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Ravenous rabbit.....

Elliegirl

Elliegirl

Young Bun
I have a rescue rex rabbit, female, spayed, bonded, approx. 2yrs. She has an ravenous appetite to the point she will climb shelves and break into any food she can access, She also has a huge thirst (2 bowls and a bottle daily between 2 rabbits) I see her drinking often. There is obviously the outcome of that in LOTS of wee. I know this can be related to diabetes but also know this is very rare. I am also aware that other than dietary control diabetes is not treatable. Has anyone else experienced this and what was the outcome?

I should point out that she is very well otherwise, healthy, lively, cheeky as always.\

thanks
 
I would get her checked out at the vet. Better to have her assessed while she seems OK in herself than when she is too poorly and treatment may be less effective.

Take a urine sample if you can, and ask for a full set of bloods doing. Is she maintaining her weight? Exactly how much is she drinking (a bowl / bottle could be 50ml or 500ml..)
 
Of course I will be getting her to a rabbit savvy vet, that goe without saying I juat wanted to hear other peoples stories.

A water bottle is 600ml, each bowl is 250ml so between the 2 of them at least 1.1litres a day. Her weight has not changed at all,
 
If you're concerned obviously take her to a vet, but just wanted to say I have a female rex and she drink a lot too and eat so much, she does similar naughty things to get food haha - I have another female rex and a boy rex they both eat lots but drink less than her. I've never considered getting my one checked, perhaps I will :)

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As much hay as she can eat and more!!!! Access in her hutch, run and stable. She has free run of a double stable with her husband a large part of every day with loads of toys etc PLUS hoiurs of outdoor time, she certainly shouldn't be bored!

Interesting to hear another rex is similar, maybe it's a rex thing?!
 
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For comparison I have a 5 month old (not sure of weight but was about 4.5lbs at 4 months) French lop and she gets through about a 600ml bottle of water every 24 hours. She tends to drink a little bit less when our house is cooler. Earlier in the summer when we had a heatwave our house was about 28c so she drank a bit more than that over 24hrs. She was only about 3 months old and about 3lbs at the time, i did query it with the vet as i thought it was a huge amount of wster but i was told she was fine and the heat was why she was drinking that much. I thought it did seem a lot to me at the time but I've noticed she tends to munch on hay for 20mins then drink for ages after from her bottle - probably helps wash the hay down!. The fact she still drinks about the same amount now i just see it as thats how much she needs, when she's an adult I won't be surprised If it's more. If she suddenly started drinking alot more than usual or an increase in thirst but not physically still growing i would get it checked out. Your rex is probably bigger than my French lop currently and to me it doesn't sound excessive esp if it's between 2 rabbits.
 
Also with regards to the food, my rabbit loves her food, I keep it in the cloakroom on a table and she will jump on toilet seat lid, walk along the back to get to the table and dig at the bag of pellets if the door is left open. She has 2 metal hay racks and they're topped up 3-4 times over 24 hours. She has ripped open bags of hay before as I've been trying to give it to her as she's so impatient. I wouldn't worry too much! Does she drink 2 bowls to herself or is that between the bunnies? Is she a big rex?
 
It could be a rex thing, I mean my girl who drinks a lot stands at her bowl lapping for ages and it's one of those tower water bottles than feeds into a bowl, just so she has enough water haha I guess if you mention it to your vet and they say she's perfectly healthy then maybe it's just her :) Is she an adult? Has she always been like this? Mines about 7 months and has always been like it she is a very big bunny though could have something to do with it? My boy bunny is her brother and he's always been smaller and a slighter build and eats and drinks less than her.

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