Weight gain, stumped

Hey.

Penelope's basic background:

So, I have a 3-year-old rabbit. She's a Netherlands dwarf and has been spayed.
I take her to the vets every couple/few months when her nails begin to get too long. Whilst there she also has a health check. I've been told she is overweight by 2kilo (a lot, I know). They advised me to stop giving her lettuce, and cucumber due to it bloating her out. So, I followed their advice, and cut it out. I figured she'd lose some of the weight after over a month without it. Alas, she has gained weight, again. I stopped giving her treats, or anything she can snack as a extension to her hay.

Eating habits:

So, down to what she is currently eating.
- Supreme Science Vetcare Plus Urinary Tract Health Formula For Rabbits (She had Urinary sludge when she was younger, so I was advised to switch to this, from normal pellets)
Original, she had the average serving the box advised. Then I was told, she was putting weight on, so I cut her down to 3 quarters of a stick, which is split over three different times of the day. She has one-quarter of a stick in the morning for breakfast, a quarter in the evening for her second meal, and then before bed. A quarter of a stick is about equivilent to an index finger tip size.

-Grass
She has fresh with her evening meal

-Brocolli stem
She has a small sized piece of broccoli stem with her evening meal. Again this is about the size of a fingertip.

So, her diet to sum up:

Morning: a quarter of her stick portion and, hay.

Evening: Broccoli stem, quarter stick portion, fresh grass and, hay.

Before bed: Quarter stick portion and, hay.

So, apart from her evening meal, her main source of food is Timothy meadow hay. I pretty much just put a pile equivalent to her size on the floor, and then check every so often to see if she needs more.

She is an indoor bun. She has a cage, but it is left open. She has three different rooms to hop between, with access at all times.

The vet ha snow advised that I cut her stick portions down. If I do that, she'd pretty much have none. I worry that if I take them out completely, that her sludge condition would come back, or worse.
I'm really not sure what else I can do to help get her weight down. So, any advice would help. I'm completely stumped on why she is gaining more weight when I'm taking away/lowering her food.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Maybe make her work a bit more for her food. Hay can be placed higher up so she has to stretch up for it, or stuff a toilet roll tube so she has to work to get it out. That way, she will use up more calories getting her food, and it will take her a bit longer to eat it so she may eat a little less and slowly lose a bit of weight without compromising her health.

Does she look overweight? I have found it can take around 3 months to get an overweight rabbit down to a decent weight.

Shimmer said:

Maybe make her work a bit more for her food. Hay can be placed higher up so she has to stretch up for it, or stuff a toilet roll tube so she has to work to get it out. That way, she will use up more calories getting her food, and it will take her a bit longer to eat it so she may eat a little less and slowly lose a bit of weight without compromising her health.

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I used to be o the toilet roll tube thing, when she was a baby. I completely forgot about that. Good idea. I'll try and find a way to get her more active with her eating.

tonibun said:

Does she look overweight? I have found it can take around 3 months to get an overweight rabbit down to a decent weight.

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She doesn't look over weight when she's hopping around. I can see it when she loafs tho, she looks quite large then. I tried to get her to chase after a small ball i'd rolled, she wasn't impressed.