Change of diet * update :)

Ok, I know to change to pellets to do it gradually over about 10 days, but by the size of Chandras poops (and a bit of a sticky bum) this morning and how much hay is left I need to change the balance of hay and pellets.

I gave her a palm full off what she's being having and mixed in about 8 ss pellets, I think she is used to lots more but obviously I want her to eat more hay.

So my question is, will it be ok to drastically cut how much dry food she has in the hope of her eating more hay - considering she's settling in and getting used to new surroundings...

If she has a sticky bum, I would cut out the pellets for a bit and keep her on hay for a bit and then start over again with slowly introducing the pellets!

If she's new then don't deprive her of the food she's used to - she'll already be unsettled and nervous, and that will lead to a bit of uneaten sticky poop probably.

Having said that I didn't have any of my bunnies food from the rescues I got them from (except Benny and Pepsi's rescue) so I had to put them all straight onto science selective - I just gave them a small handful once a day and no tummy problems were caused.

Although it's not recommended, at my old job they used to change buns straight over to SS if they had excel caecals or squidgy poos - not the best method, and when I started I made everyone do it gradually, but we never had any problem with those that were switched straight away. I think the prebiotics in SS must help settle the tum when switching, and all their poo problems were sorted

loopylop said:

If she has a sticky bum, I would cut out the pellets for a bit and keep her on hay for a bit and then start over again with slowly introducing the pellets!

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That's what my vet had me do with Fey and Sprite when I got them, although they didn't have poopy butt/cecal issues. Their normal fecals were as large as their eyes and very mushy. I don't know if you're feeding veggies, but my vet said that since I had to take the pellets away for two weeks (ended up being longer to let them recover) I had to start feeding leafy veggies immediately. Otherwise they wouldn't get their vitamins.

I'm going to leave her with hay for now, maybe pick a litttle grass for her later.
Her poops are tiny she liked the ss, if she's hungry enough she'll eat her hay, I've only seen her eat a couple of strands at a time :roll: and toss the plant pot I had put it in around in disgust :lol:

You'll prob find with just hay her poops do get bigger

All my girls did poops the size of apple pips when I first got them :shock: I think it took about a couple of weeks on SS and hay to get them decent looking, and now I sometimes wonder if I have a herd of sheep rather than rabbits :shock:

You will find that if you give her a handful of SS for breakfast it will give her an appetite and she's likely to eat more hay, especially once she knows there's no more pellets till the next morning. If their tums get too empty, for instance if she's not used to eating hay at all, and suddenly has no food, she may fill up with gas instead, so I wouldn't totally deprive her of dry food. Also if you put the hay in her litter tray so she's sat with it under her nose, she will nibble more than if it's in a rack or toy.

And of course you can't give her veg in any quantity if she's not used to eating it, or that will cause gas too.

When I got Tia, Angie said she didn't eat much of anything at all, and she was a bit slow to eat, due to nerves I think, but she went mad for SS after a couple of days, and always insists on fresh hay twice a day - she won't bother eating it otherwise. I used to have to shut her in her crate for a couple of hours with a pile of hay, or she'd go out and sit on the carpet all day without eating a thing till tea time! The pellets would kind of 'wake up' her appetite.

Well things are looking up, Now she's realised there is nothing else coming :lol: I caught her eating a whole mouthful of hay yesterday!!! Not just one strand at a time :roll:
I have to admit I have only given her ss, that other stuff looked so awful.
She's happy enough, binking around as I type and just had a massive run and jumped straight onto the settee

I've done exactly the same thing over the past week, as I got my 2 girls last Sunday and one of them had a sticky bum. They were clearly used to eating loads of dry food and no hay (don't know about veggies). I gradually changed them over to Science Selective over the course of about 4 days, plus gradually added more hay, and ensured that they didn't get much dried. Now 8 days on they absolutely WORSHIP hay and the sticky bum has gone.