is this right vet advice

[Dollie]

If it was too much veg wouldn they be chubby??? If they are healthy you should carry on feeding them what you are!

Not necessarily. Most veggies won't get them fat, as far as I know. Always watch out with things like carrots etc, but other than that..

What is being said is that to maintain good dental and GI condition every rabbit should eat their own body size in hay a day. A rabbit which eats this amount is far less at risk of GI or dental problems.

This means that a small rabbit and a large rabbit should eat different amounts to each other which is relative to their size.

But their body size, in what way? Their weight? Or just their "size"? Because if that's the demand than I certainly don't get what the problem is, mine do eat that much hay. (They can't eat grass now.. They suddenly turned in to little haymonsters..)

 

[ash&crystal]

Not necessarily. Most veggies won't get them fat, as far as I know. Always watch out with things like carrots etc, but other than that..

oh.......sorry, i learn something new about rabbits every day!

 

[Dollie]

oh.......sorry, i learn something new about rabbits every day!

So do I!

 

[The Duchess]

Not going to labour my point but for those who are wondering if their bunnies are eating sufficient hay then see below.

If your rabbits' do poos like this then you are obviously doing things right

The poos above have a very large amount of fibre and break apart very easily - to dust in your fingers.

but if they look like this, then the balance of hay and veg/pellet would need to be adjusted (in my opinion)

They are hard and small and in this case too dark. The bunny who was doing this was a medium sized rabbit who was being fed on too little hay because he had the option to eat way too many pellets and veg.

Both are my rabbits and the poos in the first picture are from having been here in my care for a while and the ones below were on day of admission (but a different rabbit)

 

[ash&crystal]

i have a dutch rab and a wildx wht (and could it be quite pacific becauese i am easily confused) should i be feeding them, they have constant suppley to grass i feed themm rabbit excel adult

 

[Dollie]

Unfortunately you can't compare it to anything.. But the first one is Feline's, she's the biggest, 2kg lop. Second are Fred's, 1,5 kg but he was still recovering, had been sick for over a week. Last is Pip's (at eight week old), but she didn't eat that much hay then, she started doing that after I bonded her with F&F.

Must point out my rabbits eat grass all day, which makes their poos a lot darker, but I don't believe that's a bad thing since rabbits are "made" to eat grass..

Does seem a bit weird, me having photo's of my rabbits poo's all ready.. but it was mainly to compare Pip's "first" poo at three/four weeks when I just got her to one from that moment (eight weeks), huuuuge difference:

 

[weeble]

Not going to labour my point but for those who are wondering if their bunnies are eating sufficient hay then see below.

If your rabbits' do poos like this then you are obviously doing things right

The poos above have a very large amount of fibre and break apart very easily - to dust in your fingers.

but if they look like this, then the balance of hay and veg/pellet would need to be adjusted (in my opinion)

They are hard and small and in this case too dark. The bunny who was doing this was a medium sized rabbit who was being fed on too little hay because he had the option to eat way too many pellets and veg.

Both are my rabbits and the poos in the first picture are from having been here in my care for a while and the ones below were on day of admission (but a different rabbit)

:thumb:good post I completely agree with you on the hay %age front, diet should be as close to their natural diet as possible and this doesnt include large amounts of veg

 

[Dollie]

:thumb:good post I completely agree with you on the hay %age front, diet should be as close to their natural diet as possible and this doesnt include large amounts of veg

Doesn't really include large amounts of hay either?

 

[weeble]

Doesn't really include large amounts of hay either?

Nope not hay as such but hay is just dried grass which they would eat in the wild. Also a lot of the grasses they come across in the wild would be the stalkier type rather than the type of grass we see in our gardens which are quite rich

 

[Santa]

Doesn't really include large amounts of hay either?

Wild rabbits originated in Spain...have you ever seen the colour and texture of grass for most of the year in Spain? It's practically hay all year round Hay=grass, in the same way that toast=bread.

 

[Dollie]

Wild rabbits originated in Spain...have you ever seen the colour and texture of grass for most of the year in Spain? It's practically hay all year round Hay=grass, in the same way that toast=bread.

And my rabbits eat grass all day, hay all night.. EVEN with that bowl of veggies. So what's the problem?

 

[linzi1loveanimals]

Still wondering about the actual weight of the poster's buns. I'm finding this diversion quite interesting-as numbers being quoted aren't what i've read over the years. Have the numbers changed recently or are there personal percentages? Just curious as all the books i've got say different

 

[Santa]

And my rabbits eat grass all day, hay all night.. EVEN with that bowl of veggies. So what's the problem?

There's no need to be so defensive :?

The easiest analogy I can find is to imagine giving children a large bowl of sweets to eat daily. Even if they do eat all their 5 portions of fruit and veg each day, a large quantity of sweets daily is going to damage their teeth and potentially lead to long term problems such as diabetes. Just because you can't see it on a day-to-day basis and just because they eat what they are "supposed to", it doesn't mean that all the other stuff is always a good thing.

 

[SarahP]

I think there is a problem in that sometimes it's hard to see bunnies not as little humans but as rabbits. Not that this is getting at anyone here, but that we as humans see veg as super healthy, and therefore think that bunnies need lots of it.

 

[Dollie]

There's no need to be so defensive :?

The easiest analogy I can find is to imagine giving children a large bowl of sweets to eat daily. Even if they do eat all their 5 portions of fruit and veg each day, a large quantity of sweets daily is going to damage their teeth and potentially lead to long term problems such as diabetes. Just because you can't see it on a day-to-day basis and just because they eat what they are "supposed to", it doesn't mean that all the other stuff is always a good thing.

And there's no need to be so convinced you're right either, I guess.. You got me confused.. Thought the problem would be them not eating enough hay, think we figured out they do eat enough hay, suddenly something else is wrong?

I think you can't compare veggies to a bowl of sweets. I would agree if I was feeding them carrots and apples and a huge amount of pellets everyday, but I'm not. I don't believe feeding a lot of veg will cause problems on the long term. (Not the veg I feed.. Put a lot of efford in selecting them.)

Most Dutch vets, breeders, forums, blabla.. All advice 25 grams of pellets per kg for an adult rabbit. Which is, in most cases, far more than the "eggcup" adviced here. I think 25 grams pr kg is quite a lot, and where the eggcup comes from... I'm pretty sure some of my Dutch "forum-colleagues" would go insane reading about only an eggcup of pellets. (Personally I think you shouldn't care about any rule, since no rabbit is the same.)

And the general thought on veggies is very different too. The more, the better. (And then cut down the pellets as much as you can..) In fact, vets, good vets (they're not all that good with rabbits.. :roll, advice to feed your dental buns a lot of vegs and a very small amount of pellets.. (And a lot of hay of course..)

I understand you all think differently, but why? As Linzi asks, where does that come from?

 

[SarahP]

A couple of vets I've come across have advised that veggies are not high enough in fibre for rabbits or guinea pigs, and therefore shouldn't be given in high quantities. There are so many conflicting ideas about diet though. Personally, I'd never feed a lot of veg to a rabbit.

 

[Dollie]

A couple of vets I've come across have advised that veggies are not high enough in fibre for rabbits or guinea pigs, and therefore shouldn't be given in high quantities. There are so many conflicting ideas about diet though. Personally, I'd never feed a lot of veg to a rabbit.

Depends on which veggies you give though. But indeed, there are so many conflicting ideas about diet. And I'd rather believe a vet (well, more than one vet) I spoke to, than some people on a forum, writing in a language that isn't mine. Especially since I have seen it work.

The whole reason I started giving more veg is because of my dental bun. He refused to eat hay. Because of this diet (but without hay and grass, since he wouldn't eat that) he never had any problems with his molars again, though my vet was conviced he'd have to go under GA every six weeks. Unfortunately he passed away last february, but with perfect teeth.. And he's not the only dental rabbit it worked for.

It's just confusing, everybody thinks differently. And this, my rabbits do so well on it. So I choose to listen to that..

 

[The Duchess]

Still wondering about the actual weight of the poster's buns. I'm finding this diversion quite interesting-as numbers being quoted aren't what i've read over the years. Have the numbers changed recently or are there personal percentages? Just curious as all the books i've got say different

Hi

I agree, we've kind of gone of the point of the thread which was about dieting a rabbit.

I have to go back to if the OP cuts down over a period of 1-2 months she could very easily gently encourage a bit of weight loss - but as you say, we don't know what the rabbit weighs or breed/cross breed size so we can't be more specific. If the rabbits is morbidly obese then it must be cut down over a period of time longer than weeks - more like months (I have a well written guide to cutting down an obese rabbit if anyone is interested - not written by me). If it's just a few hundred grammes then it wouldn't take much to get back on track.

I hear this 80% (or thereabouts) percentage quoted in many places - assorted vets, literature, and there is a very good feeding pyramid diagram available courtesy of Burns Pet Nutrition.

((For anybody in the Ipswich area next weekend, why not come along to Pet Fest at Jimmy's Farm, where he is opening his new Rabbit Garden in conjunction with Wood Green Animal Shelters. I'll be there doing my Rabbit Poo display under the guise of Make Mine Chocolate! (apologies for the unashamed plug) but we will be covering diet so may be of interest to some people. Marie Channer of Wood Green will also be doing free rabbit and GP health checks.))

 

[Dollie]

But ehh, this thread wasn't about the amount of veg I feed my beautiful three, so we should probably leave it to this. I respect your opinions and I think we should all do what works for our pets.

And I'm sorry I seemed so defensive, didn't really mean to. Having a hard time trying to make my point in a foreign language though, sometimes getting defensive is just easier.

 

[The Duchess]

But ehh, this thread wasn't about the amount of veg I feed my beautiful three, so we should probably leave it to this. I respect your opinions and I think we should all do what works for our pets.

And I'm sorry I seemed so defensive, didn't really mean to. Having a hard time trying to make my point in a foreign language though, sometimes getting defensive is just easier.

You write better English than an awful lot of English folks I know! :lol::lol: I can't imagine trying to have a quickly typed conversation online with anyone in another language - very hard indeed.