fat bunnie

i was wondering if anyone could offer some advice on my sisters fat bunny, she has always been slightly over weight and she is a very lazy bun she has access to a run every day and regulary comes into the house but she just sits there, up until a few months ago she had a male bun as a friend but sadly he passed away. The main problem is she wont clean herself she has always been like this and my sister has always had to clean and clip her bottom, milly is about 5 years old now and her bottom is getting much worse to the point where my sister is having to clean it every 2-3 days and it is in a terible state, my sister is very upset about this as she doesnt know what to do. I know that milly needs to lose weight but when my sister tried to give her the lite exel food she didnt eat for 3 days, and my sister was worried and gave her old food, she wont exercise on her own and my sister is thinking of getting her a little lead and start walking her round the garden, but doesnt know how she will cope with this.
In case you wondering milly has a 3 level hutch at night and in the day she is in a hutch with a run attach so she has plenty of access to free space but just chooses not to use it.
If there is anyone out there that could offer some advice we would be extremly grateful.

hi

It could be a bit of a catch 22 here - she may be lazy because she's overweight... What dry food does she have, and how much a day? Does she eat hay and/or veg too?

With a messy bum she's in great danger from flies in summer, so it would be good to get this sorted before spring.

Hiya. Your sister's bun probably cant clean herself cos she's just...errmmm...too portly!! Does she eat hay.... :? ?the bun not your sister :roll: :lol: If so your sister could virtually cut out the dried mix altogether. Just save a small amount to offer as hand fed treats. Obviously you need to be certain that Bun is eating hay before you withdraw the dried feed.Bun could also be introduced to some fresh dark leafy greens, but avoid carrots and fruit cos of the sugar content. Bun may benefit from a companion to encourage her to exercise more but I'd say the first step is to significantly reduce her dried feed and get her onto a hay/green veggie only diet. Your sister may actually need to clean Buns bot EVERY DAY as Bun will pass caecotrophs (soft poos) daily and so will easily get in a mess on a daily basis. Hopefully by making the dietry chjanges Bun will loss some weight, eat her caecotrophs and feel more inclined to exercise. Hope some of this helps!! Jane and Bunsxx

All good advise there, some rabbits will object strongly to a new food, but the light food will be better for her. As long as shes eating her hay then it wont matter if she dosent eat the pellits for a while in the end she will give in. A good idea may be to get her another castrated boyfriend as this may encourage her to move around a bit. If hes not been done long then he will want to mount her and this may have the effect of her running away :lol: , thus exercising. :lol: val

thank you all for the advice i have passed this onto my sister and bun is starting new diet soon along with her own little weight book, my sister has decided not to get another bun until she has lost weight as she was worried she wouldnt be able to control her food as that was a problem when she had 2 as milly bullied her mate and ate his food so my sister had to start feeding them in different parts of the hutch and she doesnt want this to happen again, my sister is wondering if she could try exercising her on a lead, i was wondering if anyone does this and how successful this is.

I think it's down to the bunny's preference to be honest. I may be wrong so see what the others say!

My bunny hates a lead. Flips over on his back.. tries to eat it.. everything :shock: but some bunnies are fine on them.

It may be worth an idea to try one out.. if she doesn't get too stressed.

Hi

I put Moet and Chandon on the lite pellets as Moet was getting a bit on the fat side! however i introduced it gradually, mixing it in with their normal pellets at first. for the first few days they ignored the lite pellets and ate the rest but now they eat the lite pellets! the only thing is the lite pellets (excel) are more expensive than the normal pellets!