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Diet advice for a tubby bunny

Hi Everyone,

I am new to posting in the forum so apologies if this has been answered else where. I have 3 bunnies at home, a bonded pair of 2 young neutered boys (Emile - English Rabbit, and Remy- Netherland Dwarf) and another older neutered boy (Dandelion - lion-haired mix breed) who currently lives on his own. He had a spayed female mate whom he loved dearly, but sadly she passed on earlier this year due to sudden GI stasis. He has become more reclusive and depressed as he obviously misses her, and in doing so has become much less active. With this, he has put on a lot of weight and can no longer clean himself properly. I have tried to restrict food intake and put him on a diet, however, I'm sure my mother the bunnies live with whilst I am away at university, still gives him treats and food, even when told not to. His weight is still high and the vets have even said hes a very fat bunny. Last time I took him for a checkup he'd gained over 1.5kg which is a lot for a bunny! I have tried everything from hay to fresh vegetables but I cannot seem to shift his weight! I even tried to bond him with the other 2 boys in order to see if that would help his loneliness, however Remy has a penchant for stomping, and Dandelion is a big coward and runs off every time Remy stomps! (Even though Dandelion is twice, if not three times the size! :lol: )

Can anyone give me some diet advice or dieting food they would recommend so i can help Dandelions weight loss? Or even give me some help to see if I can encourage them all to be friends so they'll have another friend to play with and be active with?

Thanks so much!
 
Hi Everyone,

I am new to posting in the forum so apologies if this has been answered else where. I have 3 bunnies at home, a bonded pair of 2 young neutered boys (Emile - English Rabbit, and Remy- Netherland Dwarf) and another older neutered boy (Dandelion - lion-haired mix breed) who currently lives on his own. He had a spayed female mate whom he loved dearly, but sadly she passed on earlier this year due to sudden GI stasis. He has become more reclusive and depressed as he obviously misses her, and in doing so has become much less active. With this, he has put on a lot of weight and can no longer clean himself properly. I have tried to restrict food intake and put him on a diet, however, I'm sure my mother the bunnies live with whilst I am away at university, still gives him treats and food, even when told not to. His weight is still high and the vets have even said hes a very fat bunny. Last time I took him for a checkup he'd gained over 1.5kg which is a lot for a bunny! I have tried everything from hay to fresh vegetables but I cannot seem to shift his weight! I even tried to bond him with the other 2 boys in order to see if that would help his loneliness, however Remy has a penchant for stomping, and Dandelion is a big coward and runs off every time Remy stomps! (Even though Dandelion is twice, if not three times the size! :lol: )

Can anyone give me some diet advice or dieting food they would recommend so i can help Dandelions weight loss? Or even give me some help to see if I can encourage them all to be friends so they'll have another friend to play with and be active with?

Thanks so much!

Welcome to the Forum :wave:

I'm a bit short on time, so here's a few links before I get busy answering more questions :)

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/grass-hay.asp

https://www.harcourt-brown.co.uk/ar...heets/recommended-diet-for-adult-rabbits/view

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/components-rabbit-diet.asp
 
Hi, welcome to the forum :)

For a rabbit to lose weight they will need to eat less calories in a day or have more exercise or both. There's no easy fix, no more than with humans :) Is it possible to let us know what Dandelion would eat in a typical day with quantities. I suspect that the treats that your Mother gives him are probably part of the problem and she will need to buy into the problem I suspect if this is going to work. 1.5 kgs is a lot of weight to put on (I'm presuming you mean that this weight has been put on since his bonded partner died). I'm sure you're aware that it is not healthy for him to be overweight and you are already noticing that he cannot clean himself properly. I think you will need to have a serious chat with your Mother to explain what is happening and work together to reduce his weight.

If Dandelion has become reclusive and depressed, but bonding with your other two was not successful, would it be possible to adopt another calm rabbit to bond with him? If she was also lively, it would help him to exercise more.
 
Thanks everyone for your replies so far.

Hi, welcome to the forum :)

For a rabbit to lose weight they will need to eat less calories in a day or have more exercise or both. There's no easy fix, no more than with humans :) Is it possible to let us know what Dandelion would eat in a typical day with quantities. I suspect that the treats that your Mother gives him are probably part of the problem and she will need to buy into the problem I suspect if this is going to work. 1.5 kgs is a lot of weight to put on (I'm presuming you mean that this weight has been put on since his bonded partner died).

In relation to this, I feed him a very loose handful of dry pellets (i.e maybe an eggcup if not less) and as much hay/straw as he likes. I also try to give him fresh vegetables such as broccoli, cabbage, cucumber, basically anything green. I'm fairly sure that other people in my household feed him fruit, even when asked not to, and I know hes not supposed to have more than 1tsp of fruit a week but I'm sure he gets more than that. I know its not a healthy weight for him to be, unfortunately I am at university studying, and whilst this is not an excuse, it just makes it harder for me to maintain his diet when I live 2 hours away for 36 weeks of the year. The vet mentioned special diet pellets but I'm not sure whether this would help the matter, or just make Dandelion even more grumpy and fussy.

If I had the time and resources, I would love to get another rabbit however I just think it would be unfair to any new rabbit because I just cant look after another rabbit. I'm moving into a new home soon as well which will mean slightly less space and I dont think I could give the new bunny as much love and attention it deserves.
 
I think the diet you are feeding him on should be fine, but it's obviously the extras he is receiving. Personally I would cut out all the fruit and also any treats. I think you need to explain to the others that he needs to lose weight and that they must not feed him treats.

I don't know the diet pellets that your vet was talking about. I think if you are feeding only around an eggcupful It's not going to make a lot of difference.
 
It might take a long time to shift that weight off. When I rescued Tubsy he was a hefty 2.7kgs, took us a year to get him down to his current, much slimmer, 2.4kgs!
I kept pellets to approx 1 egg cup a day, handful of fresh greens, absolutely no treats whatsoever and lots of fresh hay and grass of course.
Lucky for me Tubsy is quite a bouncy bunny anyway so lots of exercise wasn't a problem.

Maybe bonding with the other bunnies would be a good idea so they can run around together x
 
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