Feeding too much?

[LadyOnslaught]

One thing I am confused about are feeding greens and possibly feeding too much. Is this possible? I'm sure if your bun was eating head after head of lettuce or something a day. With Riley I feed her unlimited hay (I do handfuls and occasionally I think she runs out during the day but I try to keep her from wasting it by peeing on it). I give her a few handfuls of pellets twice a day (I need to start measuring but they're small handfuls). I give her veggies twice a day. I give her romaine lettuce and I was feeding one huge leaf but may feed 2-3 each time and then she loves the sprouts I buy her. They are broccoli, alfalfa, and clover I think (there are three of them. I was just buying clover but I can't find them now). I also have been feeding her parsley so she gets all three. Should I change anything?

I am going to be looking for another veggie to add now to her list. I'm wondering too if I should introduce lettuce to the new bunny. I'm afraid of disrupting his system though. I think he was only being fed once or twice a day of crappy pellets and no hay. It now gets unlimited hay and I'm giving it quite a few pellets as it's a little underweight I think and then I'll back off. I thought about introducing lettuce but didn't want to overdue it too soon. I have an appointment with the vet next Saturday to examine it too.

 

[juliew19673]

Here is a great link out of the library; will answer most if not all of your bunny feeding questions..

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#feeding

Other things to take into consideration is how old is your bun and how much does it weigh? Might help other more knowledgable people on here answer your question more specifically.

Good luck!!!

 

[LadyOnslaught]

juliew19673 wrote:

Here is a great link out of the library; will answer most if not all of your bunny feeding questions..

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabcare.html#feeding

Other things to take into consideration is how old is your bun and how much does it weigh? Might help other more knowledgable people on here answer your question more specifically.

Good luck!!!

I suppose that would be helpful wouldn't it...hehe. I'm not great at 'telling the whole story' sometimes. Riley is around 6 months and when I took her to the vet in the middle of April she was 1 1/2 pounds but she's put on some weight. The other one is probably 3-4 months old and I would say is 2 pounds or less.

 

[Luv-bunniz]

Unless you are feeding like 7 cups of veggies a day I wouldnt worry about feeding too much. This is what I would suggest daily (until they arefully grown, at least) :

AM:

Unlimited Hay
1 leaf romaine (or two smaller leaves)
Small slice of pepper (yellow, green or orange - red contains more sugar so should only be fed every 3 days or so)
Few leaves of parsley
Coriander
Baby carrot (or peice of carrot similar size)
Dandelion leaves

PM:

Unlimited Hay
1/8th cup of pellets
Small leaf of green veggie (cabbage, romaine, round lettuce etc)

If you want to keep the hay clean you can get a hay rack and hook it up, s/he needs hay 24/7 remember

 

[LadyOnslaught]

Luv-bunniz wrote:

Unless you are feeding like 7 cups of veggies a day I wouldnt worry about feeding too much. This is what I would suggest daily (until they arefully grown, at least) :

AM:

Unlimited Hay
1 leaf romaine (or two smaller leaves)
Small slice of pepper (yellow, green or orange - red contains more sugar so should only be fed every 3 days or so)
Few leaves of parsley
Coriander
Baby carrot (or peice of carrot similar size)
Dandelion leaves

PM:

Unlimited Hay
1/8th cup of pellets
Small leaf of green veggie (cabbage, romaine, round lettuce etc)

If you want to keep the hay clean you can get a hay rack and hook it up, s/he needs hay 24/7 remember

They both get hay 24/7. I did buy a hay rack but she didn't eat as much out of that. What I've done though is used a zip tie and used it to secure a little basket on her cage by her litter box so it's like a hay rack but she doesn't really have to pull it out. She can just pull all of the hay out but normally doesn't, it stays in the basket pretty well. The other one I tried that but it was peeing and pooping in there as it climbed into it. Riley did that at first too until I fixed it.

 

[Luv-bunniz]

I found CJ didnt eat much out of a hay rack aswell, I thought maybe that was just CJ lol. I forgot to add - there is other things that you can rotate into feeding like:

Sprouts, brocolli, green beans, apple, orange, mango, pineapple, tomato, cucumber, parsnip, WASHED carrot peeling, carrot greens, zuccini (sp?)/courgette etc.

 

[bunbunbinkie]

LadyOnslaught wrote:

They both get hay 24/7. I did buy a hay rack but she didn't eat as much out of that. What I've done though is used a zip tie and used it to secure a little basket on her cage by her litter box so it's like a hay rack but she doesn't really have to pull it out. She can just pull all of the hay out but normally doesn't, it stays in the basket pretty well. The other one I tried that but it was peeing and pooping in there as it climbed into it. Riley did that at first too until I fixed it.

I'm really not knowledgeable about nutrition in rabbits, but I wanted to comment on your "hay rack" as I am doing the same thing. Merlin wont eat hay out of a hanging hay rack, but loves it to be in his liiter box... but he pees on it sometimes:?I put a hay basket in there next to his litter box and he seems to like that much better.

The link juliew19673 put up from the libraryis a great reference and very informational!

 

[LadyOnslaught]

Luv-bunniz wrote:

I found CJ didnt eat much out of a hay rack aswell, I thought maybe that was just CJ lol. I forgot to add - there is other things that you can rotate into feeding like:

Sprouts, brocolli, green beans, apple, orange, mango, pineapple, tomato, cucumber, parsnip, WASHED carrot peeling, carrot greens, zuccini (sp?)/courgette etc.

Thanks for the suggestions!

 

[LadyOnslaught]

bunbunbinkie wrote:

LadyOnslaught wrote:

They both get hay 24/7. I did buy a hay rack but she didn't eat as much out of that. What I've done though is used a zip tie and used it to secure a little basket on her cage by her litter box so it's like a hay rack but she doesn't really have to pull it out. She can just pull all of the hay out but normally doesn't, it stays in the basket pretty well. The other one I tried that but it was peeing and pooping in there as it climbed into it. Riley did that at first too until I fixed it.

I'm really not knowledgeable about nutrition in rabbits, but I wanted to comment on your "hay rack" as I am doing the same thing. Merlin wont eat hay out of a hanging hay rack, but loves it to be in his liiter box... but he pees on it sometimes:?I put a hay basket in there next to his litter box and he seems to like that much better.

The link juliew19673 put up from the libraryis a great reference and very informational!

Do you have a picture of what you use? What I have now isn't quite what I want but I"m not creative to look for other things. Some people have wonderful ideas when they see something...I do not lol.