Hungry buns after neutering

Hello

Willow and Lily were spayed 2 weeks ago, and everything has gone to plan. I am both relieved and delighted.

However, this week, their appetites have picked up massively. They seem to be hungry. Is this due to hormones, or their age (7 months - growth spurt?)

I don't want them to be hungry but I don't want to fall into the trap of over feeding, either.

They currently have:
Handful of Excel nuggets in the morning for breakfast, with greens and a large handful of hay each to eat at their leisure
Grass as they please when they are out (about 5 hrs a day, weather dependent)
Timothy hay (2 large handfuls put into feeder in hutch) and fresh food for tea - some, but not all from a selection of usually freshpeas/baby corn/carrot/kale/brocolli, again a handful.

I have tried to make the "main of their diet hay and grass and then supplement it with fresh bits and a few nuggets. They were having just nuggets before they came to me, so I like to think that their diet is better with me. They especially love the Timothy hay with dried carrot and apple or the camomile meadow hay mix.

Any tips welcome.
Thanks,
Jenny

Hi and welcome :wave:

In my humble opinion providing they have unlimited hay/grass 24/7 and just a handful of treats/greens and measured pellets then they won't get fat. Their main staple is hay/grass; this mustn't be limited by "a couple of handfuls" a couple of times per day - their hay rack or however it is given must be permanently full and even topped up during the day if necessary, even if they have easy access to grass. Rabbits should eat their own body weight in hay/grass each and every day to maintain good teeth, fibre etc. Greens and pellets are to ensure they have all necessary vitamins and treats are like our chocolate; restricted if we wish to stay healthy.

I am very pleased that your bunnies came through their procedures with no ill effects :thumb: and that their appetites are good. Mine go through phases; sometimes I can't fill them up, sometimes they seem to barely eat a thing so it could be the same for yours too.

Angie B said:

Hi and welcome :wave:

In my humble opinion providing they have unlimited hay/grass 24/7 and just a handful of treats/greens and measured pellets then they won't get fat. Their main staple is hay/grass; this mustn't be limited by "a couple of handfuls" a couple of times per day - their hay rack or however it is given must be permanently full and even topped up during the day if necessary, even if they have easy access to grass. Rabbits should eat their own body weight in hay/grass each and every day to maintain good teeth, fibre etc. Greens and pellets are to ensure they have all necessary vitamins and treats are like our chocolate; restricted if we wish to stay healthy.

I am very pleased that your bunnies came through their procedures with no ill effects :thumb: and that their appetites are good. Mine go through phases; sometimes I can't fill them up, sometimes they seem to barely eat a thing so it could be the same for yours too.

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Thank you! They do have hay on tap, I just top it up with a couple of large handfuls of fresh twice a day, and remove any which is on the floor of the hutch or run and may not be so attractive. I'm around all day so it flows freely and they graze as they please. I use an upturned willow stick house at the moment, since the size of the metal hay racks I have seen are not worth bothering with, in my opinion, just to keep it "clean" and I stuff empty kitchen rolls and toilet rolls with it and hang them up all over the place for fun. Honestly, it looked like a rabbits version of The Cube the other day in their enclosure. Don't want them getting bored :lol:

Does anyone know of anywhere that sells a decent rabbit height hay manger? there must be a market for such a thing...

Dandelion Den Bunnies said:

Thank you! They do have hay on tap, I just top it up with a couple of large handfuls of fresh twice a day, and remove any which is on the floor of the hutch or run and may not be so attractive. I'm around all day so it flows freely and they graze as they please. I use an upturned willow stick house at the moment, since the size of the metal hay racks I have seen are not worth bothering with, in my opinion, just to keep it "clean" and I stuff empty kitchen rolls and toilet rolls with it and hang them up all over the place for fun. Honestly, it looked like a rabbits version of The Cube the other day in their enclosure. Don't want them getting bored :lol:

Does anyone know of anywhere that sells a decent rabbit height hay manger? there must be a market for such a thing...

Click to expand...

A decent pet shop will sell hay racks for rabbits which you can fix at any height onto the mesh part of their run/hutch doors, that's what mine have and it's fine. I do have to tie the bottom with string though as they tend to pull it off when tugging at the hay but other than that it's perfect. It was less than £5 to buy.