baby bunny won't eat pellets?

[Blaze_Amita]

WHen i bought Calleigh, my broken tort holland doe, i was only using water bottles and two days she didn't drink for me, i put a bowl in and she drunk it right down. It took me a month of having the heavy crock with water half full and her water bottle full right above it in the cage for her to finally transition over, she was 5 months old when i got her. it'll depend on what hte breeder uses. Calleigh's breeder used crocks for water, it'll just take time, have both options available for him with the bowl/crock only half full so when it starts to get low he could just reach up and check out the bottle

 

[clevername]

OakRidgeRabbits wrote:

I wasn't trying to say that a rabbit of that age can't survive. Rabbits who go off pellets fade extremely fast.

Rabbits who go off food period fade extremely fast.

 

[tonyshuman]

He is too young to be eating veggies. He needs to be eating pellets. I'm glad he's drinking, but please don't feed him veggies UNLESS his mom was eating mostly veggies while she was nursing him. He can't handle them yet and needs to be eating pellets and hay only.

 

[xbr0k3nx]

well, as i've said time and time again, he won't eat pellets.

 

[Maureen Las]

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12047&forum_id=17

I contacted one of our mods yesterday who hand fed a baby rabbit using the formula and procedure under orphaned rabbits.

She did not respond and I assume is not available .

When she returns to the forum I hope that she can help you ( and we have another 3 week old in a new thread )

 

[Hazel-Mom]

xbr0k3nx wrote:

well, as i've said time and time again, he won't eat pellets.

If he's doing alright with hay and veggies, I wouldn't worry too much. Hazel never ate many pellets either, she ate mostly greens all her life.

Just keep an eye on him to make sure he tollerates the greens, and keep offering pellets too. He may or may not start eating them eventually.

 

[Flashy]

What's his output like? normal fecals and stuff?

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

angieluv wrote:

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12047&forum_id=17

I contacted one of our mods yesterday who hand fed a baby rabbit using the formula and procedure under orphaned rabbits.

A 5 1/2 week old rabbit definitely shouldn't be on formula.

 

[Maureen Las]

I don't know anything about this was just trying to be helpful

 

[xbr0k3nx]

he eliminates waste normally. and he loves his hay and veggies. I don't understand why people say baby rabbits can't handle eating vegetables, because wild rabbits only have greens to feed on, and if they find a nearby garden, i'm sure they'd be eating whatever veggies were in the garden. Veggies can't be that bad for rabbits. My neighbour had a baby rabbit and was feeding it veggies, and it turned out to be fine. She lives to be about 12 years old.

 

[BlueGiants]

Have you tried the oatmeal (Quaker Oats, not instant) that Starlight suggested? Babies that won't eat will usually take dry rolled oats. It's fine that he is drinking out of a bowl... anyway you can get water into him is OK. (He can learn to drink from a bottle later...)

You can also try to crush up the pellets a bit and mix them with oatmeal. I also avoid greens at this age. As long as his droppings are normal, he is eating his hay and drinking water, he is OK.

 

[tonyshuman]

The reason young bunnies can't handle greens unless their mom was eating a lot of them is that they don't have the digestive enzymes and microbes to deal with them yet. Baby bunnies get milk from their mom, but they also get some cecal material, which "seeds" their GI tract with the same microbes that are in Mom's. If Mom has the microbes that help the bunny digest veggies, then the babies will too. If Mom doesn't, they will not have them. If they don't have the microbes, veggies need to be introduced slowly so that they can gradually develop the microbial community to help digest veggies. Wild bunnies can eat veggies from an early age because Mom wild bunnies only eat veggies.

http://www.carrotcafe.com/f/veggies.html

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

xbr0k3nx wrote:

I don't understand why people say baby rabbits can't handle eating vegetables, because wild rabbits only have greens to feed on, and if they find a nearby garden, i'm sure they'd be eating whatever veggies were in the garden. Veggies can't be that bad for rabbits. My neighbour had a baby rabbit and was feeding it veggies, and it turned out to be fine. She lives to be about 12 years old.

All I'll say-

I am on several forums where people feed heavy veggie diets or completely pellet-free diets. The multitude of digestive problems on these forums is ridiculous. Rabbits are constantly in stasis or dying from blockages or diarreah, etc. PLUS, many people give their rabbit preventative simethicone DAILY because if they don't, the rabbits suffer terrible gas.

On the other hand, I'm on a forum dedicated to breeders. It's the most active forum I belong to and every rabbit there is on a pellet/hay diet. MAYBE one or twodigestive complications arereported yearly in adult rabbits.

So my choice? Pellets and hay.

 

[tonyshuman]

http://www.lagomorphs.com/greenspellets.pdf

Every bunny is different. My guys do great on a mostly hay and veggie diet. The backbone of any diet should be hay. On top of that, you just need to make sure they get enough vitamins and water.

 

[xbr0k3nx]

well, like i said, he gets hay 24/7, and i don't feed him HEAVY vegetables, he just gets a couple little slices of lettuce that i cut up, and he gets a baby carrot, and thats about it for vegetables. so he really don't get a lot of veggies. and as for the pellets, he still won't eat them. all he does is go over to his pellet food bowl and digs them all out into the litter tray under his cage. it's very upsetting because that's good pellets wasted.

 

[polly]

It is bad if they have not been used to them. IF they have been getting veg at their breeders then they can eat small amounts of those vegetables say they had never been given carrots and you gave your bun a good sized bit of carrot then it will give it dirrhoea. Hence all buns should be introduced to new vegetables gently. At the age your bunny is it is already trying to go through weaning stage but without its mums help (from the milk) so if it wasnt used to veg then it can irritate its tum give it scours (the runs) and that can be very serious in a young rabbit.
I hope that explains it ok for you

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

I've heard of some people mixing in some rocks with the pellets. Apparently, it prevents them from digging (you use larger stones, not pebbles), and they will have to selectively dig to get the pellets.

 

[xbr0k3nx]

i have been watching his waste elimination and he has never gotten diharrea or the runs or anything like that. his waste elimination is good.

 

[clevername]

xbr0k3nx wrote:

I don't understand why people say baby rabbits can't handle eating vegetables, because wild rabbits only have greens to feed on, and if they find a nearby garden,

It's not that veggies are bad for them. Any diet change can shock their system (pellets to veggies can be a big leap) and at a such a young age, a shock like that can have dire consequences.

So if mom was given veggies while he was with her, I see no harm in continuing to provide veggies. But if he was given a pellets and hay only diet and veggies were suddenly introduced out of the blue, I'd worry.

 

[Flashy]

Maybe take him off wires and put him on a solid floor. Most of my bucks dig their pellets out and then eat them after they have strewn them around, so maybe he wants to eat them, but because they have gone through the wire, he can't.