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Rex bunny weight - pellet amounts

Graciee

Graciee

Moderator
Staff member
Okay so I took my boy rex to the vet last night for something unrelated to weight but the vet weighed him and said he's probably a little overweight and to cut down his pellets to 1 egg cup a day (he currently gets two egg cups a day) he's 8 1/2 months old and weighs 3.04kg. I had a look online though and the guideline is 1 egg cups worth per kg - so should I really be giving him 3 egg cups worth a day?

After the vet said that I got home a weighed my other two - My female rex who's also 8 1/2 months old weighs 3.8kg (she's always been a much bigger bunny than him) - Is she also over weight? She's been getting two egg cups worth a day also.

Last bunny - I'm not sure whether or not she's a standard rex like the other two or a mini. But she weighs 2.15kg and is 4 1/2 months old (we think) she normally gets about the same as the other two a day, but doesn't always eat it all. Is she over weight?

They all get a bowl of veggies a day and silly amounts of hay - which they eat loads of.

Any advice appreciated, just want to make sure i'm not over feeding etc - The only one who looks a bit 'podgy' is the 3.8kg female but that's mostly because of her huge dewlap haha :)
 
Graciee said:
Okay so I took my boy rex to the vet last night for something unrelated to weight but the vet weighed him and said he's probably a little overweight and to cut down his pellets to 1 egg cup a day (he currently gets two egg cups a day) he's 8 1/2 months old and weighs 3.04kg. I had a look online though and the guideline is 1 egg cups worth per kg - so should I really be giving him 3 egg cups worth a day?

After the vet said that I got home a weighed my other two - My female rex who's also 8 1/2 months old weighs 3.8kg (she's always been a much bigger bunny than him) - Is she also over weight? She's been getting two egg cups worth a day also.

Last bunny - I'm not sure whether or not she's a standard rex like the other two or a mini. But she weighs 2.15kg and is 4 1/2 months old (we think) she normally gets about the same as the other two a day, but doesn't always eat it all. Is she over weight?

They all get a bowl of veggies a day and silly amounts of hay - which they eat loads of.

Any advice appreciated, just want to make sure i'm not over feeding etc - The only one who looks a bit 'podgy' is the 3.8kg female but that's mostly because of her huge dewlap haha :)
Click to expand...





Adult Standard Rexes should weigh 2.72-3.62kg. Rexes are exceptionally greedy Rabbits and so they are very prone to obesity. It is usual better to keep them on the lean.

Adult Mini Rexes should weigh 1.58kg-2.04kg

This link may also be useful

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp
 
Jack's-Jane said:
Adult Standard Rexes should weigh 2.72-3.62kg. Rexes are exceptionally greedy Rabbits and so they are very prone to obesity. It is usual better to keep them on the lean.

Adult Mini Rexes should weigh 1.58kg-2.04kg

This link may also be useful

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp
Click to expand...
That's helpful thank you, online it says they should weigh between 3.4-4.8kg I guess there's lots of different opinions on this. Link looks good for feeling ribs etc I'll give that a go. So how many pellets would you feed? Also the boy falls within the weight range you said, does that mean he's okay then? I'm really confused haha

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Graciee said:
Okay so I took my boy rex to the vet last night for something unrelated to weight but the vet weighed him and said he's probably a little overweight and to cut down his pellets to 1 egg cup a day (he currently gets two egg cups a day) he's 8 1/2 months old and weighs 3.04kg. I had a look online though and the guideline is 1 egg cups worth per kg - so should I really be giving him 3 egg cups worth a day?

After the vet said that I got home a weighed my other two - My female rex who's also 8 1/2 months old weighs 3.8kg (she's always been a much bigger bunny than him) - Is she also over weight? She's been getting two egg cups worth a day also.

Last bunny - I'm not sure whether or not she's a standard rex like the other two or a mini. But she weighs 2.15kg and is 4 1/2 months old (we think) she normally gets about the same as the other two a day, but doesn't always eat it all. Is she over weight?

They all get a bowl of veggies a day and silly amounts of hay - which they eat loads of.

Any advice appreciated, just want to make sure i'm not over feeding etc - The only one who looks a bit 'podgy' is the 3.8kg female but that's mostly because of her huge dewlap haha :)
Click to expand...


I was wondering how your boy was doing these days, after our conversation? :)
 
MightyMax said:
I was wondering how your boy was doing these days, after our conversation? :)
Click to expand...

Hi :) The vet thinks that it was just a really traumatic experience for him with the reaction he had and that it's changed him. He doesn't think there's anything that can be done but give him time, and maybe get someone to bond the rabbits as they're both aggressive and territorial to each other. He said he might be happier with a friend, which was what I wanted to do originally but I don't think i'm up to bonding them myself, so i'll have to see if there's someone who can help me. Also had him microchipped which he wasn't a fan of, he stood up with his paws against me like 'can we go now?' haha I think i'm just going to have to accept he's different now, and work on trying to make him as happy as possible :)
 
Graciee said:
That's helpful thank you, online it says they should weigh between 3.4-4.8kg I guess there's lots of different opinions on this. Link looks good for feeling ribs etc I'll give that a go. So how many pellets would you feed? Also the boy falls within the weight range you said, does that mean he's okay then? I'm really confused haha

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Click to expand...

I dont feed my Rabbits pellets at all. If I did I would feed them Fibafirst sticks, they are about the size of a chocolate finger biscuit !

http://supremepetfoods.com/fiba-first-2/
 
Graciee said:
Hi :) The vet thinks that it was just a really traumatic experience for him with the reaction he had and that it's changed him. He doesn't think there's anything that can be done but give him time, and maybe get someone to bond the rabbits as they're both aggressive and territorial to each other. He said he might be happier with a friend, which was what I wanted to do originally but I don't think i'm up to bonding them myself, so i'll have to see if there's someone who can help me. Also had him microchipped which he wasn't a fan of, he stood up with his paws against me like 'can we go now?' haha I think i'm just going to have to accept he's different now, and work on trying to make him as happy as possible :)
Click to expand...


Ah bless him :love:

I would probably reduce the pellets gradually, eventually getting down to one egg cup full a day for a rabbit that size. Could you go in stages so it's not too traumatic for him? It sounds like he's had enough going on in his life to cope with at the moment x
 
MightyMax said:
Ah bless him :love:

I would probably reduce the pellets gradually, eventually getting down to one egg cup full a day for a rabbit that size. Could you go in stages so it's not too traumatic for him? It sounds like he's had enough going on in his life to cope with at the moment x
Click to expand...

Yea I'll go down in stages, so you think they should all have 1 egg cup full a day? And ignore the online info that says 1 egg cup per kg? There's so much conflicting info out there haha x

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When I first adopted my 4 Standard Rexes (between 1 and 2 years of age) they weighed 2.99, 3.16, 2.8 and 3.03 kg. The vet made no comment as to whether they were over or underweight. However, over the years Tan (previously 3.16) lost weight particularly each Winter and would weigh around 2.9, when I was told she was underweight. To maintain even this weight she had to be fed extra food daily. Tethra on the other hand (previously 3.03) gained weight and is now around 3.8, which I've been told is overweight. I think it's likely that a vet will not rely on weight alone, but will feel spine etc.

Personally, I think it's just as important to consider the rabbit's diet as a whole rather than stick rigidly to the one eggcupful per day concept. I think this is especially the case if the diet varies during the year, because of the availability of forage etc. Mine has/had slightly more than an eggcupful during the Winter. Whether a rabbit lives inside or out is also possibly relevant. Rexes do seem to be very greedy rabbits and in my view eat more than other breeds of rabbit, which are a similar size.

I think that as long as a rabbit is eating around 85-90% of its diet as hay, a good indication of whether the diet is correct for the rabbit is to test weigh regularly to make sure that the weight is roughly constant.
 
Graciee said:
Do you just feed hay? I've always fed Excel, is Fibafirst better? Just curious :)

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Click to expand...

I feed a variety of hays, chaffs, forages, Readigrass, fresh herbs and some dark leafy greens.

Fibafirst has a higher Crude Fibre content than any of the pelleted feeds x
 
Omi said:
When I first adopted my 4 Standard Rexes (between 1 and 2 years of age) they weighed 2.99, 3.16, 2.8 and 3.03 kg. The vet made no comment as to whether they were over or underweight. However, over the years Tan (previously 3.16) lost weight particularly each Winter and would weigh around 2.9, when I was told she was underweight. To maintain even this weight she had to be fed extra food daily. Tethra on the other hand (previously 3.03) gained weight and is now around 3.8, which I've been told is overweight. I think it's likely that a vet will not rely on weight alone, but will feel spine etc.

Personally, I think it's just as important to consider the rabbit's diet as a whole rather than stick rigidly to the one eggcupful per day concept. I think this is especially the case if the diet varies during the year, because of the availability of forage etc. Mine has/had slightly more than an eggcupful during the Winter. Whether a rabbit lives inside or out is also possibly relevant. Rexes do seem to be very greedy rabbits and in my view eat more than other breeds of rabbit, which are a similar size.

I think that as long as a rabbit is eating around 85-90% of its diet as hay, a good indication of whether the diet is correct for the rabbit is to test weigh regularly to make sure that the weight is roughly constant.
Click to expand...
They all definitely eat at least that in hay I'm just worried if I'm over doing in on the pellets. I was surprised the vet said the boy was slightly over weight (he seems to be exactly how the webpage Jane linked said was the correct weight - even the female doesn't seem too bad but she is bigger than the boy) also was just remembering what the breeder said when I bought them he said they'd easily weigh 8-10 pounds when fully grown - their dad was 10 pounds.. Which is about 4.5kg he was a huge rabbit haha also the 3rd female who is much smaller, weighs too much to be a mini rex but next to the other two is miniature in size (although I don't really know what breed she is - she has the rex coat though)

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Jack's-Jane said:
I feed a variety of hays, chaffs, forages, Readigrass, fresh herbs and some dark leafy greens.

Fibafirst has a higher Crude Fibre content than any of the pelleted feeds x
Click to expand...
I might get some and give them a try thanks :D

Also how important is forage...? I don't do so well on that front haha

They get the bulk of their hay from timothyhay.co.uk and then other hays in smaller quantities from those small bags I've forgotten the brand and they have readigrass sometimes (I often forget I have this haha) and they get herbs and greens daily x

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Graciee said:
They all definitely eat at least that in hay I'm just worried if I'm over doing in on the pellets. I was surprised the vet said the boy was slightly over weight (he seems to be exactly how the webpage Jane linked said was the correct weight - even the female doesn't seem too bad but she is bigger than the boy) also was just remembering what the breeder said when I bought them he said they'd easily weigh 8-10 pounds when fully grown - their dad was 10 pounds.. Which is about 4.5kg he was a huge rabbit haha also the 3rd female who is much smaller, weighs too much to be a mini rex but next to the other two is miniature in size (although I don't really know what breed she is - she has the rex coat though)

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Click to expand...


I think it's impossible to generalise on rabbit weights. The standard can vary, and also rabbits are different just as we are. If he conforms to a particular weight, but the vet says he is a bit overweight, then just consider what you believe to be about right for him. It's impossible for anyone here to advise really, as we can't see him and more importantly, feel him :)
 
Yea you're probably right :) looked in pets at home for the Fibafirst but they didn't have any might order some on amazon and see if they like them :)

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MightyMax said:
:thumb:
Click to expand...
Was just about to order some and they're on a deal today - not sure if you buy them thought I'd let you know :)
032af547504a1acf76f12491b4d37275.jpg


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