Exercising a rabbit

So Lilly is getting fatter! She maintained the same weight for a year on the same quantity of food as they're still on, but whilst outside. They're now inside bunnies and Lilly has gained weight and Harvey has lost a bit, I don't want to decrease their food (they don't get much anyway) because I don't want Harvey to lose any weight!

Basically Lilly's gotten lazy! She's always lazing around, her active play sessions are getting shorter, she is so lazy she even lays down to eat her hay now, apparently it's too much effort to stand up! When she first came to live indoors she was regularly active, and was active when outside too!

So any tips for getting her to run around a bit more? Without chasing her obviously! She has the whole of a massive living room to run around in but pretty much spends all of her time with her legs stretched out and fast asleep :roll:

Poppy is the same :lol: I get her treat bag and rustle it then run to opposite ends of the room or a while :lol: she'll jump on the bed during this session, I just wish she'd fall for it every time.. :lol:

Could you just hand feed Harvey his food and give Lilly some grass or something to occupy her while he eats?

I'm sorry and I do understand your concern, but it is really funny to think that Lilly has now become a 'bunny slob' :lol::lol: Maybe you need to take the remote away from her so that she has got to physically get up to go and change the channels, and hide the biscuit tin :lol::lol: Buy her a subscription to Weightwatchers and hope she takes the hint :lol::lol:

Well one thing, she certainly is a 'lady of leisure' now

Aly&Poppy<3 said:

Poppy is the same :lol: I get her treat bag and rustle it then run to opposite ends of the room or a while :lol: she'll jump on the bed during this session, I just wish she'd fall for it every time.. :lol:

Could you just hand feed Harvey his food and give Lilly some grass or something to occupy her while he eats?

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I could try hand feeding Harvey, he's a slower eater than her so she'll generally try to get the rest of his meals after she's finished :roll: Harvey likes to have a five mine break in the middle of his dinner too, all the time, eats the first half then hops of and either munches hay or lays down for 5 mins and then goes back to it! Not a good recipe for Lilly's diet! I shall buy some more herbs and see if I can get her to chase me, I have a feeling she's too lazy for that though :lol:

RogerRabbit999 said:

I'm sorry and I do understand your concern, but it is really funny to think that Lilly has now become a 'bunny slob' :lol::lol: Maybe you need to take the remote away from her so that she has got to physically get up to go and change the channels, and hide the biscuit tin :lol::lol: Buy her a subscription to Weightwatchers and hope she takes the hint :lol::lol:

Well one thing, she certainly is a 'lady of leisure' now

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:lol: shall I take her to the gym with me? :lol: put her on her lead for my runs?

She definitely is enjoying indoors life, I walked down this morning and she was disk shaped :shock: completely slobbed out in her litter tray and all her skin and spread out, she looked so funny :lol: I startled her and she didn't even get up she's so lazy :roll:

When I thought Doughnut was being lazy I hand fed her. I would go into another room and call her so she had to run over for her food. You can do a circuit in my house so I would shut the door I had just gone through and then call her and she would come all the way around because she knew she was getting a pellet.

Sorry it did make me laugh too, I think I would be exactly the same.

She's just too chilled out! I'm wondering if she was burning extra energy by being "on guard" outside due to wind and strange smells of other animals, none of which she gets in here. All she has in here that can scare her is me, and she's not very scared of me, only if it looks like I'm going to pick her up, but to be honest she's stopped running from me even in that situation, sometimes she doesn't even sit up from laying down, just lets me pick her up, straining as I do so :roll: I'm still not used to the extra weight :lol:

I think indoor bunnies do tend to need less calories. I would decrease the food, use a treat ball for it, and then slip Harvey extras. You may find the issue isn't you're feeding too much, but that she's eating more than her fair share so hand feeding might sort the issue without actually decreasing the amount they get overall.

To increase exercise you have to give them reasons to move - put the tasty food the opposite side of the room to the litter tray, call them over to get a treat, hide the best food (dry food usually) around the room or use a treat ball that sort of thing

Tamsin said:

I think indoor bunnies do tend to need less calories. I would decrease the food, use a treat ball for it, and then slip Harvey extras. You may find the issue isn't you're feeding too much, but that she's eating more than her fair share so hand feeding might sort the issue without actually decreasing the amount they get overall.

To increase exercise you have to give them reasons to move - put the tasty food the opposite side of the room to the litter tray, call them over to get a treat, hide the best food (dry food usually) around the room or use a treat ball that sort of thing

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I think feeding them separately may work I may invest in a treat ball, she might use it, though she is pretty lazy, if I have a treat and she knows I have it and make her work for it she gets bored and decides to eat her hay :roll: she loves hay so much, I sometimes give her strands and pretend it's a treat and that works just as well! I think she can't be bothered to work for treats when she has a whole litter tray full of what she considers treats to munch on! At least it means she eats a LOT of hay!

My friend made her bun run up and down the stairs when he got a bit overweight :roll::lol:

supersonic said:

My friend made her bun run up and down the stairs when he got a bit overweight :roll::lol:

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I just tried that, both rabbits have an obsession with the hallway because they're not allowed in there, if I leave the door open to it they're out the second they think I'm not looking :roll: I just did this to see if I could get Lilly excited and running up the stairs, came back into the living room to see the results, Harvey was half way up the stairs and Lilly was....... Laying down in her cage :roll: she knew the door was open I made sure she was watching!!!!

:lol: well if he gets to eat the dinner and she fills up on hay it should have the effect you want anyway so either way works Just checking - you aren't feeding alfalfa are you? That's more fattening that timothy/meadow hay.

I have tried this with Pip as well, cutting back her pellets to nothing was done quite a while ago and she gets only hay now and certain types, as anything other than timothy tends to cause poopy bum. But her breed is part palomino and these are rabbits that, in this country, are bred for meat. So I think some genetics can also be a factor if bunny is getting a bit podgy.
I can remember when Pip was a bit more lean, but she was wee at the time. She is around 6 years old and weighs at least as much as my Yorkie, Jenna, who is about 8 pounds. We'll find out how heavy she actually is in a few weeks at her checkup.
I don't think, other than pestering her to distraction, that she would exercise willingly. She loves having room to run, but still chooses not to.

*Funny*Bunny* said:

I just tried that, both rabbits have an obsession with the hallway because they're not allowed in there, if I leave the door open to it they're out the second they think I'm not looking :roll: I just did this to see if I could get Lilly excited and running up the stairs, came back into the living room to see the results, Harvey was half way up the stairs and Lilly was....... Laying down in her cage :roll: she knew the door was open I made sure she was watching!!!!

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Maybe you should have waited until 'Corrie' had finished ay Lilly :lol::lol: It's great that they are indoors buns now, and it is lovely that she obviously feels so safe and content, and she is certainly making me laugh :lol::lol: I'm having the same problem with my Barc bunny Paddington, who refuses to leave my bed room and sometimes to even get off my bed :roll::roll: I had been saying he didn't have a mean bone in his body, and was the kindest, gentlest bun ever, which he is (was!!) until I physically went to lift him off the bed and he nipped me little..........:shock:

RogerRabbit999 said:

Maybe you should have waited until 'Corrie' had finished ay Lilly :lol::lol: It's great that they are indoors buns now, and it is lovely that she obviously feels so safe and content, and she is certainly making me laugh :lol::lol: I'm having the same problem with my Barc bunny Paddington, who refuses to leave my bed room and sometimes to even get off my bed :roll::roll: I had been saying he didn't have a mean bone in his body, and was the kindest, gentlest bun ever, which he is (was!!) until I physically went to lift him off the bed and he nipped me little..........:shock:

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If someone tries to get me out of bed before I want to be out I might nip them too although Harvey got me up yesterday at 5am with stomping and I didn't nip him, just chased him (with reason! If he gets in that mood the best way to calm him is to pick him up, the second he smells it's me he's calmer and then I can put him next to Lil and she'll calm him further )

So last night and this morning I tried giving them both less and feeding Harvey more after.... Lilly was furious and pushed Harvey away from his bowl when he was less than half way through, which resulted in a frantic Harvey! Obviously still hungry! So I hand fed him, Lilly this morning however noticed that whilst she was licking the bowls clean of crumbs Harvey was getting more, so came over and bashed his head out of the way to bury her head in my hand :shock: luckily Harvey had had a lot though so I stopped feeding him. She's a seriously intelligent greedy-chops!!!!!!

Tamsin said:

:lol: well if he gets to eat the dinner and she fills up on hay it should have the effect you want anyway so either way works Just checking - you aren't feeding alfalfa are you? That's more fattening that timothy/meadow hay.

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Just plain baled meadow hay from the local farm, so that shouldn't be fattening! She never fills up though :lol: sleep, eat, sleep, eat is get routine I've just remembered a game she likes to play, paper tearing :roll: if I go up to her with paper of some sort she goes crazy excited to shred it, we don't play it often because it takes a long time to tidy up after and I have to watch carefully to make sure she is just shredding and not eating the paper!!

MimzMum said:

I have tried this with Pip as well, cutting back her pellets to nothing was done quite a while ago and she gets only hay now and certain types, as anything other than timothy tends to cause poopy bum. But her breed is part palomino and these are rabbits that, in this country, are bred for meat. So I think some genetics can also be a factor if bunny is getting a bit podgy.
I can remember when Pip was a bit more lean, but she was wee at the time. She is around 6 years old and weighs at least as much as my Yorkie, Jenna, who is about 8 pounds. We'll find out how heavy she actually is in a few weeks at her checkup.
I don't think, other than pestering her to distraction, that she would exercise willingly. She loves having room to run, but still chooses not to.

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I don't know Lilly's heritage but I'll let her know there's a possibility it's in her genes :lol:

I don't think she's TOO fat yet.... But I find working out when a rabbit is overweight difficult! But she was always a very lean, long, slim rabbit so she had a bit of buffer of weight gain before being overweight!