Hungry Bunny Losing Weight - from trial board (Resolved)

[Bo B Bunny]

kirbyultra wrote:

When Kirby was surrendered to the rabbit shelter he was 5.7 lbs. When I got Kirby he was 5.5 lb. The shelter told me that 5.2 to 5.6 would be a good place for him to stay for his weight. I've been feeding him 2 plates of greens and 1/8 cup of pellets (Oxbow BBT twice a day = 1/4cup total) daily but he seems to be losing weight. He eats plenty of hay. In fact he eats anything I give him extremely willingly.

In the last few weeks he's been I guess, molting. He is a very short hair bunny and his bitty littlefur is just flying all over the place, so I assumed he was molting. Ever since then he's been a hungry little Flashy wrote:

Has your bun has blood tests? Has he been wormed? Has he had his teeth checked?

If you bun is losing weight I would suggest increasing the pellets, but also maybe add a pinch of rolled oats (not the quick kind, but proper oats) because that can help them maintain weight.

I would think there is a reason for this weight loss though and that does need to be found. I would suggest a pellet increase, but you also do need to look at physical factors that could cause this, in addition to looking at under feeding.

Rabbits do get run down during a molt, but I've personally not come across a rabbit who has lost that much weight due to a moult. Equally, the molt could be due to something else, such as some sort of health issue.

tonyshuman wrote:

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that's too much weight loss.

Flashy wrote:

If the shelter said he should be roughly between 5.2-5.6 and he is 5.0 then I was working on the basis he was now underweight. I thought that was the issue, lol.

Does your bun appear to be underweight kirbyultra?

 

[Bo B Bunny]

kirbyultra wrote:
He doesn't "look" skinny. He is still fluffy and jiggly, but he is definitely leaner than before. I looked at some pics of him from November, and he looked "plumper".

I don't think I have the expertise to judge whether he is actually underweight. He was being weighed on different scales (one at the shelter, one at my home and one at the vet's) so that might also be contributing to the slight differences in weight, but I'm not too sure.

The other thing is that he wasn't being fed any greens so he had a lot of pellets in his old home. And he was also cooped up in a hutch there, while I give him free run of his own room in my apartment. He might have been fatter for those reasons. Maybe he is just "stabilizing" his weight now that he's in better care. (That's my optimistic guess) What do you think? Could those be reasons too?

I took his poops to the vet yesterday to check out if he has any shtuffs in it. I should know soon if there's anything wrong in terms of parasites. When I took him to the vet last week the vet did not see anything wrong with him. He was a perfectly healthy bunny, teeth and all.

Maybe I should monitor him another month or so and see if he is capable of gaining a few extra fractions of a pound. If he can gain weight with some pellet and greens adjustments then he's ok right?

 

[Bo B Bunny]

naturestee1 wrote:

It's less an issue of how he looks and more an issue of how he feels. Can you feel his ribs easily? You should be able to feel them without much problem but they shouldn't be super easy to feel. Are his hips more boney?

It's possible that most of the weight loss is just from getting exercise now. Loosing JadeIcing wrote:

From the sounds of it he is very healthy. I would monitor his weight and see how he does.

kirbyultra wrote:

I'm increasing his greens and giving him maybe a teaspoon more pellets at each feeding. I have all this canned pumpkin (one can is a lot for a bunny...) so while he's still molting, I can give him more of that. He LOVES that stuff.

We'll see in a few weeks if he's gained any weight! thanks everyone.

JadeIcing wrote:

Pardon my ignorance what kind of bunny is he?

tonyshuman wrote:

He looks healthy to me. I typically go by feel (mostly because my guys will not let me weigh them without a fight) rather than weight, like naturestee. There have been several overweight bunnies at the shelter, and Kirby doesn't look like them. They feel very "solid" for their size--like they weigh a lot more than you expect. Also, they carry their weight under the chin, under the tummy, and on the sides of the body. Not a lot of weight gets carried on the back.

kirbyultra wrote:

Yay!

 

[Bo B Bunny]

His coat is gorgeous! I think that indicates health a lot also.

Bo is always hungry! he thinks we starve him. :rollseyes

 

[kirbyultra]

I don't know how I missed the tail end of this thread, guys and gals!

Thanks for the compliments on his coat! He isa beautiful little mixed Satin, I'm told. I have pet other rabbits before and I know how my dwarf, Toby, feels like. Other bunners feel more fluffy and soft. Kirby has a distinct slick, silky touch to his fur. It's one of the very cool things that attracted me to him when I met him at the shelter. I adopted him that very first day I met him. Grooming him is very easy. His fur comes out in very even bunches and I don't have too many fluff balls flying all over the place when I groom him.

The light has to hit him right to get that shiny look though. Pix below.

Anyway I was looking for this thread to report the fact that I have been increasing his pellets for a while, just a little bit for atiny fraction of a lb more weight on him. And voila! He's 5.5lbs now. He looks plumper, but I think I see some muscles on him. Ever since I got Toby, he's been running around more, much more active than he used to. I think he is building up some good healthy weight. I think he really was going through a rough patch with his molt and a slight gut slowdown and dropped some weight. He looks back to his old self now.

Lazy little pumpernickel loaf

 

[Maureen Las]

He's gorgeous ; looks great ; beautiful boy

 

[tonyshuman]

AWW! Resolved!