Foods that rabbits gain weight on

[RollingHills]

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if you would be able to help?
We've got my older lop boy cheif who's going be 6 shortly and lately has loosing the weight sadly. His been the same diet since having him of pallets and fresh fruits (Apples, Carrots, Celery, mint leaves and bannana skins etc)

So I was wondering are there any foods for rabbits that good for gaining weight back on them?

Thankyou :bouquet:

 

[ldoerr]

If he is not already on an alfalfa pellet I would put him on one. Some other things to try are oats, barely, and raisens (limit). With the oats and barely I would give a 50%-50% mixture of that. I would give him about 1/4 cup a day. All of my rabbits that I used to show got that to improve their condition. (I had bad stock). Most rabbits will like it within a week of it being offered.

 

[tamsin]

Yep I second that, add in pellets with slightly higher protein/fat content (watch the fibre doesn't drop too much) and add in some rolled oats.

It's also worth a health check in case he's got an underlying problem that's behind it. Six isn't really elderly when bunnies can live 10 years so I wouldn't automatically just put it down to getting on a bit.

 

[Acacia-Berry]

You can buy a bag of alfalfa pellets and mix it with the timothy until he's ready for an all alfalfa diet. Or you can add more fattening hays to his timothy: alfalfa and oat.
I add a small handful of oats to Acacia's breakfast every morning.

 

[majorv]

In addition to the items mentioned above, you could also give him some black oil sunflower seeds. Maybe alternate these with the oats, barley, etc...on different days. We give rolled oats and sunflower seeds to help with the rabbit's condition and when we have a rabbit that needs to gain some weight. You just don't want to give too much.

 

[LakeCondo]

If sunflower seeds aren't available in Tasmania, you could use walnut or pecan pieces.

 

[ldoerr]

I had forgotten about the black oil sunflower seeds. I used to give them to my rabbits. I think that the ratio I used was for every 10lbs of the oat barley mixture I would add 1/2 cup of the sunflower seeds.

 

[RollingHills]

Thankyou everyone for your reply's. I think I'll try him on the alfalfa pellets with some oats and sunflower seeds mixed in the pellets.

I'll keep you posted on news