Jenson isn't eating his normal amount / RESOLVED

[TinysMom]

Jenson normally eats X amount of food and his food bowl is normally empty when Robin feeds him. Sometimes he does dump his food bowl I think - but I could be wrong.

Thursday night/Friday he ate about 1/2 of his normal food and Friday night/Saturday he only ate about 1/4 of his normal food. He is drinking ok.

He doesn't appear to have gas and nothing appears to be wrong with him. In hopes that maybe he was just bored/hot....he's been moved to another cage (Dusty and Bun Bun got moved today and their NIC cages didn't get taken down - so he's in one of their cages so we can monitor his poop and food intake, etc).

I'll update tomorrow night - I'm just wondering if its just a "change of weather" type of thing. His nose looks fine - his breathing is fine - no signs of illness that we can find. But he wouldn't even eat a fruit loop (I think he was angry at being held and not allowed to run around though).

Peg

 

[lemonaxis]

Not a professional opinion, but BK sometimes does this and then a day or so later has his appetite back.

I think just like humans they can go off their food a bit, BUT, seeing as they are foragers and their food is lower in calories, they DO need to eat fairly consistently. Mostly between 4am and 8am and then 4pm and 8pm. Try feed him during these times from your hand or babysit him during his meal so you can be sure he is actually eating something.

Try his favourites too, might help. Could be that he would a little more variety. Try a bunch of good foods and see if this interests him.:cooking: yummy lol....

Again just my personal opinion but get him to a vet, I would say if this continues....

good luck and its so good he has such a great mum to keep a close eye on him
its looks like you have had rabbits for years, I have only been a rabbit owner for 1 year but I posted because I thought it was good to let you know that my BK has done this several times and it did scare me too.

 

[TinysMom]

Thanks for the comments. Part of me is saying, "He just went off his feed for a bit..." and I'm not overly worried.

But we've had such a large number of sudden deaths over the last few days and weeks on this forum - that I am trying to not take any chances. I had a doe that was dancing at her food bowl all the way through Thursday...pass away today from pneumonia that appeared to come on suddenly....

I'm hoping that the move to a new cage (he's beside Drew who is flirting with him) will make him want to eat a bit more....but if he doesn't eat tonight's food - I'll be working with him to get him to eat more, etc. I'll also be monitoring his water intake...

Its just...Jenson is sort of special to me. When Puck got wry neck...Jenny was brought in to live with him and she pulled him through. He got well enough that she had a litter from him (they'd had a litter once before too) and Jenson is from that litter...so he is Puck's son from his last litter...and while he's a "mongrel" rabbit thanks to his mama...he's still much loved.

I'll post a photo here for folks to see him...





He frequently does the airplane ears thing and he's just so gosh darned cute....

In fact - his face is the first one I see when I go in the garage....

Peg

 

[MsBinky]

Sounds like he could be pouting Lol. Hopefully, he eats normally again tomorrow.

 

[tonyshuman]

i've heard of rabbits that stop eating because tooth problems make chewing hard/painful. maybe see if he'll eat something really mushy, like canned pumpkin?

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yes, or applesauce or bananas squished..... something he likes that you know he would eat?

 

[TinysMom]

Last night /today Jenson ate about 1/2 of his normal food amount...which is up from the day before - so we're going to continue to watch him and see.

I've never had to deal with a rabbit that had teeth issues and I think if I remember right - the vet I can go to for rabbits (70 miles one way) said we'd have to go to Houston for teeth problems...that's like 250 miles or so? Maybe it was San Antonio - but I was thinking she said it was Houston....

So I'm going to keep an eye on him and watch him to see what he does...

I'm really hoping its just the weather...

Peg

 

[Pipp]

Here'sthe Library files on Teeth, worth a peek:

Teeth

Is he molting? Stressed? I'd let him run and increase his fluids just in case. (I still like the diluted carrot or apple juice for this).



sas :clover:

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Bo and Clover are inside and it's heated and a/c but sometimes they will go through a spell of not eating many pellets for a few days. I hope that's all it is.

 

[TinysMom]

I just thought I would follow up on this with y'all.

Last night when Robin went to feed Jenson - he had an empty bowl and he'd eaten all his food.

So I'm considering this "resolved".....

Peg

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Jenson had an off day - that's great!