Opinions on pellet amounts.

Hi everyone. Just a question out of curiosity - what amount of pellets do you feed your bunnies? (Food per rabbit or per pair/group). I'm sure most of us know in this forum that the general rule is 'rabbits don't require more than 1 egg cup full of pellets per day' .. What are your opinions on this and how true do you think it is?

I personally don't like the egg cup rule, my bunnies were on it last year, along with their usual unlimited hay and regular forage. They both lost a lot of weight and muscle, by the time I physically noticed it was making them lose a lot, they were more or less skin and bones. I upped their pellets (they get around two handfuls between two rabbits per day) and they're now back to very healthy weights. I have also heard of this happening to other owners.

Thoughts appreciated!

I go by handfuls as well. I have no idea how much an eggcup is but I gather it's a very small amount. My buns also need more pellets to keep their weight up. They're all 7 years old (Jack is getting close to 8) but it's been this way for some time.

I use a egg cup per day per rabbit, an eggcup of pellets weigh 12g.
Hailey tends to be a touch overweight, Robby is roundabout the right weight, but I need to watch he doesn't loose weight.

I really, really dislike the eggcup rule I'm afraid.

Firstly, because different eggcups do not equal same amounts. Depending on different eggcups, depends on how much food they will hold. You would therefore be much better off with actual consistent measurements, such as tablespoons etc (measured by proper measuring spoons!).

Secondly, no two rabbits are the same, so what works for person will not necessarily work for another.

Thirdly - and possibly most importantly, the amount of food an animal needs depends entirely on the individual, it's life stage, health and activity levels and that's just the start. A young, growing rabbit needs more energy than an adult rabbit. An un-neutered rabbit needs more energy than does a neutered rabbit. A more active and playful bun needs more energy than a more laid back bun. An outdoor bun in cold weather will need more energy than an indoor bun in a warm house. A rabbit with lots of space (ie: housebun with access to several large rooms all of the time) could well need more energy than a bun who has a 6x2x2 hutch with an 8 foot run attached (at least in summer months). A young bun being fed an eggcup full of pellets a day will soon lose condition, as will an un-neutered bun.

Lastly, it entirely depends upon what brand of pellets is being fed - all similar, but not equal in terms of nutrition. A rabbit will need more of a poorer quality food to get it's nutritional needs, than a higher quality food. It also largely depends on what else is being fed. If feeding your buns a good amount of varied forage daily, you'll likely get away with an eggcup of pellets - because their nutritional needs will be largely met by the varied forage. Ditto with vegetables.

I totally understand why people recommend such small amounts of pellets - far too many pet rabbits are grossly overfed to the point they're not getting the correct diet (rabbit eating mainly pellets or muesli and not enough grass/hay/forage). However, many a time I have seen such recommendations and thought it quite dangerous, knowing full well that whilst it will work for some, it won't work for all and will cause plenty of rabbits to lose condition. I've seen plenty recommend it without even asking the basics such as how old the bun is, whether it's neutered or not, whether it lives indoor or outdoor etc. Never mind weights, activity levels, space or what else it gets in the diet. It does concern me that it seems to be a blanket recommendation for all rabbits - of course assuming all other buns are in the same position as our own (correct diet, spayed or castrated (thus, adult!) plenty of space etc.

My Micky lost condition when I tried to reduce his food. Nothing wrong with him - he's a healthy, 8+ year old outdoor bun with constant access to grass, hay and I feed him forage (as much as I can identify, which unfortunately is not a huge amount bar brambles, cats ear, dandelions, herb robert, hawthawn and now raspberry leaves!!). He is fed a high quality pellet. He has always been an outdoor bun. In summer in England when he was younger, he needed very little pellets - in the winter I had to up them. Now as he's got older, and I live in Scotland, even in the summer months which can be surprisingly warm, he would starve to death on an eggcup of pellets a day. That being said, even he doesn't need a handful of pellets day, except perhaps in the worst of the Scottish winter.

In conclusion, I don't think this should be recommended as blanket suggestion without any prior background like I've seen. :thumb:

Every rabbit I've been lucky enough to be owned by has had around 15g per day, per rabbit.

So the pairs have 30g a day. I've used the same eggcup for years and it is a 15g one.

I've never had any issues but even my guinea pigs are fed 15g each in the past.

They just fill up on extra hay which suits us.

I think ultimately pellets are not essential to a rabbits diet. Next summer I intend to cut out pellets from the girls feed, and only give the pellets in winter when forage is difficult to come by.



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I've always fed by eye, and some rabbits need more than others based on their age, metabolism, personality and activity, and environment. When I had my quad of small rabbits they needed more per rabbit than Boots does, because they lived outside and were extremely lively, and although they weighed 1.4 - 1.5 kg they needed a handful each per day, whereas Boots has a very small handful, probably nearer an egg cup full even though he is 2 kg, as he's a very laid back indoor rabbit who although active isn't a manic live wire!

That said, although I have not tried it, I know there are plenty of rabbits on pellet free diets doing very well on hay, forage, readigrass etc so I don't think that they are strictly necessary, so long as you can make the effort to make sure your rabbits diet is balanced.

I give mine 50g in the morning - that's for them to share. And 50g in the evening for them to share. I've got 2 bunnies. They're not underweight and they're not overweight either, can't remember how much they weigh.

I'm quite stingy with pellets they get five each morning and evening. My bridge bun Peanut Butter lost a bit of weight when he was ill with ear abscesses but I couldn't give him more pellets as he had a tendency to get a messy bottom when given too many. So I gave him more fiba first sticks to help get his weight back up.

mine at the minute get two egg cups full each, but that is now half of what they was getting :shock: i was overfeeding them and noticed a dew lap on one of my boys. The 8 buns, two of them 15mths weight close to 3kg and six of them 9 mths all weigh around 2.5kg. I have noticed some are thinner than others so this drop in pellets i will have to keep a close eye on the thinner ones weights (they are still chunky even though thinner than the rest. My new nethies was used to eating a big bowl of muesli with previous owner and now are on 1 and half egg cups between them. I think its trial and error and people should know their own owns and be checking them weight/condition wise. I was doing handfuls but 2 of my handfuls was about 5 egg cups lol.. i think a measured amount is better and increase/decrease has you go. Do 3kg dwarf lops and nethies have the same amount of food, this is something thats not clear really. xx

willow and squiggles said:

mine at the minute get two egg cups full each, but that is now half of what they was getting :shock: i was overfeeding them and noticed a dew lap on one of my boys. The 8 buns, two of them 15mths weight close to 3kg and six of them 9 mths all weigh around 2.5kg. I have noticed some are thinner than others so this drop in pellets i will have to keep a close eye on the thinner ones weights (they are still chunky even though thinner than the rest. My new nethies was used to eating a big bowl of muesli with previous owner and now are on 1 and half egg cups between them. I think its trial and error and people should know their own owns and be checking them weight/condition wise. I was doing handfuls but 2 of my handfuls was about 5 egg cups lol.. i think a measured amount is better and increase/decrease has you go. Do 3kg dwarf lops and nethies have the same amount of food, this is something thats not clear really. xx

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It's an interesting point. Small rabbits, e.g. nethies have fast metabolisms and so probably *do* eat as much as a dwarf lop. Certainly as much as a mini lop. Weights and such like for the various types of lop vary tremendously don't they? :lol:

I have never had a Nethie get overweight and as they get older, found it hard to keep the weight on them.

My hands are small! My rabbits had a handful between two, morning and evening. Matthew, Charles and Cecile stayed perfectly on weight, Tabitha became fat and stayed that way even when she was excluded from sharing pellets. Nuggets. The vet preferred the term nuggets, because pellets came from the far end..

Thanks for all of your replies! Very interesting, I have to agree with those who say that the egg cup rule shouldn't be put in place for all rabbits as they're all different. I will never go back to feeding my boys such little amounts as it just doesn't do well for them, but there is nothing to say I wouldn't do it with future rabbits who respond to it differently than what they did.

I believe that all owners should feed the amount that they feel necessary taking in consideration - their weight, activity levels, age and many more.

I'm even stingier than Scrappy :lol: My three have one handful of nuggets between them each night -used to be excel & moving to science selective. They are all vet assessed to be the right weight (although Mouse feels too skinny to me).

Whereas nuggets are nutritionally complete I prefer my rabbits to meet their nutritional needs elsewhere, i.e. more naturally. Having said that if I had a rabbit who was underweight whilst eating good quantities of hay, readigrass & forage I would happily increase their nugget intake to as high as "necessary".

With my other rabbits (& Joey for his 1st 2 years of living with us) they had a very different diet. Over 20+ years of having bunnies the amount of nuggets I feed is forever dwindling

Mine get somewhere between 10 and 25g-ish. I use a pink Vanish scoop (well-washed) and give them more or less depending on spine sticky-outiness! In winter, usually the full scoop, as there's less forage around and they need the calories (outdoor bunnies); in summer, varies between half and a third of a scoop. Yesterday, for example, Matt had been out and got TONS of forage (partly thanks to a big rose stalk falling over), and they'd been out on the grass (where they schnoofle up all sorts of other things, not just grass! :roll, so they got 1/3 scoop. Matt said I was being stingy :lol:, they're always fat-fluffs when I get back from weekends away XD

I have a mini rex, a lop cross and a Continental Giant. They all get a small handful of pellets per day (not much more than an eggcup). This isn't from following the eggcup rule but sheer coincidence as I have found that this is what they each separately need/tolerate.

Lupin (microbun) is a hyperactive nut bar and burns a lot of energy. I messed about with the amounts until he maintained his weight nicely and had lovely golden poop.

Luna (lop X) came to me recently a little overweight and had had a rubbish diet for years. I had to mostly mess about with her hay and forage to make sure she was eating enough (she only really liked pellets) and cutting down the pellets gave her more of an appetite. Her poop is a better size and consistency and she has more energy. She's lost a little weight too.

Tanglefoot (megabun) stops eating her caecotrophs when given more than a tiny amount of pellets and her other stools become too soft. She has a hell of an appetite so makes up for the deficit in hay, readigrass and forage.

I think the key is to not follow any hard and fast rules, as all bunnies are different! Mot all humans should be on the same amount or type of food for obvious reasons, and the same goes for rabbits. It can take a while to get the balance right, but basically you want them to be consuming tonnes of fibre, have dry, golden poop with no uneaten caecotrophs, and just be able to feel their spine without seeing it.