Proper Diet for Rabbits?

[wildfire_1982]

We just got a rabbit. My brother's girlfriend feeds her rabbits only veggies and told me to not give ours any rabbit pellets... however... i've read somewhere that they need a variety in their diet and need the pellets just as much.... is this true?? and what type of veggies should we give her and how often? I do have timonthy hay on hand for my daughter's hamster(he loves to chew the stuff and uses it for part of his nest along with some bedding material.... I free-feed the Timonthy hay since we brought her home. The Pellets are: Bomgaars Feeds - Premium Rabbit Pellets for Growing & Breeding Rabbits ((catch is she is full grown and is NOT a breeding rabbit nor is she expecting a litter*that i know of, was told she was spayed but no vet proof of it*))

I want to use the Recycled Paper for litter for SweetPea like i do for Teddy, but am afraid that it might be harmful to her.. She doesn't chew it or anything, not that i've noticed anyways....

But anyways to recap:
Question 1: What Veggies is good for a bunny/rabbit?
Question 2: How much do I give her each day?
Question 3: Paper Bedding vs WoodChips?

 

[megansmummy]

Im very new to rabbit ownership but will offer my thoughts

Pellets are important but you need to be careful how much your offering. A useful guide on here is an egg cup full per day per bun. But obvously there are exceptions to that and you need to go by your bun and her weight! We offer 8-10 pellets per day (although I have started offering a couple in the evening now as its got much colder!)

Hay is the most important thing you can offer yoour bun, plenty of fresh unlimited hay. I add fresh handfuls of hay a couple of times per day at least. The fresher it is the more they seem to eat. You can add variety here too (check out sites such as hay4pets and the hay experts to see all the different types). I add a handful of different hay to their normal meadow hay for variety. Fresh grass is also a huge favourite for my two!

Fruit an Veg are not essential for a bunny (as far as i understand it). I dont feed it routinly at all and sometimes offer a little broccoli or something as a treat. I would prefer that they ate hay. Things like carrot are high in sugar and should really only be offered as a treat rather than daily! Fruit again is sugary and so mine only get it as a treat!
Here is a great list of what they can have~
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/safefoods.htm

Fresh herbs go down well with my two and they have some form of fresh herb daily. You can also feed dried herbs too and could mix those amoungst the hay to encourage foraging and make the hay more interesting They love corriander etc.

As for bedding, the general advice is to avoid wood shavings as they can cause respitory (sp?) problems. In the litter tray I use megazorb (available from the hay experts) and newspaper and then put lots of hay on top of the newspaper as they like to munch while they poop! For bedding I use straw and on the bottom layer now that its colder and lots of hay for them to burrow/snuggle into We also have snugglesafe heatpads which go in the m/wave for them

Just seen that your in the USA so those websites wont be much use but they will help give you an idea

 

[wildfire_1982]

thank you. that was very insightful and educational... yes i live in usa, but we arent any different then european it seems like..((consideri'mg mostly european descent to begin with, lol))..... I believe she(bunny) is a holland lop or holland lop mix going by pictures of holland lops. so techincally her breed is european. lol.... but thanks for the website and tips and information. she LOVES carrots so i gotta start watching those as she'll gladly eat a whole(standard size) carrot in one day(broken up into thirds of course but still a whole day)... but i also provide alot of timonthy hay and pellets for her. she doesn't constantly eat the pellets and does constantly eat the hay.

 

[Elena]

Thats good that she's eating hay.

The diet should be 85% hay, about 10% fresh stuff and 5% pellets. They should eat roughly as much hay as the size of their body a day. Hay is the most important thing. Rabbits can live on hay alone but it doesn't always provide all the vitamins they need so a variety of fresh greens or pellets provides this.

What I do is a give a large clump of hay in their trays morning and night, then an eggcup of pellets (around 2 tablespoons) per pair in the morning and another eggcup in the evening. Then in summer I forage for weeds and herbs for them to have every evening, in winter they get dried stuff as a treat, apple sticks, brambles, plantain, sage, stuff like that. I like to stick to as natural a diet as possible (aside from pellets, as they are indoor bunnies they need pellets for Vit D) as one of mine gets sticky uneaten cecals (the poos they eat straight from their bum) and another gets occasional stasis and we find keeping things natural helps this immensely.

 

[GrahamL]

Thats good that she's eating hay.

The diet should be 85% hay, about 10% fresh stuff and 5% pellets. They should eat roughly as much hay as the size of their body a day. Hay is the most important thing. Rabbits can live on hay alone but it doesn't always provide all the vitamins they need so a variety of fresh greens or pellets provides this.

What I do is a give a large clump of hay in their trays morning and night, then an eggcup of pellets (around 2 tablespoons) per pair in the morning and another eggcup in the evening. Then in summer I forage for weeds and herbs for them to have every evening, in winter they get dried stuff as a treat, apple sticks, brambles, plantain, sage, stuff like that. I like to stick to as natural a diet as possible (aside from pellets, as they are indoor bunnies they need pellets for Vit D) as one of mine gets sticky uneaten cecals (the poos they eat straight from their bum) and another gets occasional stasis and we find keeping things natural helps this immensely.

I won't bother posting anything else, as Elena has put everything i was going to

 

[wildfire_1982]

LOL GrahamL. I bought some fresh veggies.... fresh cilinatro, celery stalks*with leafy green top*, raspberries, cucumbers, and green leaf lettuce(not the iceberg or romain).... I gave her some of that in a ceral bowl(low lipped, yes i sacraficed one of my cereal bowls to her, lol.). ummmm..... She has a pellet dispenser but its the same as i put in it when we first got her wednesday... and she is making the hay like bedding.... I have just enough to get through until payday next week. Then i gotta buy the larger amts, as it was only for my daughter's hamster at the beginning, so i bought a small size bag.