How can I increase weight without increasing pellets?

As most of you will know I have been posting re my buns regualr episodes of bloat or whatever causes him to not eat or drink and be obviously in pain for up to 24 hrs.

Over past 2 years I have tried cutting out everything except his ss pellets which might be what is causing the problem:roll: so at present am slowly slowly changing over to fibrefirst. I stopped all veggies except herbs and he has unlimited hay.

A year ago he weighed 5lbs on our bathroom scales. At the vets 6 weeks go he weighed 4.6lbs and then last visit a week ago he was 4.4lbs. Today on our scales again he ws 4.2lbs. Taking into account different scales he may not have lost .2lbs in a week but he does look thin and you can feel his backbone nobbles.

I can't increase his pellets until he is over to fibrefirst or whatever he ends up on instead of ss pellets. I have increased his herbs slightly but don't really want to suddenly introduce other veg while changing his pellets.

He is eating a good amount of hay but does seem to be hungry ( although I know buns can appear to be starving but just for nice food!).

He is getting much more exercise as an indoor bun as an outdoor one he only ran around if we were out with him but indoor he is racing around until mid afternoon.
I have read about oats but reluctant to introduce any new foods at present.

Just wondered if anyone has any ideas??

could you try the protexin pro-fibre pellets? bisc and matt are on them and they have been great at keeping their weights stable.

also, if he likes pellets, galens garden do some flavoured ones. they are just dried herbs made into a pellet. i don't know if they would help with weight but might be worth a go??

A small amount of oats are good for weight gain but they love them so much you may not be able to stop feeding them again

Lots of things.. readi grass and alfalfa are higher calorie than grass hay, as Stator mentioned, rolled oats are also very good for adding weight. In terms of veggies, fruit and root veg with have more calories than leaves.

Was the vet concerned about his weight? It's hard without feeling to say how he is but you should be able to feel the spine/ribs just there should be a bit of padding over them.

He is not terribly underweight but he is .8 of a llb lighter than he was a year ago so I know he has lost weight. He is only a small bunny anyway but you can feel and not quite see the nobbles on his spine and also the points of his hip bones so I would be happier if he was back to 5lbs in weight like a year ago.

I have some readigrass and am adding small amount to his hay.

Many thanks for your suggestions they are very helpful.

Doughnut has been on a handful of alfalfa hay for about two months now. She's been ill and the specialist wanted her to gain weight to build her up. I did start giving her two handfuls as he said it was OK but noticed she started having a lot of cecotropes, so have upped her pellets instead and doing one handful a day. She is gaining a bit still. I asked about giving her the hay for so long as I always thought it was too high in calcium but he said it's fine. She goes mad for it!

I'd be very cautious adding oats with any bunny who has gut issues. It's not something I'd want to do, based on my bunny experiences, but then I am paranoid now! :shock:

I am a bit wary of giving alfafa hay as the ss pellets have that as their main ingredient and its a possibility that its these pellets that are causing the tummy trouble in bun - am I right to think this or not??

I'd have thought the non-hay type ingredients might be more suspicious, but it's difficult to know...

SarahP said:

I'd be very cautious adding oats with any bunny who has gut issues. It's not something I'd want to do, based on my bunny experiences, but then I am paranoid now! :shock:

Click to expand...

I am not thinking of adding oats because of his iffy tummy. Your not the only one who is paranoid:roll:

There are a few underweight buns on here with various stasis issues.
Sky-O 1st realised that an underweight bun gained weight just by increasing gut motility by being given fiberplex!
(All credit to those who make the 1st observation)
When I looked at underweight buns who were using forage to increase gut motility, they had slowly increased weight too.
I suspect that improved gut motility enables them to eat more, so they don't have to resort to high nutrient foods to maintain weight.

Woody fibre seems to be very effective in improving gut motility in buns prone to tummy probs & reduces the frequency of stasis. Safe tree leaves, & twigs are particularly effective.
Bramble leaves have a very slightly higher nutrient content than hay, but actually prevent dysbiosis. There are still a few around in sheltered places. The trees are coming into bud down here, so it won't be long before they're readily available.

You can see some of our experiences in reducing stasis in stasis prone buns on this thread.
http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/s...ried-given-your-stasis-prone-buns-tree-leaves