My little Mary has always been on the small side, and has suffered with teeth problems almost all of his life with me. I assume he is a fairly young bun (about 3) but as I don't know his lineage, I'm not 100% - he got given into the petshop I used to work in when the 'breeder' gave up, along with 3 or 4 girly buns (all in together!). He was rather frisky but I didn't hear of any of the girl buns having babies so there's the possibility they were a young litter and not at the right age, so I estimated his age at about 6 months just so I had a rough guide.
None of his sisters had teeth problems (I checked them all after taking Mary home myself and finding out he had misaligned incisors), but being a Netherland Dwarf I suppose he was more prone to it. Not long after having his incisors removed, we found out he also had molar spurs.
With some fine tuning, I've worked out a diet that gives his molars maximum wear - he's not had to have a dental since March, whereas he was having a few done within months of each other at the beginning of the year. He gets a small handful of pellets in the evening, and the rest of the day has a mix of meadow hay (several different brands) and timothy hay in the litter trays, as well as timothy chop, high fibre grass chop and occasionally something like Readigrass/JustGrass. It's not possible to monitor his complete intake as he lives with 2 other bunnies now, but I see him eating often enough throughout the day to not be worried, and as he's a very keen eater I can tell when his molars need sorting out as his appetite decreases and he tends to sulk. He does have regular checkups at the vet though, just to see how his teeth are doing.
As I said, he's always been on the small side, even when he had ad lib pellets when I first got him. However, the last few weeks he seems to be thinner than usual. I took him in to have his teeth checked as I'm a very paranoid mummy, but the vet said they look fine (actually she's always really impressed by the way I get my animals better so quickly..probably because I put them before myself! They eat and live better than I do! :lol
. I will be taking him and Squishy for their routine molar checkups soon so if there's a problem then I can get that sorted, but from what the vet said just before Christmas I have no reason to worry, plus he's still eating fine.
I occasionally supplement with oats/Weetabix, and he could quite happily eat pellets all day, but having his molar problems I don't want to fill him up with food like that and have him decrease the amount of hay he eats, and thus have a bad effect on the wear of his molars.
I know he gets his fair share of pellets as I give the buns 3 seperate bowls and guide them to one each, they've learnt to eat straight away or they'll go without! He's also a right pig, definately wouldn't let the others pinch his rations!
Would giving more Readigrass help him put on some weight? Obviously there's the issue of the other buns, they're at an ideal weight and one of them being a mini rex means I don't want him putting on weight and aggravating his hocks. Bit of an odd question but is grass high in calories? Mary goes mad for it when he's out in the run, so if that would help then I will try to get him out more often, but being so cold and having foxes around here I have been hesitant to let the buns out for long periods. Or perhaps increasing his pellet intake but putting him out on the grass would mean he'd be more likely to eat the fibrous grass even though he's eaten more pellets.
I was just wondering the best plan of action to put some weight on him but keep his teeth in the best possible condition.
Edited to add: I just remembered, he had a slightly upset tummy the other day. However, I had fed all the buns veg the evening before, and as I've been ill/working more days than usual, they haven't had any in a while, so I put it down to overeating veg - he's such a greedy bun that I wouldn't put it past him to scoff down almost all of the 3 buns' share of veg himself! A day with hay only and probiotics in the water sorted him out and he was back to his normal self the next day. Not sure if this would be linked to the weight loss, but I will mention it to the vet.
None of his sisters had teeth problems (I checked them all after taking Mary home myself and finding out he had misaligned incisors), but being a Netherland Dwarf I suppose he was more prone to it. Not long after having his incisors removed, we found out he also had molar spurs.
With some fine tuning, I've worked out a diet that gives his molars maximum wear - he's not had to have a dental since March, whereas he was having a few done within months of each other at the beginning of the year. He gets a small handful of pellets in the evening, and the rest of the day has a mix of meadow hay (several different brands) and timothy hay in the litter trays, as well as timothy chop, high fibre grass chop and occasionally something like Readigrass/JustGrass. It's not possible to monitor his complete intake as he lives with 2 other bunnies now, but I see him eating often enough throughout the day to not be worried, and as he's a very keen eater I can tell when his molars need sorting out as his appetite decreases and he tends to sulk. He does have regular checkups at the vet though, just to see how his teeth are doing.
As I said, he's always been on the small side, even when he had ad lib pellets when I first got him. However, the last few weeks he seems to be thinner than usual. I took him in to have his teeth checked as I'm a very paranoid mummy, but the vet said they look fine (actually she's always really impressed by the way I get my animals better so quickly..probably because I put them before myself! They eat and live better than I do! :lol
. I will be taking him and Squishy for their routine molar checkups soon so if there's a problem then I can get that sorted, but from what the vet said just before Christmas I have no reason to worry, plus he's still eating fine.I occasionally supplement with oats/Weetabix, and he could quite happily eat pellets all day, but having his molar problems I don't want to fill him up with food like that and have him decrease the amount of hay he eats, and thus have a bad effect on the wear of his molars.
I know he gets his fair share of pellets as I give the buns 3 seperate bowls and guide them to one each, they've learnt to eat straight away or they'll go without! He's also a right pig, definately wouldn't let the others pinch his rations!
Would giving more Readigrass help him put on some weight? Obviously there's the issue of the other buns, they're at an ideal weight and one of them being a mini rex means I don't want him putting on weight and aggravating his hocks. Bit of an odd question but is grass high in calories? Mary goes mad for it when he's out in the run, so if that would help then I will try to get him out more often, but being so cold and having foxes around here I have been hesitant to let the buns out for long periods. Or perhaps increasing his pellet intake but putting him out on the grass would mean he'd be more likely to eat the fibrous grass even though he's eaten more pellets.
I was just wondering the best plan of action to put some weight on him but keep his teeth in the best possible condition.
Edited to add: I just remembered, he had a slightly upset tummy the other day. However, I had fed all the buns veg the evening before, and as I've been ill/working more days than usual, they haven't had any in a while, so I put it down to overeating veg - he's such a greedy bun that I wouldn't put it past him to scoff down almost all of the 3 buns' share of veg himself! A day with hay only and probiotics in the water sorted him out and he was back to his normal self the next day. Not sure if this would be linked to the weight loss, but I will mention it to the vet.
