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How much food?

Peterbunny

Peterbunny

Mama Doe
Hi,

I've tried googling this but keep getting lots of different answers so I thought I would try here :wave:

How much food should I be offering nearly 5 month old Peter? Currently I give him....

7.30am - Veggies ( small amount of spring greens, savoy cabbage maybe a tiny piece of apple / Carrot) - I have a metal ball that hangs on the mesh of his hutch and I don't fill it to the top.

Hay in hutch / Run throughout the day (doesnt eat much hay - have tried him on 3 different variaties but he still doesnt eat much). Access to grass so eats some during day. Occasionally I give him some dried, bagged forage that I bought from the pet shop (called Dandelion salad).

6pm - small amount of pellets, literally barely covers the bottom of his ceramic bowl. I weighed his portion this evening and it was 9g. Pellets are the P@H junior ones..

Peter acts like he is starving :shock: I can barely get the hutch door open to put his veg in without him already attacking the ball :lol: He is the same in the evening with his pellets. Both his veg and pellets are always eaten within minutes of me putting them in.

He was weighed at the vets 2 weeks ago and weighed 1.25kg and although I didnt hear how much he weighs at his neutering on Tues the vet commented that he had gained weight, so obviously that is a positive thing.

Does it seem like he is eating enough?
 
No idea on the weight thing but they always act like they're starving :lol:

My outdoor pair are terrible :roll: they have a handful of pellets between them every day but I split it in half so they get some at around 2pm then get fed at 8ish.

Have you tried hay for pets hay? Mine didn't eat much but I got them ings hay and timothy and rye hay from them (the £16 bags) and they last ages :thumb: they eat every strand of it now :D I was giving mine a spring green leaf a day between them but they stopped eating as much hay. So I stopped and they only get herbs every other day now, they don't need veg so I don't bother anymore. They started eating more hay after that :p
 
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Aly&Poppy<3 said:
No idea on the weight thing but they always act like they're starving :lol:

My outdoor pair are terrible :roll: they have a handful of pellets between them every day but I split it in half so they get some at around 2pm then get fed at 8ish.

Have you tried hay for pets hay? Mine didn't eat much but I got them ings hay and timothy and rye hay from them (the £16 bags) and they last ages :thumb: they eat every strand of it now :D I was giving mine a spring green leaf a day between them but they stopped eating as much hay. So I stopped and they only get herbs every other day now, they don't need veg so I don't bother anymore. They started eating more hay after that :p
Click to expand...

This :D

All my buns are now hay monsters because of Ings hay :D
 
I checked today and no luck :( hopefully soon.

I bought the meadow hay and they're not overly fussed about it, they prefer the Asda hay :roll:
 
Doesnt sound like he is eating enough hay, although acting starving is normal, so dont let that worry you! Just remember that pellets are like sweets for bunnies, so at feeding time we get mobbed the same way a young child will mob you for haribo :lol:

I'd say try lots of different types of hay to help find his favourite - bear in mind that (in my opinion) p@h hays arent very good quality, so if you're mainly feeding them that might be the issue.

I'd also reccommend changing pellet brand, as he doesnt need to be on Junior pellets, and P@H pellets have low fibre levels- 15%. Fibre is really important for the health of their guts. I'd go for an adult pellet, something high fibre like Supreme Science Selective (25%) or Supreme Fibafirst (30%) or Oxbow Bunny Basics (30% I think not sure), or at 19% Excel isnt bad, but is low in fibre compared to SS.
 
nessar said:
Doesnt sound like he is eating enough hay, although acting starving is normal, so dont let that worry you! Just remember that pellets are like sweets for bunnies, so at feeding time we get mobbed the same way a young child will mob you for haribo :lol:

I'd say try lots of different types of hay to help find his favourite - bear in mind that (in my opinion) p@h hays arent very good quality, so if you're mainly feeding them that might be the issue.

I'd also reccommend changing pellet brand, as he doesnt need to be on Junior pellets, and P@H pellets have low fibre levels- 15%. Fibre is really important for the health of their guts. I'd go for an adult pellet, something high fibre like Supreme Science Selective (25%) or Supreme Fibafirst (30%) or Oxbow Bunny Basics (30% I think not sure), or at 19% Excel isnt bad, but is low in fibre compared to SS.
Click to expand...

I've tried Peter on cheaper Meadow hay (bob martin), P@H timothy hay, Burgess Excel dandelion and the other Burgess (can't remember the name? barn forage or something similar) He didnt seem overly interested in any of them, but seemed to eat the dandelion one more than others. Its sometimes hard to work out how much he has eaten as I usually put it in one place and he scatters it about :lol: Maybe I could get him a hay rack so I can monitor it better?

I'll have a go at changing his pellets as well.
 
Aly&Poppy<3 said:
No idea on the weight thing but they always act like they're starving :lol:

My outdoor pair are terrible :roll: they have a handful of pellets between them every day but I split it in half so they get some at around 2pm then get fed at 8ish.

Have you tried hay for pets hay? Mine didn't eat much but I got them ings hay and timothy and rye hay from them (the £16 bags) and they last ages :thumb: they eat every strand of it now :D I was giving mine a spring green leaf a day between them but they stopped eating as much hay. So I stopped and they only get herbs every other day now, they don't need veg so I don't bother anymore. They started eating more hay after that :p
Click to expand...

Hi Aly&Poppy,

I havent tried hay for pets but might be worth a try :thumb:
 
Peterbunny said:
I've tried Peter on cheaper Meadow hay (bob martin), P@H timothy hay, Burgess Excel dandelion and the other Burgess (can't remember the name? barn forage or something similar) He didnt seem overly interested in any of them, but seemed to eat the dandelion one more than others. Its sometimes hard to work out how much he has eaten as I usually put it in one place and he scatters it about :lol: Maybe I could get him a hay rack so I can monitor it better?

I'll have a go at changing his pellets as well.
Click to expand...

As a guide, you want him to be eating a pile of hay the size of himself every day. A hay rack would be a good idea, most of the commercial ones are too small or have really small gaps for them to get the hay out which frustrates my buns, so I use an ikea plastic carrier bag holder, bought it on ebay, works a treat and is ridiculously cheap too :)

My buns will hardly touch any of the hays you've mentioned either, I get them Timothy and Rye hay from Hay for Pets, Alfalfa King Timothy Hay (you can buy this in P@H), Burns Green Oat hay, Vitakraft herbal hays and Readigrass - I buy the last 3 from www.thehayexperts.co.uk They do a sample pack -may be worth getting to see which types of hay he prefers? My buns prefer stalky hays, but some prefer softer ones.
 
I've found that my bunnies (well bunny now as I only have one :() prefer hay bales from the farm to any of the expensive 'posh' bagged hays from pet stores. There is a sticky at the top of the diet section with a list of places to buy bales of hay - you may be able to find a local one who would be willing to sell you a small sample first so you can see what Peter thinks of it.

Bunnies also like to eat as they poop. My two have always ignored hay racks :roll: and prefer to eat the hay from the litter tray they're sitting in, so now I just provide the hay in a couple of trays and also leave a big pile on top of their favourite 'look-out spot' in the run.

What are Peter's poops like? I tend to use that as a better indication of how much mine have eaten as it's nearly impossible to judge how much has gone from the trays. :lol: Ideally, the poops should be fairly big and fibrous rather than small and hard. I think they're might be some photos around somewhere of good poop examples so I'll see if I can find them later, if nobody else has linked you to them already.
 
nessar said:
As a guide, you want him to be eating a pile of hay the size of himself every day. A hay rack would be a good idea, most of the commercial ones are too small or have really small gaps for them to get the hay out which frustrates my buns, so I use an ikea plastic carrier bag holder, bought it on ebay, works a treat and is ridiculously cheap too :)

My buns will hardly touch any of the hays you've mentioned either, I get them Timothy and Rye hay from Hay for Pets, Alfalfa King Timothy Hay (you can buy this in P@H), Burns Green Oat hay, Vitakraft herbal hays and Readigrass - I buy the last 3 from www.thehayexperts.co.uk They do a sample pack -may be worth getting to see which types of hay he prefers? My buns prefer stalky hays, but some prefer softer ones.
Click to expand...

Hi Nessar,

Thanks for the link to the hay experts :) I'll have a look into the sample pack! I'll also have a look at the ikea plastic holder as well. I'm really keen to get him to eat more hay as I know its so important for their health.
 
KarenM said:
I've found that my bunnies (well bunny now as I only have one :() prefer hay bales from the farm to any of the expensive 'posh' bagged hays from pet stores. There is a sticky at the top of the diet section with a list of places to buy bales of hay - you may be able to find a local one who would be willing to sell you a small sample first so you can see what Peter thinks of it.

Bunnies also like to eat as they poop. My two have always ignored hay racks :roll: and prefer to eat the hay from the litter tray they're sitting in, so now I just provide the hay in a couple of trays and also leave a big pile on top of their favourite 'look-out spot' in the run.

What are Peter's poops like? I tend to use that as a better indication of how much mine have eaten as it's nearly impossible to judge how much has gone from the trays. :lol: Ideally, the poops should be fairly big and fibrous rather than small and hard. I think they're might be some photos around somewhere of good poop examples so I'll see if I can find them later, if nobody else has linked you to them already.
Click to expand...

Hi Karen,

I think Peters poo's seem pretty normal, I'll have a look for that thread :)

thanks
 
Peterbunny said:
Thanks Karen,

I've found the poo thread, made interesting reading whilst I ate my toast :lol::lol: I think Peters poo is fine, based on the pics on the thread :D

I've bought a taster pack from Hay for pets :)
Click to expand...

:lol::lol::lol:
 
It could be the rabbits age, Rex is now 1 year old, and when he was young he always wanted food and used to gobble it up as soon as you put it down, compared to our elder two that eat bits through the day. Now Rex is older he makes it last longer now.

We found dried grass is the best as they would only eat the chunky parts of the hay, where as they empty the grass bowls (except the dusty bits at the bottom).
 
I have nine buns and had thirteen at one point, every single one acts like they are starving, it is perfectly normal. :D
 
Mine get small amouont of kale, a tiny bit of brocoli and two grapes in the morning.... unlimited hay all day.... grass, herbs more hay in the evneing - and 20g of pellets (burgess excel), as well as a few treats...

They always act like they're starving, especially when we have visitors - my mil (who hates them) said 'awwww you're starved aren't you' to rupert - i was mortified :lol:
 
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