How should a rabbit of an "ideal weight" feel?

[kherrmann3]

Berry-Boo is approximately 5 months. She is coming up to the 5-month mark at the end of this week (we put her "birthday" on May 25, 2008). Her food is a mixture of the leftover Oxbow young-bunny diet and the new Oxbow adult-bunny diet (BBT, I believe).

 

[kherrmann3]

Woo! My digital postal scale came in the mail today! Would it be considered ironic to mail-order a postal scale so I can weigh stuff to sell and ship out on eBay? lol

I weighed the buns first thing! It might be a tad off, but here is what we're looking at bunny-weight-wise:

Toby = 4 lbs. & 1.3 oz.
Berry-Boo = 4 lbs. & 10.8 oz.

Last time Toby was weighed (in August) he was 4.1 lbs. I don't know how many ounces are in 1/10 of a pound. I am terrible at math, so I don't want to hurt my brain. Berry-Boo was last weighed in when she was spayed on Sept. 25. She was 3.5 lbs. She's a fatty now!

Any suggestions? How much should I be feeding each bun? Are either of them overweight? They don't feel too chubby to me. Berry-Boo just filled out a bit more post-spay. I feed her twice a day. How much should I be feeding her per "meal"?

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Berry boo is fine - but keep her in that area. She's just reaching her full size and that's really perfect.

There are 16 oz in a pound. So .6 is about 1/10th of a pound - I think..... I am horrible at Math myself LOL!

I'm thinking Berry weighs 4.16 pounds.

Maybe.....

:?

 

[kherrmann3]

10.8 ounces is less than 3/4 of a pound. I can convert pounds to ounces... Kind of...

Here is how I figured it out. Take half a pound (.5) and multiply it by 16 ounces. You get 8 ounces.

.5 x 16 = 8 ounces

.75 x 16 = 12 ounces.

SO, 3/4 of a pound is 12 ounces. I can't figure out how to reverse it lol

Does that KIND OF make sense? lol

 

[JadeIcing]

Both sound just right.

Teresa is just shy of 2lbs and 3lbs for Chibi both are NDs.

 

[kherrmann3]

JadeIcing wrote:

Both sound just right. Teresa is just shy of 2lbs and 3lbs for Chibi both are NDs.

OMG! Your NDs must be TINY compared to Toby. He's so fluffy! I was so surprised he was over three pounds when I took him to the vet in August. I mean, he was over FOUR pounds! I was shocked!

Here is his weight "chart" for the past few times he's been weighed this year:

08/29: 4 lb. 1.6 oz.
10/27: 4 lb. 1.3 oz.
11/02: 4 lb. 1.3 oz.

Woohoo! He came down from 4 lb. 1.6 oz. in August lol. I think he's pretty much "leveled off" weight-wise... Does that sound like a healthy weight? A four-pound Nethie? He is only getting 1.5 ounces of food/day, half-an-ounce of veggies/day, and unlimited hay and water. I had him down to 1 ounce of food. 1.5 ounces is about a 1/3 cup. Is that about right? He doesn't eat all of his food, though. He eats most of it, though.

 

[tonyshuman]

I was just at the shelter and there was a VERY FAT dutchie girl there. She's a tort like Tony, but looks fatter than Luna did before Naturestee took her in. You can tell just from looking at her that she's very obese and unhealthy. However, you can feel her spine when you pet her. It seems that she carries her weight on her underside. It's mostly in big fat pockets under her hips, in the dewlap, and also in her chest/tummy area. So you can't tell if a bunny is overweight or not by seeing if you can feel their spine. It's best to go with what you think looks good, without any squishy pockets, and/or what a vet tells you a good weight is.

 

[TreasuredFriend]

tonyshuman, I'm happy you are there to socialize with those buns at the shelter. I've seen the tort girl you are describing. I wondered what her background was or what kind of food/activity she had before surrender?

kh, are you sure that Tobias doesn't have a few dutch genes mixed in? That would account for his markings, yes/no? Then his weight might imp toward a dutchie-sized weight?

 

[tonyshuman]

I don't know her details. I just hope her diet works! She seems to like to run around, and likes people. I bet she was eating a lot of unhealthy food, since her coat is pretty coarse. I think she's about 3 yrs old?

For reference, my dutch Tony usually weighs in at 4-4.5 lbs, although there was a time a few months ago when he was tipping 5.5. He's not slim, but neither is he fat. I think he's "average." Benjamin is 2.5 lbs, and getting a bit portly (but we haven't weighed him in a while). I agree that Toby looks a little dutch. I would worry if he was carrying fat under the neck, under the pelvis, and on top of the bum. Just MHO.

 

[kherrmann3]

He doesn't have any extra pudge ANYWHERE. He is just extremely fluffy. I've been shed-ending him and he looks thinner again. His tummy feels a bit doughy, but not excessive. When you roll him onto his back (at your own risk) his tummy is fairly tight. It's not gooshy or anything. I don't know if he has any dutch mixed in. He was sold to me as a Nethie, and I never questioned it. The breeder was there at the time dropping off more of her Netherlands. She had "Netherland Dwarf" bumper stickers on her van and such...

Don't Netherlands have markings like that sometimes? Or are they always one color or that "otter" color pattern? If I remember correctly, his other litter mates were all one-colored (minus a honey-blonde one with a darker rump).

 

[tonyshuman]

He could be a vienna-marked Nethie. I think the vienna marking comes up in the nethie breed as a blue eye carrier. One dose (heterozygous) gives you dutch-like markings, two doses of the gene (homozygous) gives you blue eyes. At least that's how I understand it. From the way you describe him, it sounds like he's not overweight. He could just be a nethie that doesn't have the dwarfing gene. I think that the dwarfing gene is a dominant, because two doses of the dwarf gene gives you a peanut, and one dose gives you a small bunny. So you'd have to mate two heterozygous dwarves to get dwarf babies. say A = dwarf, dominant. a=big, recessive. Cross Aa with Aa to get babies, 1/4 will be AA, 1/2 will be Aa, 1/4 will be aa. AA is lethal (peanuts), Aa is a typical nethie, and aa is a big guy. Hope that made sense. I don't know if that's true, it's just what I gather from what I hear breeders say. Somebody like Polly who raises nethies would know better.

 

[kherrmann3]

tonyshuman wrote:

He could be a vienna-marked Nethie. I think the vienna marking comes up in the nethie breed as a blue eye carrier. One dose (heterozygous) gives you dutch-like markings, two doses of the gene (homozygous) gives you blue eyes. At least that's how I understand it. From the way you describe him, it sounds like he's not overweight. He could just be a nethie that doesn't have the dwarfing gene. I think that the dwarfing gene is a dominant, because two doses of the dwarf gene gives you a peanut, and one dose gives you a small bunny. So you'd have to mate two heterozygous dwarves to get dwarf babies. say A = dwarf, dominant. a=big, recessive. Cross Aa with Aa to get babies, 1/4 will be AA, 1/2 will be Aa, 1/4 will be aa. AA is lethal (peanuts), Aa is a typical nethie, and aa is a big guy. Hope that made sense. I don't know if that's true, it's just what I gather from what I hear breeders say. Somebody like Polly who raises nethies would know better.

I follow that, don't worry. I'm a BIG biology dork. I was very good at the genetics part

Parents are in BOLD (top & left side)
___ |_ A _| _a _|
_A__|_ AA |_ Aa |
_a__|_ Aa | aa_|

If two heterozygous parents were to have offspring 4 offspring, each falling into one of the categories above, they would have:

1 AA Homozygous dominant
2 Aa Heterozygous
1 aa Homozygous recessive

___________________________________________

So would Toby be the Heterozygous one (if that is the case)?

 

[tonyshuman]

exactly. i'm not sure but i think that dwarf is a dominant, so Aa would be dwarf, and aa would be Toby. AA would be a peanut, which is neonatal lethal.

 

[kherrmann3]

I saw some pictures of Vienna Nethie's, they do resemble Toby (marking wise).