low calcium diet ideas

As you may know my.bun has been through the wars and had a huge bladder stone removed.

She's still poorly and recovering so I'm not doing anything drastic to her diet yet while she heals.

However I need some ideas on what I can and can't feed her - what's high in calcium and what's not.

She currently has minimal excel pellets - minimal meaning I grab a few with my fingers, almost a big pinch. She has some greens and she has timothy hay (she doesn't eat it just kicks around making a bed) readigrass, apple leaves and twigs (no apples) and some foraging hay.

She has a hay bed (indoors)

I'm wondering if I switched to shavings or changed how I put a bed down for her this would make her perhaps eat more of the hay because it's a litter corner for her at the moment she nibbles the odd bit of it?

I take her outside as much as possible or I pick lots of grass and she happily munches through that.

I welcome any suggestions and advise I don't want her to go through what she has been through again!

This might be worth a read
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/calcium.htm

I'm trying to reduce waffles and DP's calcium intake too and am currently feeding cauliflower (tied up so is more fun for them to eat) instead of spring greens, and some mint and coriander

Also fibre first/supreme pets do a urinary tract version so they're getting a stick of that each per day in case it helps
And I've halved their pellets to 25g per day between them

They seem ok but I don't really know what I'm doing so look forward to reading lots of good replies to this post!

dumblepaws said:

This might be worth a read
http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/info-sheets/calcium.htm

I'm trying to reduce waffles and DP's calcium intake too and am currently feeding cauliflower (tied up so is more fun for them to eat) instead of spring greens, and some mint and coriander

Also fibre first/supreme pets do a urinary tract version so they're getting a stick of that each per day in case it helps
And I've halved their pellets to 25g per day between them

They seem ok but I don't really know what I'm doing so look forward to reading lots of good replies to this post!

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This is perfect thank you i have just read this and it's very informative! Especially the grouping of fruit and vegetables.

The stone she had removed was significant so I'm going to watch and monitor the intake of calcium.

Do you live in a hard water area? If so,you could consider bottled or filtered water. The lowest calcium bottled water is Deeside (only seem to be sold in Waitrose round here).

If you need more advice on calcium in veggies etc, try guinea pig people (eg Guinea Lynx). It's the bane of our lives!

SarahP said:

Do you live in a hard water area? If so,you could consider bottled or filtered water. The lowest calcium bottled water is Deeside (only seem to be sold in Waitrose round here).

If you need more advice on calcium in veggies etc, try guinea pig people (eg Guinea Lynx). It's the bane of our lives!

Click to expand...

A few years ago I had a bunny who had a number of calcium stones removed at the Vets, she also passed another one that was missed at a later date herself. I immediately changed her veg diet and also started giving her bottled water - Volvic had the lowest content I could find at that time. No idea if it actually helped at all, but she did live on to the grand old age of 9yrs.

Good luck with your little bun and hope she makes a speedy recovery.

Yep, Volvic is quite low (and obviously widely available). Deeside is lower though.

Not sure if its on the linked thread...

http://www.guinealynx.info/chart.html#chart

SarahP said:

Yep, Volvic is quite low (and obviously widely available). Deeside is lower though.

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I found Tescos cheap bottled water was brilliant -

water can be a very important element in reducing calcium - that and pellets.

nearly all veg (with exceptions of carrot tops, comfrey, dandelions) have leww calcium that pellets as the calcium measurement is often given not taking the water content of fresh veg into account in the weight measurement.

I had completely over looked the possibility of water and calcium!

The stone she had removed was about 1 cm and they completely flushed her out poor thing.

Perfect thank you ill get straight onto some bottled water for her xx

Also I've read so much conflicting advise re pellets.

Can some one help me should or should I not be feeding her these?

I give her burgess excel pellets? X

Another vote for Volvic here too. My old bun never had a problem after we changed his water. I think tesco's own was the next lowest I could find but have a read of the labels - calcium content varies massively between brands!

Kim_perkins said:

Also I've read so much conflicting advise re pellets.

Can some one help me should or should I not be feeding her these?

I give her burgess excel pellets? X

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I changed to oxbow Timothy hay based pellets


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this may have been mentioned (i havent read everything as im tired) but charlie has a low calcium diet as it causes incontinence for him. my vet said to use these as excel can be higher in calcium. these just use timothy hay. its really helped him although i still give only small amoounts.

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/rabbit-food-...tials-bunny-basics-t-adult-rabbit-food-p-2754

ahh just saw the post before me LOL