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New Rabbits diet question

Dana_leigh

New Kit
Hi

I'm relatively new here, last time I was here my Dwarf rabbit had gone missing. We never found him and now we have 2 new baby rabbits, about 9 weeks old

They have come from a breeder, one is a Mini Lop and one a mini Rex

At the moment they have Dodson and Horrell Rabbit pellets which the breeder gave us and recommended, but on the websites I have looked at it tells me this is mainly for breeder and show rabbits, ours are neither, does this matter?

What is the best food to feed them? also how much? Currently for the two of them they have a bowl full each night whilst during the day they have loads of hay which is what they have been bought up on.

The breeder told us to keep with just pellets (we still have food left from our other rabbit which was a mix of pellets and a dried fruit/veg mix) so now we are looking around for what might be best.

Also is once a day enough food for them? They constantly eat all of the hay and straw in their hutch so we are not worried that they dont eat enough but more that they dont get enough pellets.
 
Rabbits don't actually need many pellets. An adult rabbit, probably about 2 tablespoons a day. A young rabbit will need a bit more than that because they need the energy to grow. 95% of their diet should be good quality hay :) A bowl full of pellets is too much I would say.
I wouldn't bother bedding them on straw, I'd just give them hay as bedding; it's warm and it's very nutritious.
 
Ok thanks

I would say at an estimate there is probably 6-8 tablespoons worth of pellets in the bowl so for two of them thats about 4 each max so will cut it down as they get a bit older, thanks.

We are using straw as it was left over from the last rabbit but plan to just buy hay next time.

Any good foods you can recommend?
 
Ok thanks

I would say at an estimate there is probably 6-8 tablespoons worth of pellets in the bowl so for two of them thats about 4 each max so will cut it down as they get a bit older, thanks.

We are using straw as it was left over from the last rabbit but plan to just buy hay next time.

Any good foods you can recommend?

Science selective is widely recommended by owners on here, and a lot of people feed Burgess Excel pellets which are available in most pet shops.

I would go for science selective, it's available online and some independent pet shops sell it. Excel have recently changed their recipe and added a whole bunch of junk to their pellets.

So yeah, I'd go for science selective, but remember to make the change very gradually!

x
 
Agree with reducing the ammount - I feed 2 eggcup fulls per day per bun and once they have pretty much stopped growing, thats what you should be aiming for.
I feed excel for sensitive tums - not because my buns have sensitive tummies but because it is very high in fibre which is very important.
 
You should keep their diet as it is for the first two weeks, then you can start to move over to a better pellet like Supreme's Science Selective or Supreme's Fibafirst or Oxbow Bunny Basics. I'd say the amount you are feeding is fine right now, as long as their poos are good - large dry poops that crumble easily indicate a healthy digestive system - as those pellets are really high in protein and a bit too low in fibre. They need the extra ones at the moment to help them grow, but I'd start cutting down very slowly once you reach about 4 months old and they arent growing as much.
 
Science selective is widely recommended by owners on here, and a lot of people feed Burgess Excel pellets which are available in most pet shops.

I would go for science selective, it's available online and some independent pet shops sell it. Excel have recently changed their recipe and added a whole bunch of junk to their pellets.

So yeah, I'd go for science selective, but remember to make the change very gradually!

x


Do you know more about this? Because my Barney gets excel junior at the moment and whilst I dont need to buy more yet I'd rather know soon if I'm going to have to change brand. :wave:
 
Do you know more about this? Because my Barney gets excel junior at the moment and whilst I dont need to buy more yet I'd rather know soon if I'm going to have to change brand. :wave:

Buckley is on excel junior and he can't tolerate the new recipe very well. They've put egg shells and other odd things in the recipe for some strange reason and changed the quantities of other "fillers". I'll compare the labels of the old bag and the new bag tomorrow and let you know which bits they've messed around with, but whenever I put any of the new excel pellets in with his old pellets his poo gets soft and he leaves quite a few cecals (which also don't look right as it were), they just don't suit him anymore.
Fortunately our local non-animal-selling petshop stocks a wide variety of rabbit foods including science selective so it's not like we're stuck for options. I just wish excel would stop trying to fix things that aren't broken!
 
Buckley is on excel junior and he can't tolerate the new recipe very well. They've put egg shells and other odd things in the recipe for some strange reason and changed the quantities of other "fillers". I'll compare the labels of the old bag and the new bag tomorrow and let you know which bits they've messed around with, but whenever I put any of the new excel pellets in with his old pellets his poo gets soft and he leaves quite a few cecals (which also don't look right as it were), they just don't suit him anymore.
Fortunately our local non-animal-selling petshop stocks a wide variety of rabbit foods including science selective so it's not like we're stuck for options. I just wish excel would stop trying to fix things that aren't broken!

How weird, yes if you could I'd be grateful. I was thinking of changing anyway after they brought out those horrendous cubes, I agree they need to stop messing with things - their original excel plan was better than any of this new stuff. I already feed Supreme's Fibafirst as well and I'm happy with them, so I'm sure their Junior pellets will be good (B has junior as well as he struggles keeping his weight up).
 
Thanks very much everyone. They are only 9 and 8 weeks old at the moment so I don't want to make drastic changes, yet we only have a small amount of food left so need to start mixing it soon.

I will look up the foods you have suggested. At the moment their poop is very good, nice and solid and crumbly. We fed them a tad less tonight but dont want to go too less as their bowl is always completely empty in the morning when we wake them up :)
 
There's a thread in health about taking on babies, and goes up to six months I think. It discusses diet and might be worth a read :)
 
Thanks that was interesting reading :) I have ordered some of the same food they are on now with a view to changing their food later on so they only have one change at a time :)
 
You should give your rabbit fresh juices and do not give your rabbit junk foods only give rabbit foods to your rabbit you can buy these foods from any super store at near your house.
Thanks
 
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