changing over food

[Sabine]

I brought home four Netherland Dwarfs from a breeder in the UK on monday. I was given a small bag of some food they were fed on which he said was called Hoson & Dorrel and is a miz consisting of mainly grains with a few coloured bits. They didn't seem to eat an awful lot of it and mainly left the grains behind. As there wasn't an awful lot of food I started feeding them the Burgess Excel (complete) pellets on their second night. The are a rather good quality pellet with 19 % fibre and normally not cheap. The next morning all of them had quite a lot of cecals in their hutches so I reduced the new pellets again and only gave them their old food the next night. The following morning I found small firm poops and no cecals:?
I don't really understand. The old food is bound to be way higher in fat and protein than the new one. I don't really want to feed them on grains mainly.
Although the food looks to me like junk the rabbits look fabulous: Bright eyes, silky fur, beautiful! I am worried now that my "healthy" pellets will mess them up and they end up looking raggety with sticky poop hanging off their bum I do have some seperate oat and also pea flakes that I saw a lot in the old food. Should I feed that as well. The old food is mainly gone and I can't get this brand here. I don't really like mixed feeds but I am a bit confused as to what is the right food for them.

 

[elrohwen]

The old food definitely sounds like junk, but their tummies are used to it nonetheless. I would transition them very slowly over the course of a month. Once their tummies get used to the new food they'll be perfectly fine. I wouldn't continue to feed the old food once you transition them off of it - bunny tummies just cannot handle grains. Their coats probably look good because of all the fat they're getting, not because it's healthy. Your hair would be nice and shiney too if you ate a really high fat diet ;-)

 

[Sabine]

The problem is: I am virtually out of this food. The other thing is that they were bred for show and I would like to show the offspring.
I always thought a rabbits coat looks shiny when they are healthy and not because they are fed excess fat and protein?

 

[paul2641]

OT: Have you put the other bunnies on excel and if so what sized bag and price?

 

[Sabine]

paul2641 wrote:

OT: Have you put the other bunnies on excel and if so what sized bag and price?

Was given loads of it for free in Harrogate

 

[paul2641]

Sabine wrote:

paul2641 wrote:

OT: Have you put the other bunnies on excel and if so what sized bag and price?

Was given loads of it for free in Harrogate

Jealousy, You know how I love excel! How are you liking it?

 

[Sabine]

I used it before and thought it was ok but it doesn't seem to agree with my new bunnies

 

[tamsin]

You want to swap over a minimum of about 2 weeks really. So on the first day 90% old food 10% new food, day two 80% old, 20% new etc. etc. If you're short on the old food then just feed hay and the new portion, so day 1 10% new food & lots of hay. Having less dry food in total for a couple of weeks won't do them any harm.

 

[elrohwen]

Yes, in general, shiny coats come from being healthy, but plenty of breeders will feed some sunflower seeds or other oily foods to improve shine on a bun's coat. However, they only give a little bit, not a whole bowl full. I would switch them over slowly as tamsin suggested, and then see how they look. At that point you can think about adding suppliments for a shinier coat if you need it.

Just because something makes their coat shiny doesn't mean it's a good diet.

 

[Sabine]

Unfortunately the breeder didn't give me enough food and I can't buy the brand here. I don't really want to buy a large bag of similar junk so I will have to give them small amounts of the new food and add oat and pea flakes and maybe a few sunflower seeds to imitate the old food.
My baby bunny didn't have any cecals in the cage at all this morning although he had mainly the new food. The others seem fine too.
How many sunflower seeds or oats should I add to the regular food for nethies>

 

[tamsin]

I wouldn't bother with the seeds. Just start with small amounts of the new food and plenty of hay, then build up the amount of new food gradually.

 

[polly]

The Dodson and Horrell that he gave you is actually pretty good and I use it through my feed also but I mix with the pets at home pellets which are exactly the same as the burgess excell just about £2 cheaper and a dried grass.

The reason they wont have eaten to much the first nite is 1 the stress of travelling and 2 it depends on when they are used to being fed ie if he fed them in the morning and you feed in the evening it confuses them for a day or so.

Best bet if you dont have much food is to feed unlimited hay and just gradually ease them up onto the pelets.

I have to admit I know its said the mix is bad for cherry picking but I can honestly hold my hands up and say with the pellets mixed in and feeding the right amount of food for your rabbits you should never find anything left in the bowls!!!! pellets or meusli's

 

[Sabine]

I will probably do something like that. I also usually add the odd bit of mix into my pet bunnies diets aespecielly when they have to stay in their hutches due to bad weather. It makes it a bit more interesting than the pellets of always the same shape and size. I somehow can't find the ingredients for Dodson and Horrel so that I could partially imitate it.

 

[polly]

Sabine I got samples of a feed at bradford that looks really nice they have it banded so depending how far away from them you are you would pay band C its really good value esp on the pellets as its a 15KG bag where burgess and pets at home are 10KG I have been trying it mixed with the normal feed on a few rabbits and they seem to love it I esp have one who seems out of condition he is getting older mind you and he ate every single drop

the website is www.marsdensfeeds.co.uk
and phone number is 08457165103
you would want their coney go 2 pellet
and if you want a meusli to put through Coney harvest munch. Its lovely and fresh looking and has grass through the meusli
band C price is £9.42 for the pellets and £8.90 for the meusli

I think I am going to change over because that is cheaper than the feed I am using

 

[Sabine]

I had a look at the website but couldn't quite figure out how to order and how to calculate the shipping costs:?
Most of the adult rabbits were fine this morning but baby bun (Hugo) left mega slush in his cage The excel young&dwarf really seems to be to rich. I got out the kitchen scale and measured how much the bowl holds. I must have given him about 30gr of the pellets. He weighs about 1lb. So that must have been too much??! I mixed the excel with some Allen&Page natural pellet that seems to be rather high in fibre and low in protein and put 25gr in his bowl. Hopefully his poops look better in the morning.
For the adult buns I measured out about 30gr of a mix between the leftovers of their original food and Excel Adult pellets plus a few Allen&Page. Does 30gr for rabbits weighing between 800 and 1200 gr sound right?

 

[paul2641]

My personal opinion would be the 25g, I feed 40g to my lionheads. How much free samples of excel did you get lol?

 

[polly]

Gawd sorry I measure all my feed by eye lol basically if you have the normal size ceramic style rabbit bowl I cover the bottom so you cant see bowl through it and thats it doesnt matter what age they are I dont agree with feedign unlimited feed to young buns either as soon as they are weaned they go onto the same diet and amount as an adult.

The best thing you could do for the little one is feed unlimited hay and only a very small amount of pellets for a few days ( whichever one you prefer using) and gradually up the amount of pellets over 7 days. The hay is the most important thing for him anyway see if you get one of your bottle springs and put it on his hutch door but inside rather than outside for a water bottle and put the hay in that he will have more challenge to get it and it doesnt get soiled by him peeing or pooping on it

 

[Sabine]

All the buns have quite a lot of hay in their cage cage (2 different types + straw)At least after measuring today I will know if I should decrease the pellets further. I may go back to using the tiny hamster bowls I bought for traveling as I have a good idea how much fits in there.

 

[paul2641]

wouldn't hamster bowls get knocked down asap?

 

[Sabine]

paul2641 wrote:

My personal opinion would be the 25g, I feed 40g to my lionheads. How much free samples of excel did you get lol?

Well, first I talked to this guy at the stall who was actually a vet left in charge and I talked him out of two bags of rabbit food (750g each), various snacks and a bag of gerbil food. As i was going to walk away they started distributing the actual freebies and I got a bag (2kg) and sent David for another one. Then I put on a hat and went again...:biggrin2: