If she is an outdoor bun I think being a tiny bit over weight is ok as it'll help her deal with the nasty winter coming up, my Thumper is a little bit chunky himself ;) But hes healthy, he also only gets a small handfull of pellets (Bunny Basics) which depending on the weather will either be put in his hutch buried in his hay or in his treat ball. The veg is likely to be helping him/her put on the weight, if it is things like carrots and apples etc and they contain a lot of sugar. I don't feed my Thumper much veg yet, I'm too paranoid that it'll make him ill lol!!! He gets a ring or carrot or a seedless red grape every other morning though.

yeah, i consider nahla a rescue bun really. and i'm sorry about your other bunnies:( but thumper is gorgeous!
my two get a slice of carrot and normally a thin slice of apple every day but the rest is leafy greens, though like you say they sometimes get the treat of a grape or small piece of banana occasionally, hehe. and what you say about thumper getting ill might be true, i can't give benji TOO much veg as it seems to upset his stomach.
i'd like to keep nahla at this weight for the winter really, but i don't want it to get out of hand if that makes sense? which is why i've started doing the different stuff with her food. even if it just makes her less bored i suppose that's a good thing:)
 
Agreed :) Do you feed once or twice a day? I started doing a handful twice a day to help fatten him a little bit, but have now reduced to 1 handful in the morning. He hates hay, loves dried grass so I try mixing the two and leave it near his litter tray for him to eat, the hay/grass will help a lot. And although some may disagree with this, I have started putting Thumper on a harness and taken him around the garden. He LOVES it, he runs around like mad and almost pulls me like an untrained dog would! It's a good way for him to "get out" and also a great chance for him to run around safely and to really stretch those legs. Here are some photos of him eating before he started running like mad, I didn't get the chance to take a photo while he ran, it proved difficult lol!

Photo0268.jpg

Photo0267.jpg
 
Agreed :) Do you feed once or twice a day? I started doing a handful twice a day to help fatten him a little bit, but have now reduced to 1 handful in the morning. He hates hay, loves dried grass so I try mixing the two and leave it near his litter tray for him to eat, the hay/grass will help a lot. And although some may disagree with this, I have started putting Thumper on a harness and taken him around the garden. He LOVES it, he runs around like mad and almost pulls me like an untrained dog would! It's a good way for him to "get out" and also a great chance for him to run around safely and to really stretch those legs. Here are some photos of him eating before he started running like mad, I didn't get the chance to take a photo while he ran, it proved difficult lol!

Photo0268.jpg

Photo0267.jpg

i feed a handful of pellets once a day, although i feel bad because i go out to check on them at night and they've eaten all their pellets and veggies:(
those pictures are adorable:love: i really toyed with getting them harnesses but thought i'd be absolutely FLAMED for it on here lol..:shock: and i didn't really want that to happen:lol:
 
Haha, I don't perticularly like the idea, but Thumper loves it and doesn't have as much room as most bunnys on this forum has, he has a 4FT by 1.5Ft hutch (2 tier) and a 6FT by 4FT run. It's adequit but not great. So for him, it's heaven i believe. I think everything you're doing is right though. I know what you mean about going to see them at night and all their pellets are gone. Thumper eats all his in the first 5 minutes which makes me feel worse lol! Aslong as they have hay or a good substitue I.E grass, they'll be fine :) Try a digging box? Will help burn some energy and is a great bordem breaker. Thumper will only dig up the rug he sits on in my room (when he's in here), he won't touch dirt. The hygene freak that he is haha.
 
Haha, I don't perticularly like the idea, but Thumper loves it and doesn't have as much room as most bunnys on this forum has, he has a 4FT by 1.5Ft hutch (2 tier) and a 6FT by 4FT run. It's adequit but not great. So for him, it's heaven i believe. I think everything you're doing is right though. I know what you mean about going to see them at night and all their pellets are gone. Thumper eats all his in the first 5 minutes which makes me feel worse lol! Aslong as they have hay or a good substitue I.E grass, they'll be fine :) Try a digging box? Will help burn some energy and is a great bordem breaker. Thumper will only dig up the rug he sits on in my room (when he's in here), he won't touch dirt. The hygene freak that he is haha.

thanks for all the idea, i'll try it:D
 
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