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Any opinions or advice,please

bunnytoes

Warren Veteran
What is your opinion on what is better?........ a skinny Julie whom eats hay or a better weight Julie whom will not eat hay? She lost weight and I started feeding her oats and treats/more greens/pellets to fatten her up. The vet checked her out and said she couldn't find anything wrong and to fed her more of these things. She gained weight but stopped eating hay. I bought all kinds of yummy tasting special hay to mix with her timothy hay and cut back on the other foods and worked with her. She is finally eating hay again but has lost weight again. What should I do?
 
Have further investigations performed by a rabbit savvy vet to determine the reason for weight loss.

She may need bloods etc taken to determine why.
 
Oats/treats/fruit all put weight onto a rabbit, and I'd guess they were filling her up so she didn't fancy hay.

BUT I would take her o a vet to check, like Gray says.
 
Have further investigations performed by a rabbit savvy vet to determine the reason for weight loss.

She may need bloods etc taken to determine why.

Her vet did run blood test and said that she could not find anything wrong. She said that she is healthy for a rabbit of her age but she called her a geriatric bunny. She said as rabbits get older they sometimes loose weight. She said that she was still at an okay weight. I am just concerned because she was always either over weight or at the high end of the weight for her breed now she is at the low end. My major concern is stopping her from loosing more. She was never ever a picky eater but now does turn her nose up sometimes at her greens. She has problems with calcium deposits so has to be on a low calcium diet. I feel very limited in the choice of greens for her as does she.
My real question is is it better to eat lots of hay and be thinner or be at a more ideal weight and not eat much hay? I am guessing eat more hay. Right?
 
How is she with fresh grass?

Or even Readigrass maybe, but I cant remember if that is high in calcium, it could be.

I was thinking when reading your initial post if it was possible to strike a balance somewhere, with feeding a small amount of oats/treats/fruit, enough to help maintain weight, but not so much that she stops eating hay?

I've been using Protexin profibre pellets with some success, in addition to hay and pellets. I've been giving them to my two incontinent bunnies (and their partners) who maybe dont eat as much hay as they should and who had issues with weight maintenance. They've done well on them, but the tricky bit has been finding the right amounts. We reduced Kenco's normal pellets down quite a bit and then added the profibre, with Muesli we have just take his normal pellets down a smidge then added the profibre.

Hope Julie is ok, she's so pretty x
 
Actually pro-fibre pellets are also helping Mischa put some weight on as well. I mainly give them to them to help Mini's tum but it seems to be doing them both good.
 
Thanks helgalush and Schuette. I will try to find some pro-fibre pellets and give that a try. It is very tricky achieving a balance of the oats /treat fruits as she loves them so much she begs and seems to go on a hay strike to get more. She does really love herbs so sprinkling them on the hay so it all smells of the herbs might be a good trick for her. She has never really had fresh grass or redigrass just that wheat grass and she wouldn't eat that.
 
Thanks helgalush and Schuette. I will try to find some pro-fibre pellets and give that a try. It is very tricky achieving a balance of the oats /treat fruits as she loves them so much she begs and seems to go on a hay strike to get more. She does really love herbs so sprinkling them on the hay so it all smells of the herbs might be a good trick for her. She has never really had fresh grass or redigrass just that wheat grass and she wouldn't eat that.

Hope the herbs trick helps. I must admit that Muesli is a master-hustler (begging for treats) too, he is too adorable to resist sometimes! Yeah it is really tricky finding the balance. The Profibre pellets you can get from Vet UK website. It seems expensive but the pic is deceptive as its quite a big tub and should last you a while. :)
 
Hope the herbs trick helps. I must admit that Muesli is a master-hustler (begging for treats) too, he is too adorable to resist sometimes! Yeah it is really tricky finding the balance. The Profibre pellets you can get from Vet UK website. It seems expensive but the pic is deceptive as its quite a big tub and should last you a while. :)

I can't seem to really get into the Vet UK website. I think that I found the site but it won't let me search for the Profibre with out logging in. I am in the USA and would like to see a picture of it so I can search and find the right product here.
Julie is the queen of all beggars and so cute doing it.
 
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Thank you Sherlock,BB Mommy and helgalush. I googled and googled but it doesn't look like it is available in the US. I wonder if that site would send it to the US. I read a bunch of reviews and it sounds wonderful.
 
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