ADVICE on diet???

[sharkfur]

:wave: hi! Im not sure if a forest is a safe place for bun even if he enjoys it..Id be wary of other animals and of course birds...and if he scared then how would you catch him to keep him safe?

An egg cup a day is great...you can weigh him 1-2 a week to keep an eye on his weight to.

Id would continue to try a few mixes of hays....and dont give up...he will eventually start grazing if he is not full up on pellets and veges.

I got a non-eating hay bun who was fed on horrible muesli and I managed to get him into a hay monster!
It took some perserverance but he has much better teeth for the effort and a better gut too.

I dont tend to give my buns much veges at all...maybe a small piece once a month - and not much fruit either. of course they go mad for it but it upsets their tums and they get excited for a fresh handful of hay now too....

I add to their diet in variation by adding foraged wild foods as similar to what wild buns would eat.
So...

Hawthorn
Plantain
Dandelions
Apple leaves and branches
Rose leaves and petals
Lemon balm
Rosemary
thyme
holly hock leaves
sun flower leaves

All the above I dry and use in the winter months too...though the rosemary is evergreen so I dont bother drying that much.
I do think sometimes a bun who eats hay well can often help a bun who doesnt eat hay well...as they tend to copy and learn form each other...not sure if your bun is by itself...

I order some of the INGS and then also the timothy/rye mix....I buy the largest amount (for 3 buns to share) and then mix this with meadow hay.....I make the "expensive" hay last for ages and ages...through quite a few bales of meadow hay actually...gives variation for them and they love the stakyness of the timothy/rye hay and the long strands of the ings. Might be worht a try...but give him time to realise that hay is now his main diet and thats what he needs to ge excited about...sprinkle the eg cup of pellets amongst the hay for him to forage for it..

http://www.hayforpets.co.uk/

:wave:

Hi there!

wow, thanks for all the useful info Greatly appreciated...will definitely try some of the plants you suggested, too... Uhm, about the forset-thing: don't worry, he is uber-happy, he makes the most binkies over there, completely liking the thing...there is an area full of clovers, he enjoys that like nothing else When we're at home, he sometimes goes up to his harness and carries it to me, telling me he'd really love to go... And don't worry, I'm real careful, after all, he's my little "son", would never let anything happen to him we are always at places where we can see everything for quite a distance, and ya know, the harness us pretty useful, just in case...I really find it funny how he learned what the harness means, and actually likes it

I'M really...REALLY thankful for the hay-tips...

 

[sharkfur]

firstly i wouldn't be walking my rabbit in a forest as all sorts of fungi grows in those places, round tree roots etc, rotting leaves all of which could makethe rabbit very ill. Secondly you need to encourage your bun to eat more hay. My rabbit is currently being treated for GI Stasis,my vet thinks caused by a few factors, eg, he had just joined our family as we got him in the middle of june, then he was neautured, and he had been having too much gassy veg, which had set the stasis off, i have now completely changed his diet, he gets meadow hay and timothy hay mixed, he has at present 1 hay rack with another one on order, he has hay stuffed in his play tube and today i also bought from wilkinsons small pet logs with holes in them which i have also stuffed with hay, they like to chew wood so that's why i got the logs aswell, they were only £1.65 each so well worth the money as the logs will last ages. I've now temporarily stopped all veggies as he needs to get better, he had a few dandelion leaves yesterday as a treat but no more than that. There are also seed packets available to grow your own rabbit weeds, which i am in the middle of sorting out, i have one of those plastic pop up greenhouses which cost about £15 and i will now be using it to grow an assortment of rabbit weeds to feed my bunnies, at least then i know the source of his food and it will be safe. Walking bunny through a forest or park exposes them to greens that have most likely been pee'd on by cats and dogs, you can't wash it before he eats it and it increases the chance of him becoming ill, a rabbit with the runs is not good and requires immediate veterinary attention as he could die within a few hours. I'm lucky that i caught my rabbits stasis almost immediately, as he wasn't himself in the morning it started, he was hunched up in his hutch,wouldn't come out for his morning exercise and was trembling, i also had going against me that he had a relatively poor diet before we got him, now i'm having to start afresh so i can get everything right, seeing my bunny so poorly is not something i want to see again and i certainly wouldn't leave a bunny with the runs or sloppy poo without vet treatment, sorry but i don't agree with taking bunny through forests or parks etc, the rabbit is not a novelty item, i may not be perfect myself as i've only had mine since june, but at least i know how to correct everything for the good of my rabbits .

Ok, first of all: So sorry to hear about the stasis It must be horrible. Second: I don't know why you have to be all offensive with the walking thing (novelty item? and suggesting that I don't know 'how to correct everything for the good of my rabbit'..) For starters, I'm not a beginner myself, ok? I had my bunboy for 2,5 years now.. And I'm pretty sure I know what's good for him and what makes him happy. So I'm gonna explain it pretty briefly: where we go for walks, no one else goes, not even alone, not even with dogs. I'm really careful so that he doesn't eat anything bad. He is jumping around in a place where you can find clover, exclusively, no fungi in miles.... I'm not takin him out to show it to people, or anything like that. And for the record, he is in love with that place, he always goes up and carries his little harness to me, saying he wants to go there for another half an hour. You've never seen healthier grass than the grass over there... So, we're doing it since 2010, so it's not some careless novelty we just started. The teeth are healthier than ever, he doesn't have a poor diet,he has the proper wood to chew, too. So, as I said: I am not a careless owner, and not a newbie. I am thankful for the tips, but I cannot take it if people are trying to be offensive and trying to act as if they knew anything better. You knew nothing about the place where we go to have some fun (restricted area with no danger), and nothing about me as an owner.. Sorry if I got it the wrong way, but it seemed to be pretty sniffy. You wouldn't know the miles I was willing to do for my little bunboy, so please, don't say stuff like: "at least i know how to correct everything for the good of my rabbits" . You wish you had a place like that for your buns, organic grass in a harmfull and beautiful natural environment...Where they make binkies in every 10 seconds because they love it so much.... So... so much for you not advising me to take him there. The topic was about gradually cutting back pellets because of the calcium, and trying to find a connection between the new portion and softer feces, not about questioning the amount of care.