Burgess Supa Rabbit Excel

Hi

I have just got my foster bunny, she is on Excel at mo but as I don't have a packet for it I'm not sure what correct amount of food is for her weight! Does anybody have a bag with recommendations on the back? She is 3 and a half kilograms but slightly underweight for her size. She also has the munchies constantly bless her!

Thanks for your help

Nicola

on cheekys packet it has the following info .

Young growing 4-12 weeks(ad lib) 79 to 90 gms
Lactating Does (ad lib) 240-280 gms
Adult maintenance 80 gms
Stud bucks 90-100 gms

Cheeky weighs 3kg and I feed him 80gms a day alongside some hay , fresh veg , small qauntities of fruit but cheeky likes to supplement it by adding a tiny bit of newspaper and toilet roll , don,t ask ! :roll:

The back of the packet recommends 3-3.5% body weight. So that would make 100- 122g. But I started with the min they recommended and dropped it as I added veggies. I think if you give enough it makes up for any lack of variety with veggies and also makes sure they fill up on hay.

The bunnie I just got was on Burgess supa and it has a scarey 9% fibre! It smells yummy though. Supa fruittie is even lower. Gosh its bizzare that for some foods they think you should have x amount of fibre and others they give less.


Paper probs has good fibre in it!

I feed that to mine, but I don't go by the amounts on the packet. Too much of it can cause excess caecals and messy bums!

So I feed as much as they can cope with, and if I see excess caecals, cut the pellets down and beef up the hay, veggies and Forage/Readigrass.

It seems to be a common complaint that it causes messy bums, but many pet-owning people seem to change foods rather than make adjustments to the individual bunny. I guess if you are like me, and buy it in bulk, you're more likely to fine-tune things rather than go out & buy something else.

I have recently also started to mix it with Allen & page Natural pellets, which works just as well... but my feeding is based on "Hay, a small amount of pellets, and as much Readigrass/Forage/wild greens as they can eat"..... the idea being, they get most of their nutrition out of the hay and dried grass, and get extra protein from the pellets, just enough to keep them in great condition.

Have to say that Excel does keep them very, very fit!

Well Floyd certainly has enough energy!

I also just find that veggies take more effort to eat, that and hay means more grazing and lets face it in the wild thats what most the time would be spent doing. A bored bunnie gets sad and/or wreaks things. And we have enough wreakage with the cats at our house!

Thanks everybody for the replies.

I think I will try her on between 90 - 100g of dried food as she gets plenty of hay, and I'm slowly building up the veggies. Do you think that will be ok? I'm not keen on feeding a large amount of dry food, but she does need to put a bit of weight on. I'm feeding the dry food in smaller portions but more often throughout the day in her treat ball

She loves her food so much, I've given her a treat ball as well to give her more to do. Plus toys, rattles, toilet roll tubes etc! Once she gets running round the garden she will have a great time and also get more greenstuff while she is at it!

No excess caecals at the mo, nice hard pellets If she gets a funny tummy I'll cut it down. she seems to be doing really well on it, nice shiny coat, she just needs to put on a little bit more weight. It must have been stressful for her in rescue tho so hopefully now she is here she can enjoy the time she has with me and relax!

Unfortunately she has cancer so don't know how long I've got with her but determined to give her the best time possible! Converted the shed for her, she loves it. She is the sweetest rabbit, rests her head on your arm and waits for more fuss! Can't believe she only came home yesterday afternoon, feels like I've never not had her!

Thanks again for your help, hopefully I can get a little weight on her and get her munching more hay and other 'good' munchies!

Nicola

nicolar said:

Unfortunately she has cancer so don't know how long I've got with her but determined to give her the best time possible!
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Thanks again for your help, hopefully I can get a little weight on her and get her munching more hay and other 'good' munchies!

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Awwww... poor bun! If you really need to get some weight on, try the Junior & Dwarf Excel... slightly higher in protein. Watch it carefully, and reduce or dilute with normal Excel (or Allen & Page) if she starts getting too fat or does the excess caecal thing. I hadn't realised she was a special case bunny, so where she's concerned, a very careful eye is needed, pile on the pellets as much as you can, and see if you can fine-tune it to what suits her.

Depending on what kind of cancer she has, she may not be able to to cope with certain types of nutrient... so what goes for healthy buns may need a great deal of experimentation till you find what suits her. More fibre? Less fibre? More protein, less protein? More veggies, less veggies? More good natural greenstuff? More hay? Sad to say, cancer takes it out of the body, and drains resources, and you may not know exactly how the tumour is robbing her of what she needs.

best of luck to her! and to you... I hope you will let us know how you get on....!

Sorry I got there before you!! Princess loves the Excel which is good, but like your bunny my other two can't stand it so I gave up! They used to eat round it! They seem perfectly healthy on a small amount of normal rabbit mix and lots of hay with some veggies! I think as long as your bunny looks fit and healthy they are doing well on the diet

Nicola

Hi Sue

She isn't too drastically underweight, just slightly for her size so will gradually increase pellets and see what suits her I think it is cos of her cancer tho that she isn't putting weight on, it must drain resources as even though her lumps aren't big you don't know what is going on inside! I will carefully experiment til I find out what suits her best. At the mo she is loving the veggies and pellets and once she is running round the garden I'm sure a few more of my Dad's plants will be going missing!lol My little bun, Amy, is a terror for eating the plants that are supposedly safe from her! Jumps fences etc. Little madam, luckily dad is quite forgiving

I will def keep you updated, at the mo she is a normal bunny doing what bunnies love to do - munch, skip about and get lots of fuss!! I hope she has a good few months left, she saw the vet before I took her on foster and vet doesn't need to see her for another few months, just gotta make sure she doesn't lose weight and that lumps aren't growing too fast. She has mammary lumps, considered a marrary strip but pretty major op especially when u don't know if it has spread further so decided just to let her have a lovely rest of time and when time comes she can go peacefully. She has a 120ft garden to run in which I hope will keep her amused! She isn't too keen on my other bunnies at mo, sure they will all get used to eachother!

Nicola

Well done you Nicloa for taking such good care of her. By the way, how did you find out she had cancer?

Thanku I'm trying to do the best I can for her, she is such a lovely bunny, that's why I wanted to take her on foster as I knew she would get more freedom and have a lovely time until she gets iller.

Well she came into the rescue as a stray and had mammary lumps so she was sent down to the vets to get the lumps removed and to be spayed at the same time. The lumps were sent away for analysis (took ages!!) and they came back as her having cancer, think it's in early stages. Her lumps have started to grow back now so monitoring their size. The lab notes that came back were rather complicated - lots of long words!
We couldn't rehome her because of this, so I offered to foster her, I can't have another rabbit 'forever' as it were, so it was nice to be able to offer her a home for however long she has left, which I'm hoping will be a good few months if not longer!

That's Princess's story to date Hungry, adorable munchkin, would eat fingers as well as the veg at the other end if she could lol.

Nicola x

Hello nicolar. Sorry to hear about your poorly bunny Those mammary tumours are a damn nuisance, I've had pet rats have them and despite having them removed, the flaming things grow back
I hope she still has plenty of time left yet.

My buns eat Excel junior and dwarf and they relish every mouthful. They also get plenty of hay and supa forage which they also enjoy, along with a selection of fresh veggies. I'm sure feeding them a decent diet makes their fur shine and eyes twinkle I also had a bun who hated Excel but loved Supreme Science! I have two fussy guinea pigs who refuse to eat the Excel supa guinea, but love Gerty guinea pig. Sometimes animals just don't know what's good for them! :roll:

I know, I'm sure they do it to be awkward sometimes!lol Nevermind I'm happy as long as they are healthy Princess is doing really well on the Excel, can't get enough of it and her coat is so soft and shiny. I sure hope she has a while left, the mammary tumours are very annoying growing back again!

I am going to try my other two on Supreme Science as they wouldn't touch the Excel! I don't hold out much hope though! They love the mix they are on at the mo so I'm not too worried as soft coats all round - not much mix given, lots of hay and veggies and just bought the Supa Forage to give to my three girlies. Seems that lots of people use it, I hope the buns like it!

One question, just thought of, I have a 5 year old Rex (cross but mostly Rex!) and sometimes when she licks herself her fur dries hard, anybody else had this problem? It doesn't bother her and doesn't happen all the time as I went to pick her up yesterday and her coat was lovely and silky. She has been on Baytril lately, could that have affected her in this way?

Nicola