Photos of Lila the rescue bun & advice needed.

Hi all, finally got Lila to stay still long enough to take her photo. Have only had her two weeks now after she was left at a rescue centre by her previous owner with urine burns to her chest and a very nervous disposition

She's chilled out a lot now and she's found her appetite after not really eating the first 48 hrs or so but still doesn't seem to want to eat any of her straw -she happily eats her pellets and her veggies & herbs - parsley and coriander are personal faves - but i can't seem to get her on to the straw even if i keep her normal food away from her for a while - can anyone help?

Also, i am attempting to toilet train her with great difficulty- she has a litter tray in her cage that i empty all her deposits into when she goes elsewhere but no matter what she will always go in this one corner of the room, litter tray or not. I know this has only been two weeks now but i'm running out of ideas of how else to train her - can anyone suggest a way of toilet training with positive results? :?:



Thanks! Kate

Kate M said:

She's chilled out a lot now and she's found her appetite after not really eating the first 48 hrs or so but still doesn't seem to want to eat any of her straw

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Hopefully you mean hay not straw. Straw is OK for bedding but not good as food. If you did mean hay then what kind of hay are you providing. Is it fresh and green looking or is it yellow and dry? When I first got Molly I tried giving her P@H hay and she chewed on wood shavings instead because the P@H stuff was old and rubbish. Now she has good quality meadow hay from my friends' farm and eats lots of it.

Sorry yes meant hay not straw

I did used to give her the P@H hay until i saw on some of the posts here about how their hay was not of a good quality so now am giving her 'Best quality feed Meadow Hay' which she has a good sniff at and them seems to ignore - i change it over often so it is always fresh and still she shows no interest. The resuce centre have told me that they don't believe she was on a good diet before as she has bad tooth decay at only 2 years old and her teeth were not very worn when they got her in os i think maybe it's just because it's new to her? Would getting her wood shavings be a good alternative in the mean tine until she (hopefully) gets accustomed to it?

Thanks, Kate

My girls aren't keen on hay either but they stuff down 'super forage excel' like there's no tomorrow! :lol: You can get it in most shops if you want to give that a try. Very cute bun btw.

Also, i am attempting to toilet train her with great difficulty- she has a litter tray in her cage that i empty all her deposits into when she goes elsewhere but no matter what she will always go in this one corner of the room, litter tray or not. I know this has only been two weeks now but i'm running out of ideas of how else to train her - can anyone suggest a way of toilet training with positive results?

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It sounds like she's perfectly litter trainned, you're just putting the litter tray in the wrong place Put the tray in the corner she uses. If she's happy with that you can gradually move the tray closer to where you'd like it and hope she agrees. Rabbits often pick a corner because then nothing can sneak up behind them whilst they're pooping. She might just like the spot better than the one you've choosen.

Try mixing the food she likes in with the hay. If think sometime when they've not had it bunnies don't seem to realise it's for eating

Tam

Thats one cutie bun bun, Mines not the hugest hay eater either... but if shes not been brought up on it, its probably really foreign to her ... she might just need time.
As for the toilet training thing, I wish I could help ... mine pretty much trained herself except she wont go anywhere except in a tray on the sofa of all places lol.
Good luck with the bunny

Also, i am attempting to toilet train her with great difficulty- she has a litter tray in her cage that i empty all her deposits into when she goes elsewhere but no matter what she will always go in this one corner of the room, litter tray or not.

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Sounds like Zoe, the litter tray is the only clean thing in the cage! She likes to sit in it and mess everywhere else!

Candy didn't eat much hay until she went on her diet. I had to cut down on her portion size of dried mix and leave her veg as it was and stick to strict feeding times, only fill them twice a day. She soon got a taste for hay when she'd emptied her bowls and there was nothing else to eat but of course, she was on a diet and trying to loose weight, I'm guessing thats not the case with your baby.

Btw, she's gorgeous. I've been following your posts and am glad to hear she's getting better and settling down.

Awwwwwww!

Thanks all for the advice - i will try all your suggestions. Think maybe because Lila wasn't eating much at all at first she has now gotten used to having pellets with her veggies and herbs so isn't hungry enough to need hay but like Karen, Amy and Candy Cotton say if she has nothing else to eat with the smaller portions i intend to give her she will hopefuly move on to the hay.

I'll update with progress on the little minx! :wink:

Aaaawww Lila is gorgeous!
Try what Tamsin says about moving the litter tray. You could also try having 2 and swap them round so that both of them smell of her. What do you put in the litter tray? I tried using wood based cat litter.. simba uses the tray really well.. but Nala doesnt like it and wees on the floor so i put a 2nd tray in with just newspaper and lots of hay beside the trays so that they can eat and poop at the same time :wink: I also have a deep storage box with newspaper and hay in which they like to sit in and munch on.
My two didnt used to eat alot of hay but i did find they loved dried grass you can get in petshops or online. Then i found some nice hay they liked and they eat lots of it now and get dried grass about once a week as a treat.