hi again
I know what you mean about forums, some are so very cliquey and many of the forums ive been on kinda scorn you for adding your tuppence worth, i have to congratulate this forum so far, as ive been made welcome.
I have to confess ive never really been into rescuing rabbits that long, it kinda came accidentally. I tend to specialise in the more unusal rodents as pets, ie. degus, chins, dare i say rats. I do tend to specialise more in ratties and degus in particular, as no one seems to take these in, where as i know there huge numbers of buns looking for homes, but there seems not to be enough but there are other places, whereas the more exotic pets, there seems very little.
Ive had buns since i was a kid, and to be perfectly honest ive never came across the tooth problems that are about nowadays than just recently in the last five years possibly more.
Im not sure why this is, i personally suspect the sheer range of foods available for buns nowadays, whereas when i was growing up, there seemed to be very little. the survey wouldnt really be used for anythign other than building up my knowledge base, see how far widespread the problem is and trying hopefully to address the issue. perhaps in time we can convert the petstores into supply the correct feeding information for bun and we may see less sad cases being put down.
I have chillas too, with no problems with teeth as yet, (they too busy chewing my door and my skirting lol).
When i jsut had the four buns, they used to live indoors, and i didnt have any problems with teeth, dougal my recent wee fellah really shocked the hell out of me, it was only then i started looking into the problems with teeth. Im hoping to specialise in rabbit and rodent nursing when i qualify, but do like to keep my hand in areas which interest me greatly.
the questions i have at the moment (still working on a format and other things for survey/questionaire) are as follows, if anyone would like to add anything, that would be much appreciated.
Breed of bun:
Age of bun:
age of bun when acquired:
What bun eats: diet
house or outdoor bun
amount of hay given
any toys/chews given
sex of bun
the breed and age and when acquired will point me in the right direction as to whether its dietery or genetic me finks
diet of course plays a big part as does chews and stuff. i didnt think sex would be relevent, but thought id add just to see if its more widespread in males or females. As i say im still working on it.
This science selective you mentioned, what is this please, i only have a silly wee petshop in which i have to order stuff in, i have to order excel specially, so am interested if you can perhaps buy it online to try?
obviously introducing a little bit at a time, till i gradually change over, is this a recommended diet, whats the nutritional analysis, is it pellets etc.
sorry for all the questions. i hadnt heard of it