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Fattening up?

WonderBunn

Alpha Buck
My new one Squishie is quite young but I am a little concerned that she is a wee bit skinny, you can feel her spine quite prominent and just wondered if there was anything particular I should be feeding her to help her gain a bit of weight.

Her current diet is hay (think this is new to her), small bowls of gp food (as thats what they had her on at the pet place) and the occasional cabbage/sprouts (getting her use to veggies - she likes cabbages eeewwwee!) and she has water in a bottle.

I have only had her since Saturday so I am sure that she will come on in leap and bounds but I just want to make sure I am doing right by her.

She needs to take a lesson from my other 3 who are going to eat up being fat bunnies as they just anything and everything. Whilst I have typed this they have munched through a big pile of greens!!!
 
I'd suggest weighing her (kitchen scales work fine) as this is a really good way to monitor her weight and check that its increasing nicely.

Baby rabbits have very sensitive digestion so I'd be wary about introducing the food that you might try on an adult to fatten them up. You could try something like supreme science recovery.

Tam
 
How old is she? As long as she isn't too skinny then she will prob fill out as she gets older. When I got Princess you could feel her spine and she was underweight for her size (only 3.5kg, should be nearer 4kg). I have had her two months now and with regular amounts of Excel and veg, she seems to be putting on weight. I didn't want her to get fat too quickly, she seems to be doing well now.

As you bun is only a baby, as Tamsin said, be careful as easy to upset the digestive system. I'd give her a little bit more than you normally would and weigh her regularly, that way you can alter the food back down once she gets a bit heavier.

Also I don't know whether your bun is the same but Princess used to gobble everything up in one go. Now that she knows food is gonna stay there she seems much better and leaves some for later!!

Hope she is enjoying her munchies!

Nicola
 
I weighed her last night and she was 667g (ish, she kept moving around on the scales) They said she was about 10 weeks but there is no way she is, more like 6 - 8 weeks old. I am making sure there is enough dry mix food for her (which she seems to nibble on steadily through the day) and theres loads of hay (that seems to be a fav).

Going to keep weighing her as that is a good way to measure.

Giving her veggies every other day at the moment, she is wolfing them down but just watching her with it all really.

At P@H there is some pellet food for young bunns, not seen the supreme science recovery - can you buy that on the net any where?

PS Thanks for advice people!!
 
If she has been kept in a group it could be she wasn't getting her fair share of food and now she doesn't have to share her weight will increase nicely. Weetabix is good for putting the weight on but introduce gradually although it doesn't tend to upset tums its always better to introduce new things slowly.

Yvonne
 
Yvonne said:
If she has been kept in a group it could be she wasn't getting her fair share of food and now she doesn't have to share her weight will increase nicely.

I had thought af this too, there were quite a few bunns in the pen where she was from (and not getting the proper attention she deserved - thats why we got her) and there was quite a large bunn that looked quite adult, could have easily been the dominate one.

I am sure she will be fine now but just wanted to get the experts thoughts and ideas!!
 
I had Zeus on Burgess Excel for dwarf and young rabbits for the first 6 months - it was good for him and he put loads of weight on when he was younger (but to be fair he was going to anyway).

Caz
 
This is a prime example of pet shop bunnies dont buy a skiny baby you could be getting more trouble than you bargined for. people please complain if you se skinny babys at pet shops its not right they should be plump and full of viger. val
 
She deserved more though than to be over looked and left!

Shes active and bouncing around like any others.

I am worried now!!! I just wanted to help. She is gorgeous though

We are watching her weight and she has plently to eat, we are going to get some junior bunn food today to try and move her off the gp food.
 
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