mini lop Diet

when i bought mitsi i forgot to ask what sort of things the breeder was feeding her, i looked up how much hard food they should have and it said 2.oz per day and as much hay as she wants, which is what she gets. apart from the odd bit of carrot top that i tried last week and she nommed it all up very quickly .. we tried one small slice of carrot, mitsi did eat it after fully investigating it first (her poop stank after the one bit .. but went back to normal straight away)

but she seems very hungry in the mornings, and i am wondering if i am giving her enough, obviously i don't want to give her too much, and i know that any changes to her diet need to be done gradually

I am in the process of weening her off the "change over" feed the breeder gave me to her nomal burgess excel pellets as was recommended by the breeder.

I do hope i'm doing the right thing as i am a bunny newbie . ...

any advise ,tips and things will be very welcome

They do tend to be more hungry morning and evening, it's when they are naturally alert and when they'd be looking for food in the wild. I give them a few pellets and then refill their hay so they spend most of the morning nomming that.

hello and welcome:wave: i have 2 minilops charlie and Honey. the generall rule is that when it comes to the rabbit food it should be about an eggcup per day. some prefer to give more to babies but i never did and my 2 are fine. my vet said that pellet food should be more of a suplement than anything else. as long as she has loads of fresh hay, that is most important as it helps prevent tooth problems and keeps their tummy healthy. carrots are high in sugar so shouldnt be given too much. as for greens i didnt give mine any until 12 weeks of age. then i gradually introduced small amounts.

rabbits always get excited over food!:roll: so dont be fooled but the 'im starved' look. LOL mine do it all the time, but as long as there is hay thats good.

all the best!:wave:

Thank you Lucy and Elena

Mitsi has as much hay as she wants, as there is always hay there for her to eat ... I only give her an egg cup of pellets in the mornings (and i use an egg cup to make sure).

thank you again

Personally I split their pellets and give half an eggcup in the morning and half in the evening. Partly to give them something to look forward to and partly to ensure they are eating. Refusing pellets is always a warning sign that something's up.

thats a good idea .... :thumb: thank you

Yes I split the egg cup as well to morning and evening, sometimes Doughnut makes her little happy noise as she's so excited and does little twirls for me.

I also give her rose petals as she loves them as much as pellets and they are good for her, also bramble leaves and rose leaves. she doesn't get veg as she had an episode of gas. She loves dill though so sometimes gets a bit of that.

She used to get two egg cups but since cutting down she eats much more hay and her poops are a lot bigger. As mentioned before, as soon as she doesn't eat her pellets I know there is something wrong.

what is a normal poo cycle? mitsi's poo has gone soft and stinks today, we are trying to change her food over half and half from starter food over to Burgess excel just like the Breeder told us too.

so will it be soft and hard sometimes?

Annamarie said:

what is a normal poo cycle? mitsi's poo has gone soft and stinks today, we are trying to change her food over half and half from starter food over to Burgess excel just like the Breeder told us too.

so will it be soft and hard sometimes?

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Do you mean half her food, half new food? If so it should be a lot slower than that :wave: as in, usual amount of her food then a pellet of new food, and then over a period of maybe a few weeks change it so you put more new food in and less old food. But it should be done very slowly as rabbits have very sensitive tummies and that is probably the reason for her poos being like that. They do have soft poos which they eat but it sounds more food related. Not amazing breeder advice :?

thank you Aly&poppy the Breeder did say gradually but we didn't know it meant very slow
we will be careful :thumb:

Doughnut had uneaten cecal and a poopy bum on excel, partly I think because I was told to give her more when she was a baby than she should have got. She was on a muesli so I changed her to excel very slowly, it should take about 2 weeks before the complete change over. Then when she still had uneaten cecal I changed after a while to science selective as it's higher in fibre, now she begs for her pellets and sometimes makes her happy humming noise!

thanks Cpayne

we are changing her slower now, i have tried to ask the Breeder on face book about which baby food she gave me but she has not answered me yet :roll: i don't want her to run out just yet.