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rabbit diet (8 weeks old)

baobao

Young Bun
hey all, last week i bought a rabbit for my girlfriend and of course she loves it

i dont see her or the rabbit much since i study away from my home town but i do get a chance to see them once a week

anyway enough about that, when i saw the rabbit again today i was suprised how fat she/he (not confirmed yet due to young age) is compare to the day we bought it

i asked my girlfriend how much she feeds it and she says she fills the bowl up 3 times a day (10am, 4pm, 10 pm). The bowl is size is 11 cm wide and 4 cm deep.

i was wondering if we r feeding it too much, if we r can you please help us how to feed it.

We are currently feeding it rabbit mix including alfrate (watever it is called) and hay.

Cheers

Aaron
 
hi arron you girlfriend is feeding TOO MUCH, i would feed about 50grams per day ONLY and top up with hay and grasses, hay should make up 90% of your rabbits diet, it also aids there digestion and wears down there teeth.

i would slow start cutting down the rabbits dry foods (never change a rabbits food quickly)

i would also advise using a rabbit pellet ratther than a mix as this also helps prevent selective feeding.



Evex
 
Hiya,

I found it really hard finding info on feeding baby buns when I first had my bunny! (She was also 8 weeks old when i had her).

However, I was under the impression that baby buns should have unlimited pellets (as eve said, pellets are better than a mix) unlimited hay and as always, unlimited water.

This website may be of help to you...

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html and this one http://www.adoptarabbit.com/articles/2003/HealthyRabbitDiet.pdf

Sorry my info is a bit different to eve's :? :? But that was the info I have read before and have seen since having sophie .. :?
 
"Pellets and Hay: For rabbits under one year old free feed (as much as they want) a fresh, plain, high fiber (18-20%), mid-range protein (14% - 16%) pellet. Adult rabbits should get 1/4 cup of low protein (10% or lower), high fiber pellets PER DAY, per five (5) pounds of optimum* body weight. If you have a rabbit that is difficult to keep weight on or off, consult your vet. Do not feed your rabbit any of the many commercial pellet mixes that contain seeds, dried fruit or colored cereals. These commercial treat foods are geared to look pleasing to us humans, but they are definitely not in the best health interests of your pet rabbit. Rabbits are not seed, fruit or cereal eaters by nature and these types of junk foods are high in sugars and carbohydrates, which as we talked about earlier can lead to an overgrowth of bad bacteria."

That was taken from http://www.mybunny.org/info/rabbit_nutrition.htm
 
Think everyone else has already said it but for baby buns unlimited pellets, if the bunny is on a musli mix try mixing the pellets in and over a week or so gradually increase the pellets and decrease the musli. Also lots and lots of hay but often the prepackaged stuff is not very tasty so you might have to shop around for nice hay!!!
 
Just a note about hay:

Two good sites which sell hay pretty inexpensively while still retaining the quality are reportedly oxbrow hay and american pet diner. Atm, I'm using some store-bought Keytee Timothy Hay, but only because I wasn't sure where to buy cheaper hay, and it was on sale. Regular price for Kaytee at the petstore is $7 for 2 lbs (681g). Oxbow and Amer. Pet Diner sell their hay for (with shipping to my area) approximately $40-45 for a 25 lb box. Make sure you don't buy dusty or browning hay, as it won't be tasty and the dust can cause respiratory problems.

My own bunny is 9-10 weeks old and eats hay almost exclusively.
 
loopylop said:
Hiya,

I found it really hard finding info on feeding baby buns when I first had my bunny! (She was also 8 weeks old when i had her).

However, I was under the impression that baby buns should have unlimited pellets (as eve said, pellets are better than a mix) unlimited hay and as always, unlimited water.

This website may be of help to you...

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html and this one http://www.adoptarabbit.com/articles/2003/HealthyRabbitDiet.pdf

Sorry my info is a bit different to eve's :? :? But that was the info I have read before and have seen since having sophie .. :?



well laura ad lib is what i was allways told, but my vet has said that she would sugguest (after being on recent vet courses) that they beileve a more back to basics natural diets are better for rabbits, and actually suugested removing dried food from rabbits diets alltogether even young rabbits, saying that they now believe it is causing stasis problems and teeth problems because of the way they chew dried food is not ideal for the direction they need the bunny to chew in ie..... from side to side to aid teeth to wear down instead withdried food they chew from side to side.

so its down to the individual really what they think is best BUT i have cut every rabbit down to 25Grams only per day of dried food ( so they still get there sunlight vits) , cut out veg 4 times a week and feed mainly grass and hay, and i have found it to already be a great improvement, there poos are massive compared to before, they are also lighter in colour, there coats look great.

but whatever arrons girl decides three bowls of food a day is well to much i cant imagine that bun eating enough hay as well as all that dried food! so even if you dont take my advice i would still cut down on all that dried food!
 
bunnylove said:
loopylop said:
Hiya,

I found it really hard finding info on feeding baby buns when I first had my bunny! (She was also 8 weeks old when i had her).

However, I was under the impression that baby buns should have unlimited pellets (as eve said, pellets are better than a mix) unlimited hay and as always, unlimited water.

This website may be of help to you...

http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html and this one http://www.adoptarabbit.com/articles/2003/HealthyRabbitDiet.pdf

Sorry my info is a bit different to eve's :? :? But that was the info I have read before and have seen since having sophie .. :?



well laura ad lib is what i was allways told, but my vet has said that she would sugguest (after being on recent vet courses) that they beileve a more back to basics natural diets are better for rabbits, and actually suugested removing dried food from rabbits diets alltogether even young rabbits, saying that they now believe it is causing stasis problems and teeth problems because of the way they chew dried food is not ideal for the direction they need the bunny to chew in ie..... from side to side to aid teeth to wear down instead withdried food they chew from side to side.

so its down to the individual really what they think is best BUT i have cut every rabbit down to 25Grams only per day of dried food ( so they still get there sunlight vits) , cut out veg 4 times a week and feed mainly grass and hay, and i have found it to already be a great improvement, there poos are massive compared to before, they are also lighter in colour, there coats look great.

but whatever arrons girl decides three bowls of food a day is well to much i cant imagine that bun eating enough hay as well as all that dried food! so even if you dont take my advice i would still cut down on all that dried food!

Thats interesting! As I say, I found it really hard finding info when sophie was a baby, so I gathered as much info as I could and went from there!

As Sophie got older, I reduced her pellets slowly and she is now on them once a day and only a small amount!
 
errr so shall i just feed it as much as it wants as well as unlimited suppply of hay

if so howlong shall i do this for

also, the rabbit food we r giving him is just a standard rabbit food mix with lettace, carrots and alfafe

if alfafe the brown long circular food, then ourrabbit doesnt eat it, she just leaves it in her bowl

thanks

Aaron
 
I read this thread as buns under 1yrs old should be fed as much as they require of a good quality pellet as well has having unlimited amounts of fresh hay to eat and fresh water to drink.

Hope I read it right as this is what I do with my bun and he is 3mths old

HTH
 
but the thing is she has gained a lot of weight since last week

in 7 days the width of her body is twice the size now
 
Like the others have said, it is probably best to get your bunny onto a "complete" for, rather than a muesli style mixture. What you are seeing when your bun leaves bits of the food behind is selective feeding, where the bun only eats the yummy bits of the mix. This probably means that hte bun isn't getting a balanced diet, and maybe the bits that it is eating are the fattening bits - hence the huge weight gain.
Two of the most popular and easily available complete foods are Science Selective http://www.russelrabbit.com/science_selective.php and Supa Excel http://www.burgesssupafeeds.co.uk/Pages/rabbit.html. You can get a junior version of the Excel for baby buns.
Maybe the bunny should be taken to the vets if the weight gain continues to be sooooo quick, just in case something more serious is wrong.
 
i have 2 8 week old mini lops. i feed them unlimited pellets and alfalfa. not sure where you live but if you can feed alfalfa it would be best becuase it gives the nutrition the babies need. when i hold my buns i can feel their bones especialy near neck. so that is why i feed unlimited and beacuse the breeder said to. they need to grow body fat and get big as they first start to grow. are you sure your bun is just growing and not geting fat? hope this helps. what kind do you have (not sure if you said)
 
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