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Pellets vs muesli

Beau Belle

Mama Doe
After having read so many threads about diet and the benfits of pellets, I decided my buns should have Sience Selective, as I've read that many buns do well on it.

I'm following the advice to wean them *slowly* and started off with just 1 pellet mixed in with their muesli in the morning. 2 weeks on, and they still won't eat the darn pellets..! :roll: I have tried offering them as treats, scattering them in their digging box, on top of their hay, mixed in with muesli... But no. :roll:

I have read that many buns get soft tummies on Excel pellets, so don't want to give them that. Should I persevere, or give up..? :roll:
 
my two won't take science selective either - but they take excell pellets or tesco's pellets (I think its Wagg its called), perhaps try a different pellet?
 
How much museli do you give your buns a day?

Rabbits only need to eat a very small amount of dried food a day, therefore if you are feeding them more than they require this will make it more difficult to get them to eat hay and also to wean them off it. Even with young bunnies the priority of food should really be hay as this is really important for maintaining a good gut and ensuring that teeth are kept worn down. Good habbits should be started young.

Personally I would perservere. If you are feeding more than one egg cup per rabbit of museli a day slowly over a few weeks decrease the amount until that is what they are having. Then start removing some of the museli and substituting it for the SS, gradually decreasing the amount of museli each day and increaseing the amount of SS.

If you weigh you rabbit prior to weaning the food you can monitor any changes in their weight to ensure that they are not loosing any.
 
It can take a while, especially if they are currently on muesli. You'll probably find they wont initially like any pellet to start with no matter what brand. Are you lowering the muesli level and upping the pellet level gradually? This is what I did over a few weeks and at the end when it was all pellets Mischa STILL refused to have any for a few days (it's ok though because they have hay to eat so no pellets for a few days will be ok) and then he tried them and ate them and now goes crazy for them (ie. jumping on my back while I try to measure them out)
 
What Janice said!

When I first got Dudley he was on muesli and he refused to eat SS...it took at least 3 weeks for him to start eating them, but now several years later he LOVES them. I think sometimes they're just suspicious of things that are different and it can take a while. Make sure they're really well mixed in so the smells of the different foods get onto each other, that should help :)
 
Thank you all. :wave:

They are both booked in for a spay on Tuesday, so I'm planning on asking the vet to check weight and teeth. It could be that I'm feeding them too much still... :oops: I follow the threads (diet, housing & behaviour) with interest, so have been cutting down on the muesli and making sure they have lots of hay n' herbs instead. On your advice, I'll persevere with pellets :)
 
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