Plan and routine for food?

Hi all

I have had my bunnies for quite a while now and have sort of got into a routine of 100g of pellets in the morning and cabbage in the evening sometimes hay and and treats at lunch but I think that that isn't good enough for my bunnies, I've read loads of different things about how much hay u should give and how much veg and fruit but I don't think I give my bunnies all that they need.

So any ideas about how I can get into a routine and give my bunnies all that they need without having to buy £20 of stuff every week to give them what they need and also I'm a school pupil so I don't have much time especially with homework to spend lots of time preparing and giving food. Also some ideas for treats will be brilliant so I can start thinking about that to help with my bonding with my rabbits. I do give my bunnies some herbs, some veg, some fruit, some variety sometimes but not all the time as it isn't always available. So any help and guidance will be appreciated soooo sooo much

Thanks
Ali

I think you should be reckoning on about 85-90% of your rabbits' diet being hay. They should have fresh hay available to them at all times. The hay does not need to be expensive hay. Freshly cut grass or Readigrass could replace some of the hay portion of their diet. Hay/grass is hugely beneficial to a rabbit as it wears down the teeth and keeps the digestive system in good order. This is also very quick for you to feed to them.

For the remainder the next largest portion should be forage, vegetables or herbs or a mixture of these. If you can identify them properly then some tree leaves/branches could also be given.

The smallest part of their diet should be the pellets. 100g sounds quite a lot to me and the advice is to feed around an eggcupful per rabbit each day.

I would not feed fruit at all, as it contains a large proportion of sugar.

A good rule of thumb is to try to feed a diet as close as possible to that of a wild rabbit.

I don't feed treats to my rabbits any more and prefer to give them a large handful of herbs or some tasty forage. They will come to be just as excited over such foods as treats

Remember of course that any changes you make to your rabbit's diet should be done gradually over a space of time.

Yes diet should be basically unlimited hay, with a small amount of pellets to supplement - at the most basic level. You really need to sort the hay aspect out as it is vital to their diet. You can buy a huge bale from farms for about £4-£5. Small amount of pellets - 3 or so tablespoons if they are not neutered (entire rabbits fed just an egg cupful of food a day will lose weight quickly) If you are able to provide plenty of forage, vegetables and herbs etc. If you are providing enough of this ,you can then lessen the pellets and see how you get on.

You can't reduce the pellets though until your rabbits have constant access to plenty of clean hay.

Ok thanks guys I will start to take action definatly in the pellets and definatly in the hay I will try feeding lots more veg and herbs and less treats.

For treats most rabbits love forage, cheap & no prep. If you walk home from school you could get into the habit of picking them grass, dandelions & any other safe plants you can identify on the way home. There hay will probably be met with greater enthusiasm when their nugget quantity is reduced. Grass is good for tooth wear & digestion

Not sure whether it has been mentioned already: changes to the amount of pellets need to be done slowly over a couple of weeks, no sudden reduction.

Any hay that isn't fresh will tend to be ignored, especially if it's been on the floor and been pooped and peed on! it's best to feed pellets after they've eaten hay rather than before, otherwise they will fill up on pellets and not eat so much hay. I buy hay from a horse feed place by the bale and it lasts a long time.

As mentioned gradually reducing their pellets would be a good idea, I feed my rabbit just over an egg cup amount at night, after he has been eating hay all day. I give him fresh hay in the morning and evening, and vegetable scraps, herbs or forage in the evening too.

The routine we have for our bunnies is fresh hay is available all day long. half an egg cup of excel bickies in the morning and for dinner we give 1 to 2 cups of fresh herbs ie corriander, parsley, dill, blackberry leaves etc. We always mix it up. I suspect you wouldn't have time to do this but I grow my herbs etc in pots. This keeps costs down. We've also got strawberry plants and raspberry plants. The rabbit can eat the leaves from those. Fruit should only be a small amount as a treat.