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Bunny meal time stress!

SarahP

Wise Old Thumper
Help me out here please!! :) My rabbits are getting more and more stressed about meal times, and chase each other round. It gets to the point where I don't think any of them is going to eat whatsoever, as Dusty is so busy 'seeing off' Clover, but not coming anywhere near the food! :roll:

I've even started to give them separate bowls a long way away from each other, but they still get stressed and jumpy, thinking they are about to be 'seen off' by the other.

It all started before they even moved into the house, but is getting progressively worse. Help!!!
 
What about putting them in seperate carriers with the door shut when you feed them? Then hopefully before long they'll realise the other cant get their food? :?
 
I'd never be able to get them in the carriers in the first place though! They tear around all over the place while I'm standing there like a lemon, holding two bowls of food and trying to restore order! :oops: :shock:
 
I'd never be able to get them in the carriers in the first place though! They tear around all over the place while I'm standing there like a lemon, holding two bowls of food and trying to restore order! :oops: :shock:

Ohhh :shock: How about you chuck a towel over one at a time and get them in the carriers, and THEN prepare food? Xx
 
Yep, my rabbits haven't had food bowls for ages. The fresh food is scattered on the floor. The hay is in a pile in a big tray and the pellets go in a treat ball.

Tam
 
How weird - you know if I said mine did this there'd be a chorus of 'get them spayed!' :roll: But I know yours are done, so all I can think is give them more food - they get a bit desperate for pellets. The only time Maa got aggressive (my lovely Maa! :shock: ) was when I cut her pellets right back so she was desperate for them. The other thing I do with the group of girls is tip the food onto the floor - having a dish seems to make them more defensive over it, so mine always eat off the floor.
 
Mine eat off the floor too - Simply cos I cant be doing with having bowls around :oops:, and its just something else for the horrors to chuck around :lol: X
 
As long as the food is given on clean bedding/flooring (I dont mean 'sterile' just clean ;) ) then food bowls are not necessary. Also, scattering the pellet feed onto clean hay encourages 'natural foraging' :D

Janex
 
How weird - you know if I said mine did this there'd be a chorus of 'get them spayed!' :roll: But I know yours are done.

And therein lives the weirdness of it all - Dusty has been acting hormonal for months now ,despite being spayed last Spring. Am starting to worry that there might be something causing this.
 
Nina and Joey would do this - I ended up getting one of those egg shaped treat dispensers so while one was concentrating on knocking it over the other would gobble up the spilt food and vice versa!
 
And therein lives the weirdness of it all - Dusty has been acting hormonal for months now ,despite being spayed last Spring. Am starting to worry that there might be something causing this.

I have heard they can sometimes have an incomplete spay, and some hormonal tissue is left behind, maybe an ovary got missed? Could an ultrasound show it up maybe?
 
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