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Rabbit only eating vegetables - how much?

S

Stator

Warren Veteran
One of my girls has stopped eating her pellets and stopped eating much hay (occassional has a nibble of one or the other) but is eating fresh greens (rose leaves, carrot tops, spring greens, dill, parsley). She is moving around fine and doesn't seem to be in discomfort.
Vet has examined and all is okay, recommended Zantac + Fibreplex + syringe feeding Critical Care.

She is taking the Zantac and Fibreplex okay but completely refusing the liquid food, spits it all out.

I usually only feed 25g of fresh food per day, due to occassional tummy ache they sometimes get.

Since she is only really eating the greens, what sort of quantity do you think I should give her? As much as she can eat and hope she goes back to the hay and pellets.

Are there any other 'safe' greens I could feed her?
 
have you tried offering the critical care in a bowl and if necessary leaving her alone with it for a few hours?

The more gentle greens are the natural ones - blackberry leaves, dandelions, apple leaves etc. Failing that, rocket, watercress, mint, oregano, basil etc you can buy at the supermarket. You can buy dry herb mixes in pet shops, including P@H. The best thing would be grass if you can get her to eat it.

Try to avoid anything gassy or sugary as this could make it worse.

It's a hard balancing act because you need her to eat some food to stop the onset of stasis, but equally she won't start eating hay if she's filling up on veg. I hope she's eating better soon.
 
How long has this been going on for ? What is her poo output like ?

Personally I would take her back to the Vet as it sounds as though there has to be a yet undiagnosed reason for her not eating normally.
 
I agree with Jane. You may want to try making the critical care a different consistency and see if that makes a different. If it is too dry they push it out with their tongue and if it is too wet they dribble it out, so it is sometimes hard to find the sweet spot.
It may be worth a try to mix the critical care with some of the veggies she is eating. My late bunny would only want carrot tops when she was not feeling well and I let her have as many as it took to keep her system moving.
 
Stator said:
One of my girls has stopped eating her pellets and stopped eating much hay (occassional has a nibble of one or the other) but is eating fresh greens (rose leaves, carrot tops, spring greens, dill, parsley). She is moving around fine and doesn't seem to be in discomfort.
Vet has examined and all is okay, recommended Zantac + Fibreplex + syringe feeding Critical Care.

She is taking the Zantac and Fibreplex okay but completely refusing the liquid food, spits it all out.

I usually only feed 25g of fresh food per day, due to occassional tummy ache they sometimes get.

Since she is only really eating the greens, what sort of quantity do you think I should give her? As much as she can eat and hope she goes back to the hay and pellets.

Are there any other 'safe' greens I could feed her?
Click to expand...

Those greens sound very good and healthy.

I'm more concerned about her not eating hay than pellets. Have you tried different brands of hay? How about readigrass?
You don't want to get to the stage where she is eating so little she goes into stasis ....
 
Thanks everyone, she does seem a bit better today. She ate lots of vegetables last night and the pellets I left her were eaten overnight. She also ate a couple fingers of FibreFirst, which I bought just to try on her. She is eating some hay, but not as much as she should, the trouble is I don't know if that's because I'm feeding her too much of everything else now, doh. I think it was originally because the new batch of hay was very different, I guess it's a new season. She is still very lively and moving about as normal. At the moment she has access to four types of hay, but I might try another one too if they have something different at the shop.
Poo is okay, had some overnight and some again since breakfast. It's small and not as much as usual, but not as small as I have seen in the past with an ill rabbit.
It started on Thursday, she went to the vets then and she seems a little better.
I think I'm going to continue as I am for now since she seems lively and happy. The vets are open today and tomorrow morning as well so I'll keep an eye on her and if something makes me more worried I'll take her along.
 
Stator said:
Thanks everyone, she does seem a bit better today. She ate lots of vegetables last night and the pellets I left her were eaten overnight. She also ate a couple fingers of FibreFirst, which I bought just to try on her. She is eating some hay, but not as much as she should, the trouble is I don't know if that's because I'm feeding her too much of everything else now, doh. I think it was originally because the new batch of hay was very different, I guess it's a new season. She is still very lively and moving about as normal. At the moment she has access to four types of hay, but I might try another one too if they have something different at the shop.
Poo is okay, had some overnight and some again since breakfast. It's small and not as much as usual, but not as small as I have seen in the past with an ill rabbit.
It started on Thursday, she went to the vets then and she seems a little better.
I think I'm going to continue as I am for now since she seems lively and happy. The vets are open today and tomorrow morning as well so I'll keep an eye on her and if something makes me more worried I'll take her along.
Click to expand...

Glad to hear she's doing better now. Pellets were eaten YAY! I agree, just keep an eye on her and maybe she'll pick up on her hay eating when you're confident to cut down her other food :thumb:
 
Even when I purchased the same quality hay, sometimes it was coarser or had more leafy parts, and the bunny would get fussy. I learned that even with the same brand, I should mix the old with the new before I ran out of the old hay entirely.
 
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