Help with diet

[Pearlandgravel]

I have 2 bunny’s and my male is a lot bigger than my female he eats faster and eats more. Veggies give my female GI statis and my males poops always look way to dark and small when he has veggies too so I cut them out of there diet! I now give 2 cups of pellets in the morning and night then hay for the whole day and the whole of the night (picture of cup below) I used to only do 1 cup morning and night but my male bunny eats way more before my female can get enough in which caused her to lose weight and become under weight. Now and again they get forage instead of fresh veg. They recently went bunny boarding and the lady said to me “I’m not happy with how many pellets you give them I was only comfortable give 1 cup morning and night” now I’m wondering if they get too many pellets there poos look great and they love eating hay any better diet advice I would love to make better changes if I can!

 

[Omi]

I agree it does sound like a lot of pellets.

I would consider hand-feeding your bunnies, to make sure that each gets their fair share. If you have access to forage I would also start to give them some each day instead of the veggies. Also, monitor how much hay each of them are actually eating. Do you have access to fresh grass?

With any changes to diet also, it's sensible to weigh each bunny once a week to make sure their weight is stable.

 

[Shimmer]

Mine get around 30g of pellets each per day. I had to weigh it several times for a survey, so I know how much my measure holds now.
I summer, they tend to get fewer pellets than this as they have more forage available (so maybe down to 20g each per day). In winter, they are mainly on hay and any forage I've dried over the summer. They could easily reduce the pellets by half - it's mainly as a bribe to return to base at night, and to make sure they are eating normally. Leftover pellets rings alarm bells, especially over more than one night.

Unlimited hay is always available in the runs and in their base.

My rabbits are 2 small lionheads (both under 1.5kg), and a bigger one at 2.4kg.

I would suggest that they could reduce their pellets quite a lot - done gradually, and making sure they eat more grass / hay. Keep an eye on the poo output and adjust the diet for optimal bigger, round, poos. Colour will depend on the amount of hay (more golden & crumbly poo) to grass / fresh greens (darker and less crumbly poo).

 

[Pearlandgravel]

I agree it does sound like a lot of pellets.

I would consider hand-feeding your bunnies, to make sure that each gets their fair share. If you have access to forage I would also start to give them some each day instead of the veggies. Also, monitor how much hay each of them are actually eating. Do you have access to fresh grass?

With any changes to diet also, it's sensible to weigh each bunny once a week to make sure their weight is stable.

They do get forage almost everyday and I stopped veggies, my male who eats a lot more pellets does eat way less hay than my female (she eats hay for hours) I have tried grass but they just ignore it. I will start hand feeding and go back to one cup morning and night and see if that helps I will start weight

 

[Omi]

They do get forage almost everyday and I stopped veggies, my male who eats a lot more pellets does eat way less hay than my female (she eats hay for hours) I have tried grass but they just ignore it. I will start hand feeding and go back to one cup morning and night and see if that helps I will start weight

Sounds like a good plan.