I've now had 2 chronically ill buns who've needed a wierd natural, forage only, diet for different reasons.
I would never ever advocate free feeding for a "normal" domestic rabbit diet, but it's the mainstay of managing my own buns' illness.
I thought that Thumper was just very good at knowing what he needed. He managed his gradually failing GI system to perfection & in a way which I could never have attained. I'd get 12-24 hours warning that his tummy was causing problems by what he ate, & be able to adjust his medication on that basis. When I researched what he chose from a variety of forage plants, I found that every single one of them had properties, of fibre content or medicinal properties of maximal benefit to his gut.
Benjie is a snuffles bun. My 1st surpise was that when he arrived I was going to manage his very mild dysbiosis with a hay only diet, but he raided the box of blackthorn leaves, & cured his dysbiosis within 2-3 days. No interest in blackthorn after that for several months.
Interest was resumed for about a week, during which time he passed a few very dead pin worms. (There were no signs he had any pin worms before that.)
He settled down to a diet very similar to Thumper which was scary, until further research told me that everything he ate had antibiotic properties, helped to clear thick mucus from the airways, or had NSAID's in it.
I gave him a good selection of forage at the beginning. He'd respond by chinning it = "yep that's rabbit food", trying a little, & then either gradually "go for it"
Recently he was terrified by house vibration from nearby building work. He had serious gut slowdown & his snuffles flared up quite badly.
He stopped eating any pellets whatsoever, started to eat 1st willow (giving me a clue that he needed his metacam) then hawthorn then blackthorn only. He got through the week without needing any meds for stasis.
Once through his stasis he's back, on his natural ABx in plantains, & his snuffles is improving without need for medical ABx.
He does similar with his meds - just bisolvon, & echinacea daily both taken avidly from a basil leaf. He's more eager to take medicated basil than plain basil. It took him a few days to get used to metacam, which he laps from my palm, (so I know how much he's taken). He's very eager to take it just before his discharge increases, then gradually wanes off as the snuffles comes under control.
I'm absolutely astounded by how he's treated his dysbiosis, pin worms, controls his snuffles, & avoided stasis, simply by changing his diet himself.
So I'm thinking that when offered natural foods, both my buns either instinctively know what helps when they're ill, or in some cases try things out, & rapidly work out what helps.
I wonder whether any one else has noticed this?
I would never ever advocate free feeding for a "normal" domestic rabbit diet, but it's the mainstay of managing my own buns' illness.
I thought that Thumper was just very good at knowing what he needed. He managed his gradually failing GI system to perfection & in a way which I could never have attained. I'd get 12-24 hours warning that his tummy was causing problems by what he ate, & be able to adjust his medication on that basis. When I researched what he chose from a variety of forage plants, I found that every single one of them had properties, of fibre content or medicinal properties of maximal benefit to his gut.
Benjie is a snuffles bun. My 1st surpise was that when he arrived I was going to manage his very mild dysbiosis with a hay only diet, but he raided the box of blackthorn leaves, & cured his dysbiosis within 2-3 days. No interest in blackthorn after that for several months.
Interest was resumed for about a week, during which time he passed a few very dead pin worms. (There were no signs he had any pin worms before that.)
He settled down to a diet very similar to Thumper which was scary, until further research told me that everything he ate had antibiotic properties, helped to clear thick mucus from the airways, or had NSAID's in it.
I gave him a good selection of forage at the beginning. He'd respond by chinning it = "yep that's rabbit food", trying a little, & then either gradually "go for it"
Recently he was terrified by house vibration from nearby building work. He had serious gut slowdown & his snuffles flared up quite badly.
He stopped eating any pellets whatsoever, started to eat 1st willow (giving me a clue that he needed his metacam) then hawthorn then blackthorn only. He got through the week without needing any meds for stasis.
Once through his stasis he's back, on his natural ABx in plantains, & his snuffles is improving without need for medical ABx.
He does similar with his meds - just bisolvon, & echinacea daily both taken avidly from a basil leaf. He's more eager to take medicated basil than plain basil. It took him a few days to get used to metacam, which he laps from my palm, (so I know how much he's taken). He's very eager to take it just before his discharge increases, then gradually wanes off as the snuffles comes under control.
I'm absolutely astounded by how he's treated his dysbiosis, pin worms, controls his snuffles, & avoided stasis, simply by changing his diet himself.
So I'm thinking that when offered natural foods, both my buns either instinctively know what helps when they're ill, or in some cases try things out, & rapidly work out what helps.
I wonder whether any one else has noticed this?
Clever bunny!
