Swiss Fox
New Kit
Hi all
Our indoor Swiss Fox is 5 months old.
To begin with we weren't sure what to feed her and our first vet we asked told us "all she needs is hay". I have since changed vet.
I then asked Reddit and received several replies saying that, for the first 6 months she should have unlimited hay (including alfalfa) and unlimited pellets, then moved on to unlimited timothy hay and unlimited greens.
She's currently got a mix of hay everywhere - two litters trays, her bed, a feeder and inside a few cardboard toys - which we change daily.... although, now she's litter trained, we only change her bed area 3 or 4 times a week as it remains clean.
We've increased her greens (usually spring greens 4 times a week, kale twice, spinach once) to two bowls a day, around dusk & dawn, as much as she can eat, and we discard the rest.
We also give her a large handful of pellets (Asda own brand - I considered changing to something possibly better but the ingredients seem okay and I figured it best to not change brand if she's getting on with them okay) and very recently a small handful of rabbit muesli at the end of the night to encourage her into her hutch.
3 or 4, maybe up to 5 times a week we give her an inch square piece of fruit as a treat but not daily.
I'm a little worried she isn't eating as much hay as she should... while she often munches on it, usually when she's going to the toilet and contemplating life, it doesn't seem to go down much and most of it gets thrown away each day.
Her poop has stayed fine and her wee isn't chalky white.
She is out of her hutch around 18 hours a day and has free run of an open studio type area - living & dining area and "the floor is lava" kitchen which she has recently realised she can walk on after all - so she has plenty of time and space to run and jump around.
Are we okay in what we're doing or are we getting into any bad habits?
Among all her other things, she's now on her second " box house" toy, with hay stuck to the sides and dried carrot pieces on top, which I bought from a pet shop.
A while back I got a cardboard produce box from the supermarket and make a glue out of flour, cornflour & water which I used to stick alfalfa dust on to. She quite liked it, not as much as the store bought house, but she's had a good go at it.
I was thinking of taking it a step further and building a larger enclosure out of cardboard and coating some of the roofs with hay, dried dandelion salad, rabbit muesli mix, dried carrot, stuff like that.
Would this be okay? Is flour & water okay as a glue? Is there anything stronger and/or safer?
I found a bag of "Organic Dried Carrots 500g" for £5 online. They seem to be little pieces around the same size as the ones on her store bought house.
I did have a look through previous posts here and saw that there's a difference between dehydrated and dried.. given that the product is described as dried, can I assume they'll be okay for bunny?
I'll try a few samples first to see how fast she can pull the bits off to ensure she doesn't eat too much of the sugary carrot in one go.... maybe mix it with hay and other stuff.
Thanks in advance and apologies if these questions have been already asked (I'm sure they have!)
Our indoor Swiss Fox is 5 months old.
To begin with we weren't sure what to feed her and our first vet we asked told us "all she needs is hay". I have since changed vet.
I then asked Reddit and received several replies saying that, for the first 6 months she should have unlimited hay (including alfalfa) and unlimited pellets, then moved on to unlimited timothy hay and unlimited greens.
She's currently got a mix of hay everywhere - two litters trays, her bed, a feeder and inside a few cardboard toys - which we change daily.... although, now she's litter trained, we only change her bed area 3 or 4 times a week as it remains clean.
We've increased her greens (usually spring greens 4 times a week, kale twice, spinach once) to two bowls a day, around dusk & dawn, as much as she can eat, and we discard the rest.
We also give her a large handful of pellets (Asda own brand - I considered changing to something possibly better but the ingredients seem okay and I figured it best to not change brand if she's getting on with them okay) and very recently a small handful of rabbit muesli at the end of the night to encourage her into her hutch.
3 or 4, maybe up to 5 times a week we give her an inch square piece of fruit as a treat but not daily.
I'm a little worried she isn't eating as much hay as she should... while she often munches on it, usually when she's going to the toilet and contemplating life, it doesn't seem to go down much and most of it gets thrown away each day.
Her poop has stayed fine and her wee isn't chalky white.
She is out of her hutch around 18 hours a day and has free run of an open studio type area - living & dining area and "the floor is lava" kitchen which she has recently realised she can walk on after all - so she has plenty of time and space to run and jump around.
Are we okay in what we're doing or are we getting into any bad habits?
Among all her other things, she's now on her second " box house" toy, with hay stuck to the sides and dried carrot pieces on top, which I bought from a pet shop.
A while back I got a cardboard produce box from the supermarket and make a glue out of flour, cornflour & water which I used to stick alfalfa dust on to. She quite liked it, not as much as the store bought house, but she's had a good go at it.
I was thinking of taking it a step further and building a larger enclosure out of cardboard and coating some of the roofs with hay, dried dandelion salad, rabbit muesli mix, dried carrot, stuff like that.
Would this be okay? Is flour & water okay as a glue? Is there anything stronger and/or safer?
I found a bag of "Organic Dried Carrots 500g" for £5 online. They seem to be little pieces around the same size as the ones on her store bought house.
I did have a look through previous posts here and saw that there's a difference between dehydrated and dried.. given that the product is described as dried, can I assume they'll be okay for bunny?
I'll try a few samples first to see how fast she can pull the bits off to ensure she doesn't eat too much of the sugary carrot in one go.... maybe mix it with hay and other stuff.
Thanks in advance and apologies if these questions have been already asked (I'm sure they have!)
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