mini lop ear refused to eat!

I'm sorry to hear you've lost your new rabbits.

Rabbits have very sensitive tummies and refusing to eat is very serious. If they go for more than 24 hours without eatings it's classed as an emergency. Your vet was very unhelpful.. the rabbits should have been given fluids, drugs to stimulate the appitite and she should have recommended you syringe feed them to get them eating. I suggest you have a look at other vets locally so if your current rabbit gets ill you have a good vet to go to for help.

As for what could have caused it... any change to a rabbits diet should be done gradually. So to start with you should feed the same diet as the place you got the rabbit from. If you want to change to a different brand of food or introduce a food they haven't had before such as vegetables you have to do it a little at a time.

Where did the rabbits come from? Some places will sell rabbits to young to be away from their mum - babies should be atleast 8 weeks old, any younger and they are very prone to gut problems. The conditions at the breeder can also influence if they didn't eat from the start they could have been sick already.

Getting rabbits diet right is hard work, they need to have plenty of hay and controlled portions of high fibre pellets. Watching the poop is a good early clue to problems if it's squidgy instead of hard and round or the rabbit stops producing it that is a symptom of their being a problem.

Best wishes,
Tamsin

i was going to ask the same where did the bunny come from and how old have they been?

i have none some young bunnies get taken away from there families too soon and can die of loneliness, have you been keeping the bunnies outside?

sorry to hear that you have now lost 2.

sophie

thanks

i bought the food that the rabbit was being fed on from the shop i bought the rabbit from, i didnt realise that 8 weeks was the minumum they could be taken away from their mums at, when i asked the woman at the pet store how old she was she told me she was seven weeks and that they had her for about a week. am not very happy with that at all. i bought the rex from a completely different shop and she is absolutely fine, very happy and healthy and she is 10 weeks old (approx). howver, thinking on it, the lop eared rabbit i had before these 2, the lop eared that i had previously was younger than eight weeks when i bought him, this is obviously a major factor. they shouldnt be selling them if they are not suposed to.
thanks tamsin
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