How fit are your rabbits?

Don't forget about the PDSA's Pet Fit Club

Here's what the PDSA says

Hurry - closing date Friday 25th November
According to veterinary charity PDSA, pet obesity levels vary depending on where pets live. Pets in Wales and the North West fare the worst, with 67% being fed unsuitable foods. In contrast, pets in London have the least fatty treats (53%). Are there lots of podgy pets in your area? The charity is running a pet slimming competition to help overweight pets lose weight through a diet and exercise programme that will help pets get back to a healthy and happy state. Visit www.pdsa.org.uk/petfitclub for more details

Strangely none of my pets have ever been obese when well, & I don't know why.

Thumper rabbit, a medium sized 3 kilo bun was nearly as fast as a wildie in the garden, could thunder upstairs in less than 1.5 secs & had remarkable stamina before he was seriously ill.
I was shocked to read that up & down stairs x3 a day was considered to be enough excercise for a rabbit. I gave up counting how many times he negotiated the stairs at 11.00am when he thundered up for the 15th.time that day! :lol:

thumps_ said:

Strangely none of my pets have ever been obese when well, & I don't know why.

Thumper rabbit, a medium sized 3 kilo bun was nearly as fast as a wildie in the garden, could thunder upstairs in less than 1.5 secs & had remarkable stamina before he was seriously ill.
I was shocked to read that up & down stairs x3 a day was considered to be enough excercise for a rabbit. I gave up counting how many times he negotiated the stairs at 11.00am when he thundered up for the 15th.time that day! :lol:

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Biccy does the same He loves running up and down the stairs dozens of times during the day. he can do about 7-8 steps at a time if he really goes for it :shock:

GrahamL said:

Biccy does the same He loves running up and down the stairs dozens of times during the day. he can do about 7-8 steps at a time if he really goes for it :shock:

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that's incredible! I can only manage 3! :lol:

None of our pets have been overweight either, at least not that I can recall as I was pretty young when the first ones were around! One of my dwarf hammies was a bit chubby but he was like that when he got here and stayed that way despite our attempts to put him on a healthier diet! He was obsessed with his wheel too so I have no idea why he was like that. He was perfectly healthy though and passed away in his sleep aged 3 and a half.

As for the bunnies, I'm trying to get Boris to gain a little weight as he's a bit thin. It was going pretty well until he fell ill again with respiratory problems, he's not as keen on food now (still eats quite a bit though, just a bit less than he used to ). He now gets some SS twice a day which I hope will help him put some weight on, he loves them

Bella is in great shape and so is Fluff the hamster

thumps_ said:

I was shocked to read that up & down stairs x3 a day was considered to be enough excercise for a rabbit.

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:shock:
Ada went up and down seven times in about fifteen minutes (and some of those times were two flights of stairs) when she objected to bedtime the other day! Normally they are far more leisurely, but they sure do go sometimes.
The sight of rabbits hopping up and down stairs is still an amazing and endearing novelty for me.

thumps_ said:

I was shocked to read that up & down stairs x3 a day was considered to be enough excercise for a rabbit.

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That advice is news to me. Given how much space wild rabbits cover in a day, and not necessarily on flat ground, I do question its validity.

Oompa-Loompa said

I'm trying to get Boris to gain a little weight as he's a bit thin. It was going pretty well until he fell ill again with respiratory problems, he's not as keen on food now

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His sense of smell might have been affected by the respiratory problem and that might affect his appetite. I hope you can get the weight back on him. Why not join the pet fit club? It aims for a healthy weight, which I would expect, would include helping underweight rabbits to gain, and it's run by vets so the advice ought to be good

RosRWAF said:

That advice is news to me. Given how much space wild rabbits cover in a day, and not necessarily on flat ground, I do question its validity.

Oompa-Loompa said
His sense of smell might have been affected by the respiratory problem and that might affect his appetite. I hope you can get the weight back on him. Why not join the pet fit club? It aims for a healthy weight, which I would expect, would include helping underweight rabbits to gain, and it's run by vets so the advice ought to be good

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Don't worry RosRWAF, I completely ignored the advice I read - possibly in Rabbitlopaedia. My little boy was very well behaved, & free ranged the house, with 2 constantly supervised free range runs in the garden totalling about 2 hours a day. Here he did all his rabbit behaviour like digging, poop mounds, making rabbit runs through tall plants etc. He was only confined to my bedroom when I slept, because he'd wake me up by thundering upstairs.:lol:
He was only single because he had cowpile syndrome & was too ill to neuter.

Even my childhood rabbit Peter, had a home made 5'hutch with constant access to a 15'run by day (that was over 50 years ago).

My first rabbit Mr H d'Bun would run upstairs and clatter at my bedroom door EVERY morning at 5 to remind me it was time for his breakfast. On weekdays that was fine as I had to be up then anyway to get the horses done before work, but he felt it was appropriate at weekends etc too. I very much miss my little furry alarm clock. Such a character.

This was him being a watchbun

and here relaxing after a hard day's work

we really dont trust ours on the stair - I wish we did - but we dont have carpet at all - just painted - and we are scared of them slipping.

What does everyone else have???

(Carpet is NOT an option - 5 adults and a cat and indoor rabbits and 3 of the adults have outdoor type jobs . . . NONE of the house has carpet!!!!)