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I'm worried they are underweight

I

isla

Mama Doe
My 2 rabbits live in my bedroom and don't have a cage, so are running around, I feed them SS and excel pellets every morning about 1 and a half handfuls of each mostly hand fed due to me taming them at the moment (which is going ok) and they get unlimited medow hay, redi grass and a posh hay depending on what day it is. At night they get 1 giant spring green leaf, broccili, a bit of carrot, some cale, celery, cucumber and sometimes other stuff, again depending on what day it is. And I'm not sure if they are underweight or if I'm just used to seeing fatter bunnies. They both look a bit skinney and I know that Abbey has lost weight since I got her from the rescue, though I dont know exact weights.

When I give them breakfast it takes them over an hour to eat it all, and their night time meal takes even longer. Does it sound like theres anything wrong? They have both been to the vets about 2 months ago and everything was great, my vet was really happy. But they both seam so skinny, but I've only ever seen rabbits that I'd consider overweight other then them.
 
they eat a lot more than my rabbits, and mine aren't skinny. Are you sure they're eating much hay?

A lot of pet rabbits are too fat to be healthy - they should be slimmish, although lops tend to be more chunky.
 
At my vets they keep the scales outside in the waiting area and they wouldn't charge me to take them along and weigh them. The receptionist would put their weights into the system too, can you do that at your vets? If they were weighed last time their weight could be compared.
 
I'm not sure what you mean by mealtimes, as it's more natural for them to graze throughout the day.I would stop hand feeding them so much when you put their pellets down, by all means give them the first one or two by hand but then leave them to hoover up the rest themselves, but clear away any pellets that haven't been eaten within half an hour. Feed the pellets only once a day or if you want to split that same quantity into night and morning you could do that and use those two times to hand feed them as "treats".Put fresh greens down for them and let them eat what they want of these throughout the day. As someone has already said, pop them down to the vet for another weigh in if you want reassurance. Can you post up some piccies here?
 
capel said:
I'm not sure what you mean by mealtimes, as it's more natural for them to graze throughout the day.I would stop hand feeding them so much when you put their pellets down, by all means give them the first one or two by hand but then leave them to hoover up the rest themselves, but clear away any pellets that haven't been eaten within half an hour. Feed the pellets only once a day or if you want to split that same quantity into night and morning you could do that and use those two times to hand feed them as "treats".Put fresh greens down for them and let them eat what they want of these throughout the day. As someone has already said, pop them down to the vet for another weigh in if you want reassurance. Can you post up some piccies here?
Click to expand...

By mealtime I mean they have the pellets in the morning, and veg at night and hay all day. The reason I'm hand feeding the pellets is so they get more used to me, as they are very shy bunnies, its really working, I am now able to stroke both rabbits for a few mins each (this is a huge improvement!) and I'd be very reluctant to stop hand feeding. They always get a handful or 2 scattered allover the place. And the veg I give them usually lasts most of the night. And they eat loads of hay too.

I was looking at them again this morning and I think they are trying to trick my into feeding them more, using their moult lines, I will pop them down the vets just to check, but I think their moult lines might have a part to play in this...
 
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