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What is 'normal' weight fluctuation, and what is cause for concern?

JemimaH

Warren Veteran
Now he's indoors, I'm weighing Alfie every week. Last week he lost 17g - not a significant amount in itself obviously and nothing to worry about, but it made me realise that I don't really know how much weight loss is normal. Obviously weight naturally fluctuates a little bit, but what would set alarm bells ringing in your head? I.e if your rabbit lost 50g in a week, would you be concerned? Or would it be 100g? Or more?

:wave:
 
I've always been told that 100g is a normal weight fluctuation over a day, so I wouldn't be concerned about that. If I noticed Nena or Tapla had lost 150g or so of weight I'd have a think back to see if I was being stingy with pellets or something. Any more than 150g I would definitely be thinking about a vet check and definitely be weighing more often to keep a good eye on them.
 
If you are weighing regularly I tend to look for continued weightloss rather than a one off, unless of course it was a huge amount.
 
A previous vet of mine would say weigh weekly and be concerned about 3 losses in a row or 5-10% of normal weight. It's a bit of a generalisation but I think it's probably in about the right ball park. I think the best way is to weigh regularly and record the data, that way you can start to see patterns and what might be normal for your own buns. So as soon as anything steps outside of normal, you are likely to pick up on an underlying problem earlier.
 
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