Bunny only eating pellets with declined appetite

[Shelbydobbin]

My rabbit has declined his appetite over 3/4 days and is now only eating around a teaspoon to tablespoon of pellets and is now completely stopped eating fresh greens. He normally had a bowl of lettuce for breakfast then pellets for snack and lettuce bowl for dinner. He has slowly stopped eating it and I have even tried to dip the lettuce into pineapple juice to entice him to eat it which worked yesterday but he has now stopped eating it and just licking the juice off of the greens. He is still pooping just not as much as before, he’s still somewhat active but he was never very playful, and his eyes are not necessarily watering that I have seen. Please help none of my go-too vets are open on a Sunday today and I just don’t want to wait too long.

 

[helena]

What kind of lettuce? If it's iceberg, stop giving him it. He isn't supposed to eat that. Also, check his teeth and see if they are long and thats causing him pain. Look for any signs of pain. Another thing is that rabbits are supposed to have as much timothy hay as they want. Is timothy hay available to him?

 

[Blue eyes]

Sounds like early stages of GI stress. Does he get unlimited hay? I'd offer some baby gas drops (simethicone) to see if he'll start eating more. It's important that he keeps eating but he won't eat if he's in pain (perhaps gas pain).
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

 

[thevanguard6]

Lettuce (iceberg in particular) is pretty much poison to a rabbit's gut.

You'll want to get your bunny on a fairly strict diet of timothy hay and water. Once your rabbit's gut stabilizes, then you can introduce dried treats like:
- thin slices of dried apple
- dried fruit tree leaves
- dried parsley
- dried carrot tops
(no carrots -- dried or otherwise -- for a while though). Also, no oatmeal and no clover.
- reducing the amount of pellets should help too (which I think your rabbit has instinctively already started to do). Sounds like your bunny is already trying to stabilize hit gut health.

Offering a small branch from a non-sprayed fruit tree is a good idea too.

More details here:
http://www.blitter.com/~nebulous/otherworld/RabbitCareGuide.pdf