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Bunny Diet

Cat129

Warren Scout
Hello

Bugs needs to go on a diet, I was hoping someone could tell me the minimum amount of food to give him without being cruel, also what are the best veg to give him while on a diet. I understand that he needs excersise as well but I am having trouble getting him to run around (He's just lazy and would rather eat, chew some toys then sleep). Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank You
 
Hello

Bugs needs to go on a diet, I was hoping someone could tell me the minimum amount of food to give him without being cruel, also what are the best veg to give him while on a diet. I understand that he needs excersise as well but I am having trouble getting him to run around (He's just lazy and would rather eat, chew some toys then sleep). Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank You

Hi Cat129 :wave:

When do you let him out to run around, if he's ever locked away? Or is he 100% free-range?
 
Louie was getting a bit "round" plus getting a mucky bum. I cut out pellets altogether together with commercial treats. He now has unlimited hay (as he always did) plus herbs/leaves/peashoots twice a day.

He is no long round, poo's are perfect and he has so much more energy :D
 
He is 100% free range, he gets a big handfull of food a day. Im a bit worried about cutting out pellets alltogether as he is not a huge hay eater. Or will he just get so hungry that he will eat it
 
I would suggest gradually reducing the pellets and, depending on what fresh you feed, feeding only leafy greens and herbs (no fruit). The hay eating should increase gradually. Keep a close eye on it. Generally bunnies will choose pellets over hay because they are like sweets to them, so will show preference to them (like children do with sweets as opposed to their staple foods).

My bunnies only get one or two Science Selective pellets a day and the rest of their diet is hay, other than the odd fresh herb treat.
 
I am having trouble getting him to run around (He's just lazy and would rather eat, chew some toys then sleep). Any advice greatly appreciated.

Thank You
Ever heard of Positive reinforcement or clickertraining?
Because I reconize so much of your bun in my Kismo. He was lazy and getting.. well... let's say rounder... :lol:
So I read something about positive reinforcement training. Which you may guess it's all positive. If your bun does something you want, you reward it. The clicker is a help in this process. It's not the reward itself, but it tells your bun "What your doing right now is good, you can get your reward when you get here".
With my bun I trained follow a target. I had a stick with a bal at the end of it. When he toutched it, I clicked and he come to collect his reward. I used normal pellets. But everything your bun expiriance as plessant you could use as a reward. So that could mean; bit of carrot, pellets or even just a stroke on his back. Make sure that if you use food, the portions have to be small and quickely been eaten, for otherwise he could loose his attention.
It's a very fun way to train your bun and it's healthy to.

Make sure the training time is short and you have to end it allways positive. So stop when your bun has succeed. You could build the training time up, but no longer than half an hour. Also you have to make a plan of what it is you want to train and how you get your bun to that point.

I hope my bad english still make sence, and otherwise just ask away and I'll try to explain again. :D
 
I was just wondering how many times a day you change the hay even if like George he lines the side of his cage with it also eating it too?
 
His hay will get toped two or three times a day. I have looked at clicker training and am hoping to start this with him soon as I can get hold of a clicker. Been getting tips off people on here about that allready so I guess thats a good start.

So what he and I really need to do is reduce pellets slowly and no more fruit/sweet sugary veggies. Thank you
 
Reduce pellets slowly to 1 eggcupful per day. I don't know much about veggies as I don't feed it to mine, but definitely cut out fruit.
 
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