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what would be something to make a bunny lose some weight?

Happy Hopping

Wise Old Thumper
So far, I drop their pellet by 1/3, I'll drop some more in the next many days. But even if they move to a near pure timothy hay diet, how would a bun get rid of some of those weight?
 
Put the pellets you give them in a treat ball or toilet roll tube so they have to work for it (they get exercise)

Cut down on fruits, veggies and use more herbs instead

Encourage play which involves exercise by putting hay in toilet tool tubes too

Put things they can destroy and dig in their area as this is exercise too forage box where you put hay and some herbs and they have to find them

Dig box where they just use their urge to dig

Willow balls they have fun carrying them about and chucking and destroying them
 
How long has it been since you tried dropping the pellets and how much are you feeding them atm? How much weight do you think bunny needs to lose roughly?

I think the key is doing things slowly so, if it's only been a short while, you might need to give it some more time before you see any change. As Laura said, getting them to be more active can also be helpful.
 
it's winter. There is no outside. :lol:

I just start dropping the pellet today. Say the diameter of the bowl is 7", and say the surface height is just the thickness of pellet, then only about 1/3 of that surface is full. So loosely a few tablespoon for 2 buns. It's not the pellet that causes 1 of my bun to gain about 10% weight, it's the Christmas treats

So 1 of the bun should loose 10% or so. The other 1 is fine.
 
it's winter. There is no outside. :lol:

I just start dropping the pellet today. Say the diameter of the bowl is 7", and say the surface height is just the thickness of pellet, then only about 1/3 of that surface is full. So loosely a few tablespoon for 2 buns. It's not the pellet that causes 1 of my bun to gain about 10% weight, it's the Christmas treatsSo 1 of the bun should loose 10% or so. The other 1 is fine.

What treats have you given to cause such a weight-gain?

Generally recommended amount of pellets is an eggcupful each a day. Any reduction should be made very gradually. They need to eat mountains of hay which they won't do if they are full of pellets and treats. Best treats are 'natural' things such as herbs. Shop bought ones are normally packed with sugar and therefore are not good.
 
In 2012, my finance is not good so I only bought 1 box of christmas cookies. And they have 1 cookie OR 1 egg roll style cookie shared between 2 rabbit during the christmas holiday. It's been like this every christmas and because it's such a small amt., and I ate most of the cookie anyway, my buns never gain any weight.

In 2013, I made good money. So for the 1st time in years, I bought 3 boxes of cookies. It's still 1 cookie OR 1 egg roll style cookie shared between 2 rabbit PER DAY during the christmas holiday. So 1 of my buns gained some weight, it's about 10%.

Starting today, I take her to the bottom of the stair, and make her run to the top of the stairs, I'll do that about 6 times today, and moves it to say 12 timer per day in the next few weeks to come.
 
In 2012, my finance is not good so I only bought 1 box of christmas cookies. And they have 1 cookie OR 1 egg roll style cookie shared between 2 rabbit during the christmas holiday. It's been like this every christmas and because it's such a small amt., and I ate most of the cookie anyway, my buns never gain any weight.

In 2013, I made good money. So for the 1st time in years, I bought 3 boxes of cookies. It's still 1 cookie OR 1 egg roll style cookie shared between 2 rabbit PER DAY during the christmas holiday. So 1 of my buns gained some weight, it's about 10%.

Starting today, I take her to the bottom of the stair, and make her run to the top of the stairs, I'll do that about 6 times today, and moves it to say 12 timer per day in the next few weeks to come.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't advise this: you are likely to end up with a very frightened rabbit. As long as your rabbits have plenty of space to run around in, and things to keep them occupied and have fun with, making them run up and down the stairs is completely unnecessary.

Perhaps you don't realise how bad human food is for rabbits? The cookies, etc will be very high in sugar and therefore bad for their teeth and their digestive systems.

Much better to give them treats of fresh or dried herbs, special hay etc.

As long as they are eating plenty of hay (should be 80-90% of their diet) and you are not giving more than an eggcupful of pellets each a day, their weight should stabilise.
 
I agree w/ 80 to 90% timothy hay stem, her weight will stabilize. But that wasn't her weight all these years, and if there is no exercise, she can't lost back those weight.

She's 1 of those rare bun who let me pick her up. So after I pick her up, I walk down the bottom of the stair, and let her hop back up. Alternatively, I can put treat upstair and let her run upstair for it. That works the same way
 
I agree w/ 80 to 90% timothy hay stem, her weight will stabilize. But that wasn't her weight all these years, and if there is no exercise, she can't lost back those weight.

She's 1 of those rare bun who let me pick her up. So after I pick her up, I walk down the bottom of the stair, and let her hop back up. Alternatively, I can put treat upstair and let her run upstair for it. That works the same way

As I said before, if you cut out all the human food and sweet rabbit treats, be careful with the amount of pellets, give them space to exercise naturally, the weight should come off anyway. It is entirely up to you, of course, as they are your rabbits.
 
It sounds like she had a Christmas like mine - far too many goodies! :oops::lol::lol: Did you put on any weight from eating so many cookies yourself, Jason? ;):lol:

If she's anything like me, it'll take her a little while longer to lose the weight than it did for her to put it on too :oops: so I would give it a little time. See how the drop in pellets goes first, add in a little extra gentle exercise - I'd probably encourage them to run around the room a little more rather than trying to make her run up the stairs, mainly because it could be hard to judge whether she's had enough. If you're giving her a treat for running up the stairs then it would make the exercise a bit of a waste of time anyway.
 
Babsie:

some1 else told me that if they just move around the house, even w/ my bunny castles and mazes, that there isn't enough moving around to give her much exercise to loose off those weight.

But Karen has a pt., it's hard to say how much stair is enough or too much.

Karen:

That's a good pt. Karen. The treat once a day is actually bromelian tablet, it's fur shedding season, they are shedding a lot of fur. So I give them 1 tablet a day on top of dry combing their shed fur.

On my side, I actually lost an extra 3 pound since the holiday. I really should have a scale that is quite accurate to monitor her weight. I just don't have the resources to find out what's a good scale for small animals. I don't want a cheap scale made in china.

P.S. goofball Karen, would you re-join us at Fun Trivia?

http://www.funtrivia.com/private/main.cfm?tid=86260
 
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