Newbies in need of advice please.

Hi there.

My daughter and I became first-time bunny parents this weekend. Over the last few weeks, we've spent many an hour reading the fab advice given on this forum, and we'd like to say thank you as its been a real help. However, we still have a query regarding dried food, and hoped someone could advise us on what to do for the best. I'm sorry, this is going to be rather long winded and I hope the following makes sense.....

After reading the advice given here, I bought our bunnies Science Selective. However, our local Pets at Home said I needed to give baby bunnies pellets specifically designed for young rabbits, so I bought a bag of their Junior and Dwarf Rabbit Nuggets. When I collected the bunnies, it turned out they'd been fed on a rabbit museli mix, grass and dandelions....and no pellets. I thought it may have been a bad idea to completely change their diet, so I bought an additional bag of rabbit museli.

So far we have given Sophie and Oscar a small handful of both the museli and the junior nuggets in separate bowls. We wondered if it was ok to keep doing this, or should we try and phaze out the museli? Also, is it really necessary to continue with the junior nuggets or should I replace it with the Science Selective?

Thank you for reading this. Any help is appreciated.

You need to keep them on whatever the pet shop fed them.
It's rubbish that they need particular pellets when a baby, as long as they're weaned it doesn't make any difference. It's changing the food that will cause problems.
My buns are on the junior and dwarf any way. I will always recommend excel as I think it's great, it's also what the vets recommend.

When changing the food over do it gradually over a period of a week to ten days. Keep them off veg for a bit as changing homes is stressfula dnw ill cause upset tums and diarhea (sp????)
Hope that helps!

Ideally you want them on a pellet rather than a muesli - with the muesli they pick their favourite bits out and leave the bits they don't like (normally the bits that are best for them). as a result they don't always get everything they need.

My first rabbit was on a muesli when I got him. The way I did it was mix a few pellets with the muesli then over the next 10-14 days increase the ratio of pellets to muesli until the muesli has been phased out.

You can get pellets designed for babies and dwarfs - just do as above when they need to go on adult food. The food bag will say what weight of rabbit it is suitable for.

science selective is a good rabbit pellet As suggested mix the two changing the ratio over at least 10days until they are on just SS. I never fed my bunny anything different when he was a baby.. he just had normal pellet food

The lite version of excel and the SS are vitually the same. I'm still confused as to why excel thing small adult rabbits need less fibre than average sized rabbits :roll:

You're right to mix the food gradually. No reason why you can't use up the muslie/nuggets you have and mix them with the SS. Rabbits grow up quickly so by the time they are 4/5 months old most of their growing is done

Don't forget the most important food is hay, get them into good hay eating habbits no and they're less likely to have teeth/tummy issues as adults. Plenty of green yummy looking hay and a small portion of dry food should suit them fine

Tam