Elvira is feeling a little skinny

[whitelop]

So Elvira is feeling a little thin today. She gets unlimited timothy hay and two medium handfuls of alfalfa a day, one in the morning and one in the evening. I've also given her about two teaspoons of pellets today, once this morning and once this evening. It may have been a little less/more than that, I didn't measure but I'm pretty good at eyeballing it. Should I give her more pellets? Its kaytee forti-diet adult. Her Sherwood forest should be here tomorrow(hopefully) or Friday, so I don't want to get her too used to the kaytee then have to switch her to Sherwood in a day or two.

Her poop looks really good, perfectly round and all the same size. No runny poops or anything.
Should I give her more pellets or is what she's had enough? I'm fully aware that its not that much pellet. I get that, but she is pretty young and she's only been with me since Saturday and like I said, I'm going to be switching her in a few or two anyway so thats why she is only getting a small amount.

Thanks!

 

[JBun]

You can gradually increase the pellets each day by a little. It's not going to matter much that you are switching cause you have to gradually introduce the new pellets a little at a time anyways, no matter how much of the kaytee pellets you are feeding her. When you get the sherwood pellets, don't decrease the amount of kaytee pellets at first. Maybe start with a pinch of the sherwood pellets mixed in with the kaytee, each day for 2 days. If there aren't any changes in her poop then gradually increase the amount of sherwood pellets each day. I would start to decrease the kaytee pellets once she either has pellets left over at the next feeding, or you reach the amount you plan on feeding her each day, like maybe 1/4-1/2 cup total, unless you are going to feed her unlimited pellets. Then start to slowly decrease the kaytee pellets as you continue to increase the sherwood pellets, until you've phased out the kaytee pellets. Should take around two weeks to do this. Some people will transition faster, but I'm more comfortable doing it slower, so that the rabbit is less likely to get it's digestion messed up. If you start to get soft poops at all, just transition slower or decrease the total amount of pellets you are feeding, and that should clear it up.

 

[whitelop]

When I wrote that I forgot that I had to gradually introduce the new pellets. :foreheadsmack: Duhh!

So I'll give her some more kaytee pellets per day, since I have to transition anyway it doesn't matter. Like you said Jenny! Sometimes my brain doesn't work and I get a little worried and my brain just walks away from me. lol Thanks!

 

[JBun]

Lol, I have those brain cloud moments all the time! And they're getting more frequent as I get older

 

[Imbrium]

yeah, I would definitely up her pellets considering they're supposed to have unlimited anyway (though I'm a fan of limiting them anyway so they get enough hay)... 2/3-1c a day (split between two feedings) is probably good until 12 weeks - you can scale back to 1/2-2/3c total per day once you're feeding a decent amount of veggies and probably go down to 1/2c total by 5 mos, 3/8c by 6 mos, 1/4c by 7 mos. of course, since she's been eating so few pellets, you probably want to start with 1/4c a day and increase to 2/3-1c over the course of a few days.