Fat rabbits

[Maureen Las]

I feed very small mounts of pellets to my rabbits daily ; I measure the timothy pellets and feed between 1/8th - 1/4th cup daily . All my rabbit are medium to medium large size breed mixes.

They also each get a large handful of greens daily .; the greens usually are cilantro , parlsey, maybe romaine and sometimes dandelion or other lettuces.

They get no carrots or sugary veggies.

Ifeed absolutely NO treats at all. The rabbits are always ravenous for pellets and I believe that they think pellets are their treats.
2 of my rabbits have their water bowls flavored with a little apple juice daily to encourage drinking fluids ( it works)
All of my rabbits are provided with an endless and continuous amount of Oxbow timothy hay daily .I don't give a handful ;I give them hay all the time because they are always eating it.

They all eat enormous amounts of hay and they are all overweight.

I have never once read that a rabbit should have limited hay butI am convinced that they are overweight from all they hay.
I guess that I am thinking that it is true that a person can gain weight on a low calorie food if they eat huge amounts of it.

Does Anyone else have this problem?

My rabbits are in large xpens with plenty of toys and boxes and can move about. Some of them are really active and some of them are sedentary but they are all overweight including my 8 month old chinchilla brothers.

What amI doing wrong ?
I am so frustrated.:grumpy:

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

How much over weight are they? I don't ever have so much hay available that it never runs out. Never have. And mine, well, just Snuff now is just fine, but spoiled, lol. He gets three sometimes four meals a day. We give hay when giving pellets.

You know your buns best, you could be answering your own question.

 

[Flash Gordon]

that just doesnt sound right...are u sure their not sneakin in the pantry while ur asleep.....
id lean more to them not getting enough exercise...when my buns are in their huge xpen during the day ..i have to rotate them cuz nobodies bonded ..they do move about and explore but i make them boogie...i get in their and play with them and make them move!!if i dont they dont seem to use their time in the xpen wisely..they might just hop about but when i play with them they GET DOWN!!...i cant do this with all of my buns cuz some of them will have none of it..hehe..and those are the ones that are overweight....my very playful active buns are their proper weight ..and everybody gets the same amount of food...actually my active buns are my biggest eaters and beggars.....i feed same amounts that u feed and same veggies..but i do use alfalfa based pellets...so ur doin wayy better then me.....and my buns devour the tim hay...speaking of alot of hay i went to the local rabbit rescue and all their buns eat mostly hay ..well their poops were super light colored ..almost tan from all the hay intake...crazy...what color are ur poops?...
and how much apple juice do u put in ur water...id like to try that with a couple of my slow drinkers...and do u use sugarfree ?

 

[AngelnSnuffy]

Flash Gordon wrote:

that just doesnt sound right...are u sure their not sneakin in the pantry while ur asleep.....
id lean more to them not getting enough exercise...when my buns are in their huge xpen during the day ..i have to rotate them cuz nobodies bonded ..they do move about and explore but i make them boogie...i get in their and play with them and make them move!!if i dont they dont seem to use their time in the xpen wisely..they might just hop about but when i play with them they GET DOWN!!...i cant do this with all of my buns cuz some of them will have none of it..hehe..and those are the ones that are overweight....my very playful active buns are their proper weight ..and everybody gets the same amount of food...actually my active buns are my biggest eaters and beggars.....i feed same amounts that u feed and same veggies..but i do use alfalfa based pellets...so ur doin wayy better then me.....and my buns devour the tim hay...speaking of alot of hay i went to the local rabbit rescue and all their buns eat mostly hay ..well their poops were super light colored ..almost tan from all the hay intake...crazy...what color are ur poops?...
and how much apple juice do u put in ur water...id like to try that with a couple of my slow drinkers...and do u use sugarfree ?

You need to feed more hay, and get rid of those alfalfa pellets, wean them onto timothy pellets. Just sayin, I know u know what ur doin.
Sorry, I couldn't edit that down.

 

[Runestonez]

Our kids are all on Oxbow..they get about 1/4 cup each per day...unlimited hay and loads of veg.

I do tend to give out treats a little heavy sometimes...but have been getting better at resisting the dying bunny face...as in..."Mom...I desperately need treats or I may expire right here and now!"

ALL our kids are FAT.
Our vet heckles me about it endlessly.
Our kids have scads of exercise time and lots of toys...but they like to spend their time lounging...not the most energetic bunns I've seen.

We used to have 2 x 2 x 4 bunn houses and I reduced them to2 x 2 x 2 because no one ever came out of their houses to play!:shock: So now when we open the door they come out, charge around for a few minutes...check to see all their toys are where they left them and then they stretch out for a bunn nap for the rest of their exercise time!:rollseyes I dunno maybewe just have lazy bunns!:biggrin:

Anyway that's why our kids are fat...that's my story and I'm stickin' to it!:biggrin2:

 

[Maureen Las]

HA! HA ! :biggrin2:

No I am not getting up in the night and sleep walking to the kitchen to feed my rabbits junk

I think Crystal is right thatI answered myown question

Iam home a lot andam really looking at them a lot and when the hay is down and theirlittle faces are looking at me and waiting...Ijust get another bunch of hay and give more.

I also do not use sugar free apple juice becauseone bun knows what is sugar free and won't drink it. The apple juice could play a role in Rudy who is the fattest of them all.

I use to let him run in the yard when the weather permitted and it is the only time he would move but the time allowed out here in the Midwest are only a few days in the spring and fall

Ihave no one to guide me in reducing their hay
I also cannot stand to see them without it butI am going to work on reducing it .
My young chinchilla rabbits are active and they are gaining weight also

It is hard for me to exercise everybody becauseI have 9 rabbits in the house and their is no room , however, switching pens is an idea.

 

[jcl_24]

I don't understand how a rabbit could gain weight eating hay? I thought it was just (very healthy) fibre for them that helped fill them up so they didn't feel the need to eat lots of pellets.

 

[jcl_24]

"Our kids have scads of exercise time and lots of toys...but they like to spend their time lounging...not the most energetic bunns I've seen."

Couch potato bunnies. Aw! xx

 

[Pet_Bunny]

To be really sure your rabbit is fineis to weigh her and keep track of her weight. If you have a scale handy, you can weigh her regularly and record it on a calendar so you can see if the weight is up or down.

At the moment I am giving Bebe extra pellets and some alfalfa to maintain a higher (not fat) weight. If I give her too much greens or treats, she produces excess cecels so I have to limit the greens.

 

[Maureen Las]

jcl_24 wrote:

I don't understand how a rabbit could gain weight eating hay? I thought it was just (very healthy) fibre for them that helped fill them up so they didn't feel the need to eat lots of pellets.

I know ; I can't understand it either

Iknow that when I gave them a lot of Oxbow Oat Hay that they gained weight on that butI have not given that for a long time.

To be really honestI am wondering whether they need a little more pellets to balance things out

They seem ravenous whenI give pellets ; they jump on them before they are even in the bowl; theybehave as if they are starved:?

 

[Maureen Las]

Pet_Bunny wrote:

To be really sure your rabbit is fineis to weigh her and keep track of her weight. If you have a scale handy, you can weigh her regularly and record it on a calendar so you can see if the weight is up or down.

At the moment I am giving Bebe extra pellets and some alfalfa to maintain a higher (not fat) weight. If I give her too much greens or treats, she produces excess cecels so I have to limit the greens.

I don't weigh them
that is wrong of me
I am afraid to weigh them but I am going to do it.

 

[Flash Gordon]

man i think the pellets are gonna fatten em up even more Angieluv.....my beggars are the ones that pounce on their pellets too ..
and Crys i know ur righ i do....id luv to switch back to timothy based pellets but i have 9 buns and im always rescueing more from my local park .i norm have a couple quarnatined in the house at all times and its just too much money for me to buy the timothy based pellets...i get a 50lb bag of fibre 3 purina for 17.00 ...thats norm what a 10lb bag of oxbow timothy is...biggg dif in price...im hopin the alfalfa based pellets arent gonnna be too unhealthy for them considering i feed them only 1/4-1/3 cup ..a day..my giants get the 1/3 cup...and some of my buns dont even finish that much in a day...
maybe try sprinkling the pellets out around their pen to give them foraging exercise will help...i dont know..just a thought.
and u never said how much applejuice u put in their water..
.
for exercise in my house ..
my 9 buns are housed in the living room and i put up a huge NIC cube xpen in a huge circle inside the room and i rotate the xpen to each cage and leave it open for each bunny to come out on their own and play ..all day i rotate bunnies...its a pain ..but they need it and aint nothing kewler then being grumpy and walking by the living room and seeing some fancy footwork by one of my professional acrobat buns.....they always make me smile.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We got a Mini-
rex that was 8pounds plus when we first got her. Looked like a gray, fluffy blob. We give her a small amount of pellets- 1/8 cup daily, vegetables twice a day, and unlimited hay. She now weighs 6 1/2 pounds and looks almost rabbit like instead of a cowpie with ears and eyes. She'd previously been given an unlimited amount of pellets and nothing else. It was a chore to get her to eat hay, but we didn't give her pellets until she was eating hay. Don't really care if my bunnies are chunky--they are happy and we will only have them for a short time no matter what. Prefer that they are happy rather than have to weigh and measure all the time.

 

[Maureen Las]

Nancy McClelland wrote:

We got a Mini-
rex that was 8pounds plus when we first got her. Looked like a gray, fluffy blob. We give her a small amount of pellets- 1/8 cup daily, vegetables twice a day, and unlimited hay. She now weighs 6 1/2 pounds and looks almost rabbit like instead of a cowpie with ears and eyes. She'd previously been given an unlimited amount of pellets and nothing else. It was a chore to get her to eat hay, but we didn't give her pellets until she was eating hay. Don't really care if my bunnies are chunky--they are happy and we will only have them for a short time no matter what. Prefer that they are happy rather than have to weigh and measure all the time.

I don't care about there weight for any cosmetic reasons I am just concerned that it will affect their health (although it has not so far and I have some older and younger rabbits )

Flash Gordon :

If you are giving limited pellets it doesn't matter if they are alfalfa unless the bun already has bladder/kidney issues... if pellets are measured and fed sparingly it is not enough to harm them

if i could get Fibre 3 Purina I would buy that as I have 9 rabbits also and it is costly .

 

[Amy27]

My mini rex is 8+ lbs. My lionhead I think is 6+. I feel your pain. Both are overweight. They get unlimited timothy hay, only get 1 ounce of oxbow organic pellets twice a week, veggies 2x a day and they both are on meds that I give in craisins so they do get a few craisins a day.

I am with you angieluv, mine are overweight and it worries me for health issues, but I don't know what to do about it. I always worry that they will get sick or die from being overweight and then I am going to feel horrible.

Mine have big NIC cages they are each in 12 hours a day, the other 12 hours, they have free roam of my place. But like a previous poster said, they don't really get much exercise when I do let them out. May be I need to chase them around the house. I try to play with them with their toys, but they usually just sit and watch me play with them.

Before Chase got sick 8+ lb mini rex, she was still overweight and she didn't get any pellets, got veggies once a day, unlimited, and was free roam and she was still overweight. Makes me wonder.

Then the shelter buns at the place I volunteer are all good weight. They get a handful of hay in their litter box each day, which usually lasts all day but not always and a lot gets soiled, they get 1/2 cup of pellets, veggies a few times a week when a volunteer brings it in and treats a few times a week when a volunteer brings it in. They get littel exercise, but when they do get out...they run! But none of them are overweight. Their cages are so small, some can't even stretch out.

I know my thread probably hasn't helped lol. I really don't get it. I know my bunnies get a more balanced diet and more exercise, and the shelter buns aren't overweight and mine are. Ugh, I don't know what the answer is.

 

[Maureen Las]

Amy27 wrote:

My mini rex is 8+ lbs. My lionhead I think is 6+. I feel your pain. Both are overweight. They get unlimited timothy hay, only get 1 ounce of oxbow organic pellets twice a week, veggies 2x a day and they both are on meds that I give in craisins so they do get a few craisins a day.

I am with you angieluv, mine are overweight and it worries me for health issues, but I don't know what to do about it. I always worry that they will get sick or die from being overweight and then I am going to feel horrible.

Mine have big NIC cages they are each in 12 hours a day, the other 12 hours, they have free roam of my place. But like a previous poster said, they don't really get much exercise when I do let them out. May be I need to chase them around the house. I try to play with them with their toys, but they usually just sit and watch me play with them.

Before Chase got sick 8+ lb mini rex, she was still overweight and she didn't get any pellets, got veggies once a day, unlimited, and was free roam and she was still overweight. Makes me wonder.

Then the shelter buns at the place I volunteer are all good weight. They get a handful of hay in their litter box each day, which usually lasts all day but not always and a lot gets soiled, they get 1/2 cup of pellets, veggies a few times a week when a volunteer brings it in and treats a few times a week when a volunteer brings it in. They get littel exercise, but when they do get out...they run! But none of them are overweight. Their cages are so small, some can't even stretch out.

I know my thread probably hasn't helped lol. I really don't get it. I know my bunnies get a more balanced diet and more exercise, and the shelter buns aren't overweight and mine are. Ugh, I don't know what the answer is.

No Amy, to be honest, I am relieved that other members that are doing things correctly are having the same issues as me.

At my shelter it is the same as at your shelter.Rabbits are given a lot of pellets , a handful of hay for the day ( gets soiled ) and is a fraction of what i feed) and they are all usually slim to normal weight and they get almost no exercise.

I think that it is the amount of hay hay butI am not sure what to do about it

this thread is helping ...

 

[Tweetiepy]

Isn't hay kinda like celery? In that it's roughage but it burns more calories to eat it than the hay itself contains? I too have a largish cage for my lionheads one is 2x4 x3 high and the other is 2x3 x2 high - they come out and play a bit then go back in to flop - I figure their cage must allow them enough room to binky & run & jump (which is good cuz they don't always get a ton of run time each day)

I fill the hay tray twice a day and they 10 month gets 1/2 pellets /day split in two portions and the little one who's about 11 weeks oldgets a little more pellets but three times a day - I want him to eat more hay too.

 

[kirbyultra]

angieluv wrote:

At my shelter it is the same as at your shelter. Rabbits  are given a lot of pellets , a handful of hay for the day ( gets soiled ) and is a fraction of what i feed)  and they are all usually slim to normal weight and they get almost no exercise.

Funny that this thread is here because several months ago I could have sworn my bunnies were getting fat on hay. Then I suspected it was their veggies. Well I dunno what it is because I DO weigh my bunnies and in the last 3 months despite my trying very hard to keep their amount of pellets and lettuce in check, they've lost no poundage. The good thing I guess, is that they've also gained none in that time.

I used to feed my buns a bit over 1/4 cup a day of Oxbow timothy pellets. The bun who was gaining the most visible weight was my dwarf who should be closer to 3 lbs but was increasingly heading towards 4lbs and it showed! In the last 3 months, I got a 1/8 cup measuring cup so that I could be SURE I was feeding 1/8 cup or less twice a day to total up to 1/4 cup for one day. Before I was eyeballing it and they were more than likely getting >1/4 cup a day.

Both of my boy buns have 10 inch plates and I gave them a heaping plateful of greens TWICE a day. I started cutting that in half, but in the last few months even with that reduced portion they haven't lost weight. My girl bun Penny gets mushy poo if she gets that much so she only gets a small handful of greens twice a day.

So I finally arrive at the same conclusion that their unlimited hay consumption could possibly be responsible for their weight gain (or at the current time, more specifically the *lack* of weight loss). I mean, yeah, they get treats maybe twice a week and it is usually 1 dice-size piece of fruit, bunny cookie or carrot and no more than that. I feed my buns Kleenmama bluegrass and timothy hay.

Penny in particular is a crazy-good example of this. She came to me as a super lean bunny. She was thin enough that you could see her gut moving and digesting food through her skin and fur. I've done nothing other than what I described above. She wants food more than anything in her life and so she rips through more hay than both my other two buns combined. It's seriously nuts how much hay she eats. Now she's a chubby bunner and I can't explain it. And keep in mind, she gets even less greens than the other two buns.

My dwarf Toby gets run of the living room 12 hours a day while the other two gets run of an entire bedroom 12 hours a day. They weren't exercising much so I started to confine them in pens and bunny condos so that they would exercise when I actually let them out. This idea has worked for me and my buns get more excited about being "let out" so there is maybe 50% more exercise than before. But the general point is that they definitely do get run time and exercise. They are not really sedentary bunnies.

And the point about shelter rabbit diet is so true. But I also believe that shelter rabbits are uber stressed and it is remarkable how much stress can affect the health, immune system and weight of a bunny. So while the shelter buns might not the "unlimited" hay our home rabbits get and they generally get more pellets, I think just being in that environment does something to them and they don't gain weight the way we'd like. It's one of the reasons we pull severely underweight buns into foster. They just don't fatten up the way we'd like when they're constantly stressed out.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

In contrast, I actually have an opposite suggestion.

Little amounts of protein and fat and large amounts of fiber can cause "hay belly". The rabbit will feel very fat and have a bloated belly when this happens because they're filling up on 'something', but it's sort of empty calories. The fact that you said your rabbits are ravenous for pellets is kind of what tipped me off to this.

For a medium to medium large size rabbit, I would suggest offering 1/2 cup of pellets per day. Sometimes it helps to split it into two meals of 1/4 cup. Then offer hay in between meals. I'd work on this kind of diet for a few months and see if it makes a difference.

Opinions will vary on this, but I believe it would be worth a try. I like about a 50/50 balance of hay and pellets in my show rabbits' diet and have found that they keep very good condition on this diet. My pets do as well. So if you're having trouble with other methods, that may be one to try for a few months to see if you can get the bunnies back to a healthy condition. I give 1/2 cup of pellets a day and a large handful of hay.

ETA- I missed the shelter bun comments, but your observations of them are in line with what I described above. I think there is a lot of misinformation about correct diets out there and many rabbit owners are trying to do what they have read is best for their bunny and just finding that it's not working out quite right because the information just isn't out there.

In my opinion, the shelter bunnies' diets are more balanced and provide the vitamins, nutrients, and minerals the rabbit needs as well as providing enough roughage to keep their system happy. Exercise can contribute to weight as well, but usually rabbits will not have weight issues on a correct diet. Generally fat bunnies have outside factors contributing to weight gain (other health issues, etc.)

 

[Maureen Las]

I don't know Oak Ridge but I am open to suggestions ...

Iam often at the shelter when rabbits are surrendered and even the surrendered rabbits are not fat when they come in.
but they often don't come from perfect home situations either.

It seems as if the some of the people who are consciously attempting to feed correctly are ending up with overweight rabbits. :?