More baby advice please...

:wave: Iv not had babies as young as Willow and Molly before...they are roughly 9 weeks (both french lops) I have looked up the stickies but couldnt find the specific answers i was after

Currently they have Unlimted hay and unlimted pellets (I tried mixing SS into their museli mix they came to us on but they wouldnt eat them after the first day so I introduced P@H junior pellets and they love them and are empting the bowl)...

When is it ok to start introducing herbs, readigrass and things like apple sticks and leaves/plantain etc? Obviously veg im not in a hurry to start and I know that everything must be introduced slowly but I would like to start offering them soome goodies as soon as I can as I know they are growing fast!

I had Donny and Lola at that age at about 5 months I started giving them less food and at 5 1/2, 6ish months I started introducing herbs

I was introducing herbs to my buns from 10 weeks old (had them since they were 6), although that was recommended to me by the vet. You might want to wait until 3 months, depends on how you think they are doing

General advice is to wait till 12 weeks before introducing fresh stuff, if they arent used to it.

P@H junior isnt a good food really, and they dont need to be on a Junior food anyway - you'll be taking them off it in a few weeks. Try offering pellets by hand as treats - they may be more inclined to try them.

I'd probably play it by ear about reducing the pellets - if they are eating loads of hay and have healthy poops then wait a bit longer, if not start reducing them until they have healthy tummies. I'd be inclined to start reducing them down to one rabbit-sized bowl a day from about 12 weeks, but then play it by ear about reducing it further. I believe giant buns mature slower than smaller ones, so you may want to keep them on extra pellets till about 6 months, but I wouldn't keep them on unlimited up until 6 months, as they wont eat their hay - you want to get them used to eating hay well from an early age.

Thanks all :thumb:

nessar said:

General advice is to wait till 12 weeks before introducing fresh stuff, if they arent used to it.

P@H junior isnt a good food really, and they dont need to be on a Junior food anyway - you'll be taking them off it in a few weeks. Try offering pellets by hand as treats - they may be more inclined to try them.

I'd probably play it by ear about reducing the pellets - if they are eating loads of hay and have healthy poops then wait a bit longer, if not start reducing them until they have healthy tummies. I'd be inclined to start reducing them down to one rabbit-sized bowl a day from about 12 weeks, but then play it by ear about reducing it further. I believe giant buns mature slower than smaller ones, so you may want to keep them on extra pellets till about 6 months, but I wouldn't keep them on unlimited up until 6 months, as they wont eat their hay - you want to get them used to eating hay well from an early age.

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I was advised on here to put them on junior pellets as they are growing french lops? :? I know p@h isnt the best but at least they are eating them and im betting my bottom dollar its better than the museli they came to us with :thumb: they eat tonnes of hay so im not too worried! I have a sack of A&P breeder/grower coming into our local shop this week so will eventually move them over to that but they wernt eating their museli or the SS I was trying them with (I did try hand feeding too but they are a bit timid at the moment) They both eat hay over the pellets anyway and dont scoff the bowl as soon as it goes down but tend to graze on the pellets

we let our babies snack on any dried forage from as soon as they could (3 weeks or so I think) - dried raspberry leaves, dried plantain, dried dandelion etc

not supermarket type veg though -

re pellets: I let mine eat what they wanted of the pellets- they were always starving :lol::lol: (despite still mugging mum for more milk at 12 weeks old:shock::shock::shock: - watching six 1 kilo size buns try and fit under one mum was a laugh :lol::lol::lol: They are now about 3k each . . .

Can you find out from the breeder if they were eating fresh food etc and if so you can continue, otherwise leave it until 12 weeks before introducing things. I would try them with small amounts of Readigrass now as the pellets have grass in them so should be ok.

Thanks...as far as we know they were just fed the museli...they didnt have hay or anything when collected willow is much smaller than molly so im hoping to help her get some fat on!

sorry mobile randomly duplucated!

When did your rabbit number shoot up!!? :shock:

ETA: last time you only had two Poppy & Daisy if I remember right

:lol: we had poppy and daisy and then last april got lily and rosey...sadley we lost lily a few weeks ago and moved rosey indoors then last weekend we adopted lucky and hope from barc and two baby lops from a local rescue hopefully bonding rosey with a new husbun soon too!