• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

  • Please Note - Medical Advice

    Please keep in mind that posts on this forum are from members of the public sharing personal opinions. It is not a replacement for qualified medical advice from a veterinarian. Many illnesses share similar symptoms but require different treatments. A medical exam is necessary for an accurate diagnosis, without which appropriate treatment cannot be given.

    You should always consult your vet before following any suggestions for medication or treatment you have read about. The wrong treatment could make your rabbit worse or mean your vet is unable to give the correct treatment because of drug interactions. Even non prescription drugs can do harm if given inappropriately.

    We are very grateful to members who take time to answer other members questions, but please do be clear in your replies that you are sharing personal experience and not giving instructions on what must be done.

    Urgent Medical Advice: If you need, or think you might need, urgent medical advice you should contact a vet. If it is out of working hours phone your vet's normal number and there should be an answer phone message with instructions on what to do.

Putting weight on a dental bunny who is on a low calcium diet

S

sillyrabbit

Wise Old Thumper
Can anyone recommend foods which are good for this?

I have no experience with dental bunnies, Scarlett has lost a bit of weight over the past week and obviously I want to try and get it back up
 
Last edited:
I use a mix of excel pellets (their normal food) and dodson and horrel barley rings (horse food). I soak them for a few hours until they're soggy and then smoosh them up a bit and add a little extra water so that it's quite sloppy. If they're in a pair like my girl is I'd also separate them while they're eating as the dental bunkin can be pretty slow. If they don't eat much of this you can top up with critical care, or by syringing in the excel and barley ring mixture.

Has she recently had a dental or are you waiting?

Good luck!
 
I'm still really struggling with this, she is still underweight. I'm finding if I feed too many pellets or treats or fruit she ends up with a mucky bum. I had to take her to the vets this morning to be treated for stasis, I think it was most likely due to stress as there was a MASSIVE fireworks display right next to my house over the weekend, but I'm panicking that it might have been my fault because I did feed her treats over the weekend. I've never fed treats really before so it's only recently that she has been having them, her whole life up until now her diet has been very much hay based. I'm also already giving more pellets than is recommended which I've never done before

She is also on a low calcium diet which is making it more difficult. I will look into the barley rings and check out the calcium content

She has had three dentals this year, each one spaced about six to eight weeks apart

I will try critical care too. Thank you!
 
Our dental bun Scarlet has supreme recovery every day. We give it to her mixed to custard consistency in a shallow dish. She loves the stuff, we call it her porridge. It's the only thing that has stabilised her weight.
 
Aww my girl is also called Scarlett!

Do you just feed that instead of pellets then? I will have to check out the calcium content of recovery foods when I get home. I have some in for emergencies, and the vet gave me more critical care this morning

There isn't any reluctance to eat, she goes crazy for food, she just doesn't seem to be eating enough of it. And at the same time Binky is getting closer to being overweight!!
 
I had this problem with Skye and now do to an extent have it with Jessie.

With Jess, her teeth are borderline dental, each time she goes to the vets he says that they have small spurs and I may want to consider a preventative dental, but they have been like that for 2 years now and I have just been encouraging hay, hay and more hay, and that seems to be doing the trick right now. Thing is, a hay based diet and only a small amount of pellets has had an impact on her weight, but don't want to feed too many pellets incase hay intake goes down = needing a dental and GA etc.

At the moment she is ok, but towards the winter when she usually loses weight I'm going to try and feed her a junior pellet that has more calories in, plus potentially barley rings (rather not but if needs must), just to try and keep her weight up whilst keeping her hay intake up.

When Skye was struggling with her weight I can honestly say Oats were a godsend. I used to soak oats and pellets together, plus some dried herbs, mix into a mush and add her medication to that too. I would then seperate her from Noah as she took ages to eat, and it really helped stabilise her weight.
 
Yeah I've been feeding oats fairly regularly since December, but again I worry about that. I can't separate my girls, they just both don't eat if I do that. I think they both think they might be missing out on something
 
sillyrabbit said:
Yeah I've been feeding oats fairly regularly since December, but again I worry about that. I can't separate my girls, they just both don't eat if I do that. I think they both think they might be missing out on something
Click to expand...

A small pinch of oats shouldn't ruin their appetite? (a bit like Maltesers :shock:)

Sunflower seeds are good for weight gain and glossy fur. I also feed butternut squash. Canned pumpkin if they like it :D

However, everything that will put weight on will have the propensity for creating mucky bums .. Pellets contain a lot of calcium so I leave those out (unless they are the high fibre ones).

Have you tried low calcium water? I have a water filter, but some bottled water is low calcium. It's the biggest source of calcium intake according to my specialist.
 
I'm not worried about them ruining her appetite, just that they aren't very good for her

Tried pumpkin and butternut squash, puréed and raw, and she wasn't really interested. I did make some oat cookies with butternut squash and Binky ate them all :roll: :lol:

I feed the vetcare plus urinary tract pellets, and before that she was on the oxbow pellets. Yeah she has bottled water. I think we have that situation under control at the moment, that's why I don't want to mess with feeding higher calcium foods while I'm trying to get weight on her

I didn't even think of sunflower seeds, thanks hun x
 
sillyrabbit said:
I'm not worried about them ruining her appetite, just that they aren't very good for her

Tried pumpkin and butternut squash, puréed and raw, and she wasn't really interested. I did make some oat cookies with butternut squash and Binky ate them all :roll: :lol:

I feed the vetcare plus urinary tract pellets, and before that she was on the oxbow pellets. Yeah she has bottled water. I think we have that situation under control at the moment, that's why I don't want to mess with feeding higher calcium foods while I'm trying to get weight on her

I didn't even think of sunflower seeds, thanks hun x
Click to expand...

You're welcome :thumb: Why aren't oats good for her? They are full of B vitamins and great at repairing nerve damage ... I feed them to my elderlies all the time to keep weight on ..
 
MightyMax said:
You're welcome :thumb: Why aren't oats good for her? They are full of B vitamins and great at repairing nerve damage ... I feed them to my elderlies all the time to keep weight on ..
Click to expand...

I don't know, when I was searching this forum looking for weight gain tips I saw a few people saying they weren't that good for them, I don't know enough about it to know if that's correct or not, it's just stuck in my mind!
 
sillyrabbit said:
I don't know, when I was searching this forum looking for weight gain tips I saw a few people saying they weren't that good for them, I don't know enough about it to know if that's correct or not, it's just stuck in my mind!
Click to expand...

Well Tamsin off here recommends them, and that's good enough for me :thumb:

Seriously, I've used them for 20+ years with no issues but I respect you may to want to! Some people who dismiss oats are ready to feed their rabbits wheat freely, which I don't .. so horses for courses I believe!

I use nerve tonics made from oats to repair nerve damage in cases of strokes and head tilt in rabbits and I believe it to be effective, so I tend to view them as a good food ... Just my opinion here :lol:
 
I'm happy to use them, like I said I've been feeding them, it's just one of those little things that stick in my mind that's all. I worry about ridiculous things! Especially when it comes to my girls :love: I think because I've always tried to keep my rabbits diets as natural as possible, it just feels wrong giving her pellets and treats. I know she needs to get her weight back up though so that is my priority

I'm going to try canned pumpkin instead of fresh tomorrow. And I'm sending my fiancé out now to get her some pumpkin seeds!
 
sillyrabbit said:
I'm happy to use them, like I said I've been feeding them, it's just one of those little things that stick in my mind that's all. I worry about ridiculous things! Especially when it comes to my girls :love: I think because I've always tried to keep my rabbits diets as natural as possible, it just feels wrong giving her pellets and treats. I know she needs to get her weight back up though so that is my priority

I'm going to try canned pumpkin instead of fresh tomorrow. And I'm sending my fiancé out now to get her some pumpkin seeds!
Click to expand...

I've not tried pumpkin seeds with my lot ... quite chewy I think! Full of zinc and minerals though ..... I bought a new butternut squash today to fatten up my oldies.

Keeping a rabbit's diet as natural as possible would entail excluding all pellets and possibly most veggies too ... It would be forage and hay. But with advancing age in a lot of rabbits, other measures are called for which aren't necessary for a short lived wildie, who would be lucky to find a bag of pellets (let alone oats :shock:) hanging on a nearby bush :D
 
I actually meant sunflower seeds, it's been a long day :roll: :lol:

That makes a lot of sense, I didn't really think about it like that. Yeah I know, that's how I used to feed her, a hay/grass based diet with forage, vegetables rabbits in the wild would be likely to come across and the occasional piece of fruit as treats after vet visits etc. I only really introduced pellets into Scarlett's diet at the beginning of last year when we adopted Binky. She did really well on a more natural diet, although I understand it's not suitable for her age now with the health problems she has
 
MightyMax said:
You're welcome :thumb: Why aren't oats good for her? They are full of B vitamins and great at repairing nerve damage ... I feed them to my elderlies all the time to keep weight on ..
Click to expand...

I am pretty sure oats have the wrong calcium phosphorus ratio so not great for calcium bunnies. But don't quote me on that one ;)

It's really hard putting weight on calcium bunnies we were struggling with Otis but he has now put on 600g with Ella's kitchen baby food. His favourite is pumpkin, sweet potatoes and blueberries :)
 
Hugo's There said:
I am pretty sure oats have the wrong calcium phosphorus ratio so not great for calcium bunnies. But don't quote me on that one ;)

It's really hard putting weight on calcium bunnies we were struggling with Otis but he has now put on 600g with Ella's kitchen baby food. His favourite is pumpkin, sweet potatoes and blueberries :)
Click to expand...

My oldies had their calcium/wee levels checked recently and the oldest (13 years) had *no* calcium sludge or deposits in her urine. Not bad for a gal who gets her oats every day ;)
 
No I doubt it would cause sludge on its own but probably not great for a rabbit with sludge already.

Sludge is a metabolism problem not a diet one. Some rabbits can eat ridiculous amounts of calcium and never have an issue :) but once there is a problem then a good diet is essential which is why weight gain is such a difficult problem with these bunnies.

Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk
 
Hugo's There said:
No I doubt it would cause sludge on its own but probably not great for a rabbit with sludge already.

Sludge is a metabolism problem not a diet one. Some rabbits can eat ridiculous amounts of calcium and never have an issue :) but once there is a problem then a good diet is essential which is why weight gain is such a difficult problem with these bunnies.

Sent from my XT1039 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Yes I get your point, but in Molly Varga's Textbook of Rabbit Medicine, oats are cited as a LOW source of calcium .. Therefore recommended for underweight buns with calcium/sludge issues .....
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Griff
Advice on VERY low calcium diet please
Replies
12
Views
682
Griff
Griff
B
Urgent vets apt tomorrow
Replies
16
Views
564
Bun2
B
keletkezes
Barrie has lost a lot of weight
Replies
17
Views
458
a reader of books
a reader of books
Back
Top