Long post ahead, and content warning for mentions of abuse and rabbit death: I’m new to using this site, but reaching out for advice on something that’s happened. Up until yesterday, I had two rabbits. On impulse (unfortunately, and being someone who is always complaining about money problems) my mother bought the two for my birthday in October and I have been taking care of them since. Before all of this, I’d explained to her that they would need extensive care and that they were very fragile pets. I repeatedly said this before and during the time I had both of them. After I got them, I’d been feeding my rabbits unlimited hay (as it is around 80% of their diet) for a while until my mother (owned rabbits herself as a child but was careless with them, so they didn’t live long) began to criticize me for feeding them as much as I did. She complained that I was feeding them too much and going through hay too quickly. She forced me into underfeeding them simply because she didn’t care about the well-being of my bunnies and just cared more about criticizing me. I would have ignored them and continued to feed as much as I should, but with an abusive mother, I know what would happen if I did this. I had a feeling that something bad would happen because of the underfeeding, and that was what happened. I woke up around 4 in the morning to check on my bunnies in their big pen that sits in the middle of my room. I found one of my bunnies awake and running up to me as usual when I stood up, but I eventually found out on my own that the other bunny was dead. Back to now, I’ve been trying to pay even more attention to my other bunny with the fact that she’s now alone. She’s been eating as much as she should (I’ve fed her unlimited hay again because I instantly knew why the other bunny likely died), but I haven’t seen her drinking water at all. I’ve read that not eating or drinking is a result of the bunny being upset. Along with that, I read that in order for the rabbit to completely process what happened, they need to spend a while with the other dead pet. I went to sleep around 9 pm, but woke up around 4 am, so I don’t know when the other bunny died. Her water intake has been my biggest concern out of anything. I’ve read that putting herbs in their water and pouring water over their veggies should work, but I haven’t seen much of a change. I’ve also changed her water out every so often, but still a full water bowl. She’ll eat the veggies as normal, but refuses to drink, even with the herbs in there. I haven’t seen her pee very much, either. Any advice for this?
Bonded Rabbit Died; Other Rabbit Won’t Drink Water
- Thread starter aphxea
- Start date
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As long as water is accessible, they will drink as needed. Some rabbits will drink much more than others. So the big decrease in water could be two-fold. One reason could be that she's getting enough moisture from the greens you've been giving her. The other could be that she simply doesn't drink near as much as perhaps the other rabbit did. One of my bonded pairs was like this. After one passed away, I expected the water usage to drop by half (one less rabbit) but it dropped by much more. My remaining rabbit happened to be one that seemed to drink in spurts. He'd go a couple days with seeming to barely drink his water and then drink the whole bowl over one night.
If she's eating plenty of hay and eating wet greens, I wouldn't worry about her water drinking.
If she's eating plenty of hay and eating wet greens, I wouldn't worry about her water drinking.
Thank you so much!! A little bit after this post I saw her drinking a little but still felt some concern, so thank you for clarifying!
