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Healthy foods to aid weight gain

Swapping pellets from the normal type to a type designed for young rabbits is a good option - they'll be higher protein/fat but they are the same volume so you don't decrease the desire for other foods like you might by just increasing normal pellets. If she lives with others you can separate for 10 minutes so she gets the right ones or just stock one pocket with each type and hand feed to avoid jealously :)

Foods like carrots and fruits have high sugar content where as oats and seeds have higher protein - so I would go for the later if you are trying to build new muscle. I personally favour oats as that's closish to grass seed heads which are the sort of thing rabbits would naturally have access to.
 
Vet examined Tan again and thought that she was less stiff on the Metacam. She was pleased that her weight was the same, although I was disappointed. She said it was important that she had not lost. I thought she would have gained as she's eaten more. Anyway, advice is to continue the same for another six weeks and then go back for another check up.
 
Sounds like a good check up.
The fact she hasn't lost is the big thing, as if she was still losing despite eating more they'd be worried about something else underlying. Hopefully with more time you can see a gradual, healthy weight gain x

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Not terribly exciting, but I thought I'd report that Tan has now gained 150g. She was 2.841kg 6 weeks ago and is now 2.992kg.

She's done it just by eating lots more of everything:D

She's due to see the vet for a re-examination, so I'll get that arranged too.
 
Not terribly exciting, but I thought I'd report that Tan has now gained 150g. She was 2.841kg 6 weeks ago and is now 2.992kg.

She's done it just by eating lots more of everything:D

She's due to see the vet for a re-examination, so I'll get that arranged too.

Actually I would be excited by that! It's a good little weight gain :thumb:

Good for her, I'm pleased she's getting on well :D
 
Actually I would be excited by that! It's a good little weight gain :thumb:

Good for her, I'm pleased she's getting on well :D

Well yes, I am excited and somewhat relieved. What I meant was, I don't expect anyone else to find it that exciting though :lol:
 
When Doughnut was really ill and he wanted her to gain weight my specialist told me to give her a handful of alfalfa hay. She loved it and it certainly made her gain!
 
Not terribly exciting, but I thought I'd report that Tan has now gained 150g. She was 2.841kg 6 weeks ago and is now 2.992kg.

She's done it just by eating lots more of everything:D

She's due to see the vet for a re-examination, so I'll get that arranged too.

That is very exciting indeed. I'm delighted for you both.:D
I'm beginning to wonder (from Thumper, Benjie & now Tan) whether buns don't so much need "weight gain foods", as improvement in GI motility to get maximum throughput, then they sort out the weight problems themselves.
What do you think?
 
That is very exciting indeed. I'm delighted for you both.:D
I'm beginning to wonder (from Thumper, Benjie & now Tan) whether buns don't so much need "weight gain foods", as improvement in GI motility to get maximum throughput, then they sort out the weight problems themselves.
What do you think?

Spot on, in my unqualified opinion :)
 
That is very exciting indeed. I'm delighted for you both.:D
I'm beginning to wonder (from Thumper, Benjie & now Tan) whether buns don't so much need "weight gain foods", as improvement in GI motility to get maximum throughput, then they sort out the weight problems themselves.
What do you think?
Hey nice to see you again :)
 
That is very exciting indeed. I'm delighted for you both.:D
I'm beginning to wonder (from Thumper, Benjie & now Tan) whether buns don't so much need "weight gain foods", as improvement in GI motility to get maximum throughput, then they sort out the weight problems themselves.
What do you think?

It's certainly an interesting concept :)

Tan lives outside with her bonded partner and son, all Rexes. They have a very close bond. They are all extremely greedy and eat more than any other rabbit I've ever had. They are certainly not fussy eaters, but it's interesting that if one doesn't like something, none of them do. She has never really suffered from stasis, except was once reluctant to eat after surgery for a jaw abscess. I had noticed that every winter she loses a little weight, which I and my vet have put down to a preference for fresh food, which becomes less available during the winter months. This winter she lost a bit more than normal. She usually hovers around the 3.2kg in summer and she dropped to 2.8kg last December. It's impossible to give her more than the others (Dad normal weight, Son very slightly overweight), but I've watched them closely recently and it's not the fact that they eat more than her. None of them will eat alone. Since December I have given (them all) more of everything. The only difference is that they now have timothy hay, which they all love. They have always eaten a lot of hay, but now eat even more! All of their poos look very similar and look healthy with absolutely no uneaten caecals.

So I don't know. Perhaps the different hay is helping. It's certainly the only different food that she's had.
 
That is very exciting indeed. I'm delighted for you both.:D
I'm beginning to wonder (from Thumper, Benjie & now Tan) whether buns don't so much need "weight gain foods", as improvement in GI motility to get maximum throughput, then they sort out the weight problems themselves.
What do you think?


And perhaps an increase in absorption of nutrients? Could be connected with GI motility?
 
Sorry I can't do double quotes to answer you Omi & MM.

Omi I once heard that Timothy hay has the most fibre of all the hay types.
Re. if 1 won't eat something neither do the others - just a guess from observation. Rabbits seem to learn from each other or their "human partner". I once wondered how baby wild rabbits knew what to eat or even know how to be rabbits when they emerged from the stop, because the mother abandons them before they come out. I can give endless amusing examples of Thumper learning from me. Re. digging. He seemed to know what to do with the front end instinctively, but no idea of the hind leg movement,so a mound built up under his tummy. I had to get down on all 4's with a trowel & show him the hind leg movement. He "got it" 1st time! Benjie had the full co ordinated movement, an excellent digger from the start.
Avoiding toxic plants is so important to wildies, that it wouldn't surprise me that if 1 won't eat, the others "think" it's inedible or err on the safe side.

Re weight I suppose it depends on intake which is highly dependant on "throughput" - gut motility vs energy expenditure - heat loss & excercise (hopping around)
I suspect that there can be small variations in all these factors between individual rabbits, even though they never get stasis & poohs are normal.
There's a small fact that some house buns have stasis/slow down issues in winter. This is because they have to cope with much larger temp. fluctuations than outdoor buns from house heating patterns. Temp is up to about 20C when heating is on, but we tend to turn it off at night or when at work. It's more the fluctuation in Temp which "stresses" the rabbit than actual Temp in the UK.

MM I can think of one good reason for increased absorption with good gut motility. Strongly contracting muscles need plenty of oxygenated blood = good transport system of food by venous blood from gut to liver.
 
Average healthy rabbits (i.e. not odd extreme shapes) can maintain weight on just hay/grass, so in theory they should need very little above that to put on weight. They are very efficient food processors when their guts are working properly. I guess they are relying on some quite finely balanced equipment though, so weight loss is usually down to the system being out of whack rather than lack of potential calories going in.

The benefit of the 'fattening foods' is usually they don't require the normal extra processing through the ceacum (and reingesting of poop) to extract nutrition (with hay/grass requires) so if that's not working right then they aren't necessarily adding a lot more nutrients just replacing the missing ones that would usually be extracted from grass. Which I would theorise is why sometimes you add them in and all you achieve is maintaining weight (stopping further loss) rather than putting on extra like you'd expect from over feeding.

If you can fix the error in the processing plant then they go back to efficiently extracting what they need from just grass.
 
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