How do you get a bunny to loose weight? UPDATE 10/2/11

All my babies are healthy and happy and have nice shiny fluffy coats. Beatrix (my smallest bunny) needs her botty checking and wiping by me daily (the only one who does). She never needs washing in water or anything like that. She is eating her ceacs but some she obviously can't reach.

Their diet is fresh veg twice a day - organic bushy leaf topped carrots, cabbage, celery and corn cobs (Beatrix does not have the corn cobs). Lots of fresh hay both meadow and grean oat. Herbs and readigrass at night and a slice of apple for nighty night treat each.

Please can someone tell me how I can help Beatrix loose weight - shes not huge or anything terrible but I'm concerned that now she is getting older she is needing this help - is it age or my over-feeding her? She is happy and healthy in all other respects and loves playing an fuss as you can see from her pics. Feel like a bad mommy like I'm missing something important??

Carrots and corn and apple are quite sugary so that probably isn't helping. How many pellets do they get? They don't need pellets as long as they have unlimited hay so you could try cutting down on those.

I'd reduce pellets and only give veggies once a day, small amount each bun, lots of excercise, readigrass i believe contains more calories too....I give my buns egg cup pellets a.m....small handful veggies(inc herbs) pm, they get a mixture of hays daily in their trays and basket. Carrots etc are an occasional treat, if your buns overweight, maybe a treat weekly ...small piece carrot etc.

:wave: They sound very spoilt bunnies! They are beautiful Sticky botty is always indicative of a problem regardless of weight, but it might be worse on her if she struggles to reach round because of excess belly weight; it would suggest to me that her diet is too rich for her to cope with (every bun differs in what they can tolerate).

It sounds to me as if she may be eating too much veg; lots of veg means that she won't be eating enough hay, which is what she needs to prevent sticky bum and also to lose weight. Much like if you leave a bowl of sweets out for children, they won't eat their greens! I would cut out the apple and carrot straight away as these are both very sugary and fattening. Personally I would not feed corn cobs to either bun anyway: although they love them, they are far too starchy and very bad for them indeed, and have been alleged to cause blockages.

I would also cut down on the green oat hay and readigrass as both of these are richer than standard meadow hay. If you need to mix it in so that the buns eat the normal hay then do so but cut it down.

I would go for the approach of hay, hay and more hay (loads of fresh normal meadow hay, timothy hay or orchard grass are also good supplements but not necessary if they eat a lot of meadow hay) and cut the veg right down to a few leafy green veg, herbs and celery, but definitely nothing sugary like carrot or fruit.

It is important to monitor her weight and check that she loses very slowly. Their livers can get damaged if they lose weight too quickly so while there are steps you can take straight away, keep a close eye on the weight and be patient!

Thanks for the advice. I cut out pellets years ago as the vet said they didn't need them with all the good veg and hay they get. They are all good hay eaters. Green oat hay is only used as their treat hay and meadow the main. She is bonded to Darcy my french lop so there is going to be one annoyed big frenchie chasing after me with these changes....:shock::lol::lol:

BinkyBun said:

there is going to be one annoyed big frenchie chasing after me with these changes....:shock::lol::lol:

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Oh yes :lol::lol: If his weight and poops are ok you could become his new best pal by letting him chase after you into another area where you give him delicious nom treats though

Sorry no advice really but.... just had to say... loved that second pic

HAY: just double checked and it is ORCHARD GRASS that i use for their treat hay not green oat - my brain is mush....

Santa said:

Oh yes :lol::lol: If his weight and poops are ok you could become his new best pal by letting him chase after you into another area where you give him delicious nom treats though

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Yes I think I might have to do that - value my ankles...:shock::lol: Altho I will feel guilty as Beatrix is my most intelligent bunny so am sure she will catch on...

my dwarf lop use to be really chubby, but she is now on a diet of
small handful of pelets in morning.
meadow hay throughtout the day
handfull of fresh greens per night
carrot 2-3 times per week
she has lost loads of weight
ohh and she is out in the run from 8o'clock in the morning till 6/7 o'clock at night so plenty of excerise

I don't know much about dieting buns, but I must have sensed there were GORGEOUS bunny photos on this thread. If they are good hay-eaters normally you shouldn't have too much trouble adjusting proportions ... although I'd do it gradually or Beatrix might catch on.

Gorgeous bunnies- I love the belly pic

I'm not the best one to give dietary advice- I have the same problem- I can't resist a begging bunny and they know it

If you can't bring yourself to cut out the fruit etc you could try to gradually give smaller and smaller pieces until there are only fingernail size. Watch the amounnt of cabbage too as that can lead to excess caecs- swap for more herbs and buns won't miss it. I would also cut out the corn on the cob as that is very starchy xx

I'm no expert, but hay and more hay.

Sometimes I feel quite mean because I'm quite strict on pellets and treats because I want to make sure Jenson eats hay and he's actually pretty good but I'm paranoid.
Do you have scales to keep track of their weight to make sure weight loss is slow? I saw something on tv about a rabbit losing weight and she was spreading the food about so bunny had to run around :wave:

I do have some special baby scales I bought to weigh my bunnies but haven't used it yet. I'll get them all on it and start charting the loss. I already spread the food about - they are free ranging 24/7 house buns. I'm def going to cut down the veg but slowly. I'm going to keep giving all the herbs. See how it goes. I used to give them carrot twice a day but cut down to once and noticed a difference but maybe that needs to be slowly removed to once a week or something.

Thanks to everyones lovely comments about the pics

UPDATE: Just wanted to say thanks to all your feedback/advice. I have slowly removed carrot from their diet and now Beatrix seems to be looking after all her bunny garden poops without help. Thank you x

BinkyBun said:

UPDATE: Just wanted to say thanks to all your feedback/advice. I have slowly removed carrot from their diet and now Beatrix seems to be looking after all her bunny garden poops without help. Thank you x

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Great news for Beatrix and you no doubt!