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8 week bunny food

Ranj77

Young Bun
Hi we will be getting a 8 week old mini lop bunny in a couple of weeks. What can we feed it? We lost our last bunny to GI Stasis so we are being over, over cautious this time round.

My teen says we should stick with Timothy hay and nuggets with mint until the bunny is 6 months old. A lot of the research I have done indicates we can introduce other greens, basil etc after a couple of weeks and this is what we did with our first bunny. Should we play it safe this time and hold back on greens until he is 6 months old?
 
The best thing is to ask the breeder if baby has been introduced to veg whilst with Mum. If yes then you should be safe to give bunny tiny pieces but if no, then you had better wait until bun is 12 weeks old. Then you can give him/her small pieces of one veg at a time. Alfalfa hay is the one babies should have as it's higher in protein and calcium, but you can mix other hays in if you like. Have a look on the Rabbit Welfare Association's website for all kinds of information.
 
Thanks for the advice. I never knew baby rabbits should eat different hay as most sites rave on about Timothy Hay. Our last bun had hay from a farm.

I will buy alfalfa hay and look for higher fibre pellets, I had brought burgess Mint nuggets but I just read baby bunnies need higher fibre pellets.
 
baby bunnies need more calories, protein, calcium etc as they're growing :) alfalfa hay is higher in calories and calcium iirc which is perfect for baby rabbits (or nursing does), it can be fed up to 6 months of age.

baby rabbits also require a pellet formulated for them as it will be higher in calories and everything they need. burgess do a junior pellet, which bunny will need to be on until 6 months of age also :)
 
Thanks. Should I feed just alfalfa hay or should I mix it with another hay? I have found that different websites say different things, there doesn’t seem to be a right way as everyone has there own way of doing things.

The pellets we have are for babies (1week plus), but the fibre content doesn’t seem that high. We brought Burgess Excel with mint.

Do you think it’s mean to stick with just Alfalfa hay and nuggets til the bunny is 6 months old? I’m really scared about stasis.
 
Thanks. Should I feed just alfalfa hay or should I mix it with another hay? I have found that different websites say different things, there doesn’t seem to be a right way as everyone has there own way of doing things.

The pellets we have are for babies (1week plus), but the fibre content doesn’t seem that high. We brought Burgess Excel with mint.

Do you think it’s mean to stick with just Alfalfa hay and nuggets til the bunny is 6 months old? I’m really scared about stasis.

Personally I'd feed a mixture of hays, always Timothy hay as a staple, and I'd just include some alfalfa. Good hay eating habits are important, and alfalfa tastes better than normal hay from what I've seen so I'd get them used to eating all sorts of hays straight away.

Hay and some pellets would be fine, but introducing teeny amounts of veg would be unlikely to cause an issue though imo. I'd stick with excel pellets :)

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Thanks. Should I feed just alfalfa hay or should I mix it with another hay? I have found that different websites say different things, there doesn’t seem to be a right way as everyone has there own way of doing things.

The pellets we have are for babies (1week plus), but the fibre content doesn’t seem that high. We brought Burgess Excel with mint.

Do you think it’s mean to stick with just Alfalfa hay and nuggets til the bunny is 6 months old? I’m really scared about stasis.

burgess & science selective are considered two of the top brands of pellet. you can't really go wrong with them. they list the fibre, or 'beneficial fibre' (marketing ploy) as 37%. crude fibre (undigestable afiak) is 17%. you won't find them much higher than that. burgess is a great food brand and ticks all the boxes.

this websites food comparison is outdated now, however the listed requirements are still good: http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-food-comparison.asp


Fibre: The higher the fibre content (look for a minimum of 18%) generally the better the food will be for your rabbit's digestion.
Protein: A healthy adult rabbit needs a protein level of 12-14%. Young rabbits (under five months) need a higher protein level of around 16% to support their rapid growth.
Calcium & Phosphorus: Calcium should be 0.5 - 1.0% and phosphorus 0.4-0.8%. Equally important is the ratio between the two (which should be 1.5-2:1 calcium to phosphorus).
Fat: 2.4-5%
Vitamins: Vitamin D 1000 IU/kg, Vitamin E 50 IU/kg, Vitamin A 10,000 IU/kg
Ingredients: The ingredients list will be in the order of the proportion included; with the ingredient the food contains most of listed first. Look for brands that list grass (e.g. timothy, alfalfa, fescue, hay or 'forage') ahead of cereals (e.g. wheat, oats, corn, or maize). As grass is higher in fibre and lower in protein than cereals, foods that are grass-based generally also have a more suitable nutritional balance.

it wouldn't be mean but when the bunny is 6 months old you'd have to introduce foods very slowly either way. the best is to do it from around 12 weeks or so of age. herbs are a very good staple diet for rabbits as they're easy to digest and don't cause too many issues

unfortunately stasis can occur no matter how careful you are for a number of different reasons. introducing food can be a cause of it, but just don't do too much, two herbs or something :)
 
Thanks for all of the advice and the link. I have decided to go with Science Selective nuggets as the Junior Burgess with mint doesn't meet all the requirements. I will go with alfalfa and Timothy and mix them up as recommended. I did buy some Timothy hay from PAH but it has quite a few brown strands in it. I will have a look online for greener hay.
 
Thanks for all of the advice and the link. I have decided to go with Science Selective nuggets as the Junior Burgess with mint doesn't meet all the requirements. I will go with alfalfa and Timothy and mix them up as recommended. I did buy some Timothy hay from PAH but it has quite a few brown strands in it. I will have a look online for greener hay.

Timothyhay.co.uk has great stuff, a lot of us use them for hay :)

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Thanks, I did look at timothyhay.co.uk and then placed an order for Timothy hay with haybox (😳 it looked greener). I ordered alfalfa from small pet select ltd, they both had fantastic reviews. If it doesn’t work out with haybox I will try timothyhay.co.uk 😊
 
Thanks, I did look at timothyhay.co.uk and then placed an order for Timothy hay with haybox ([emoji15] it looked greener). I ordered alfalfa from small pet select ltd, they both had fantastic reviews. If it doesn’t work out with haybox I will try timothyhay.co.uk [emoji4]
Hay box stuff is good quality too, my 4 didn't like it tho unfortunately. I think other people on here use it tho and their buns like it :)

I used to buy the oxbow alfalfa iirc

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