Morgan, what the heck?

[HoneyPot]

Did she give you any idea why he is not eating his food as he used to, or is he back to eating like normal.

While I was reading, I definately thought molar spurs... since both of my buns have it and have to get theirs trimmed every 2 months... sounds exactly like when they are in a bit of pain from their teeth and need them trimmed.

Also, if you're getting Oxbow for Morgan - why not give them all Oxbow? Did your vet give you a reason for giving Morgan Oxbow and not the others? Are the other two under 6 months? If not I would think of switching them all to a Timothy based feed.

Nadia

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Oxbow Timothy is so much better for them. I give Bo 1/8 cup in the morning and 1/8 cup in the evening and he's looking great now I hadn't been measuring his and that got him a bit fat.

Bo acted as if I had fed him poo when I first switched him over and he left the oxbow..... even as a young boy - but he finally switched and loves his pellets now.

If you do it right and measure, you'll be suprised how little you really use. (If you don't measure now! I don't know)

 

[undergunfire]

Flat out....Oxbow is expensive for me right now. Ryan and I are saving to move out and into our own rented house by May, if all goes right with his promotion at work.

It costs $50 for $50lbs and doesn't seem to last long here. I give each one of my bunnies 1/4 cup of pellets every night. Oxbow just seems to get here, then I blink, and it's time to spend another $50 on the feed.

Marlin is 9 months old and Brody is 5 months old, and they are on the Alfalfa based feed and they seem just fine.


Oxbow is wonderful, but the price needs to lower before I am able to feed it to all three bunnies. It just dissapears so quickly.

 

[Pipp]

Ugh, so sorry, been meaning to respond to this.

You can't see molar spurs with a visual exam, especially with the far back set of teeth.

They told me Pipp didn't have spurs,she wasn't presenting with the usual symptoms like drooling,odd mouth movements, etc. She would, however, pick up a piece of food and take a bite and drop it and hop away.

She'd ALWAYS eat oats and banana, though, and usually pellets. She just stopped eating veggies. (She never did eat hay, which is probably why she had the spurs).

When she started eating fewer pellets, I insisted on xrays, and voila. Spurs.

She first got them when she was about a year and a half I think. They came back six months later, then started coming back every six weeks.

I started giving her a huge variety of veggies -- hard ones like kale, and stemmy ones like carrot tops.. as many different textures as I could muster. I also started with three different kinds of pellets, including the hardest ones I could find, and tried to get her to eat grass (although she'd always go for the seeds, not the blades).

She also got a few sunflower seeds, a littleflax,whateverI thought took a good andvaried amount of chewing. (She also got three different kinds of hay, although never did eat more than a strand or two).

It did work. The spurs seemed to be delayed. She totally stopped eating once right before a long weekend, the vet couldn't do surgery, but I got some Metacam, and that started her eating again. And amazingly enough, she kept eating. The spurs must have broken off. (I've managed to do that three times now I think).

This last time I tried it again, but it didn't work. I opted for Metacam instead of a vet appointment, but I had to syringe feed her all weekend, she never started eating on her own. When she had the surgery, turned out she had a pretty bad lession on her tongue.

I wouldn't worry too much about taking Morgan back unlesshehasmore of an appetite loss, but if that happens, don't leave without a dentalxray. You may also want to check and see if your vet has a dental xray machine and if they use a sedative (mine uses Domitor) as opposed toan anesthetic for the procedure. That's safer and less intrusive.

Hope this helps!



sas :bunnydance:

 

[undergunfire]

Thanks, Pipp.

Morgan is eating his pellets and leaving some left over in the morning, though. He eats hay, oats, craisins, and baby carrots. He is his normal self, just not eating ALL of the pellets.

Hopefully I can budget in the Oxbow, to get him eating all of the pellets.

 

[Pipp]

There are other timothy pellets out there, I think Kaytee makesa good one.

I really would recommend a mix, though, and don't fill up the bowl again until ALL the pellets are gone. Eventually they'll start eating them all.

Pipp wouldn't touch Oxbow, the other guys didn't like it much, either. But I mixed three different pellets together, they eventually all started eating the works. You can increase and decrease each brand as needed (ie: the tubbos or poop-challenged guys get mostly Oxbow, the skinny minnies get more alfalfa, etc).



sas

 

[undergunfire]

I refuse to buy anything Kaytee (food and products) . In my opinion, it's of extremely low quality.


Morgan did do very well on Oxbow and always ate them all, so I am thinking he would love to have them again.

I think I will end up getting the Oxbow and mixing a little bit with my current pellet, then seeing how all the bunnies like it.

My local mom & pop pet store carries 5lbs bags of Oxbow T, but they are selling it for $10 a bag :shock:.

 

[Pipp]

There's a big list of pellets in the Library in Bunny 101, can somebody grab the link? Lots of Timothy pellets in there I think.I use Martins Less Active (and I always complain that they never seem to make my hyper little guys any less active ), but I don't know if they're available there.

And $10 for 5 lbs is great. Can't really do better than $3 a pound, here. :shock:



sas :bunnydance:

 

[Bo B Bunny]

I don't like Kaytee either. I know there are some really good bulk feeds you can get through stores like Tractor supply. I'm not sure if the purina brand is better, but I think KENT rabbit feed is good.

 

[undergunfire]

We don't have many feeds here.

Olsen's Grain only sells Kaytee with the colored junk and Purina (which I think is a horrible food, as well), PETsMART sells junk, Petco sells junk, and J&B (the place I like), I think, only sells the Starr Brand...what I feed.

The local mom & pop pet store can't (or won't...I can't remember) order in a 50lbs bag of Oxbow pellets for me. $10 for 5lbs is an insane amount, way too expensive.

We don't have Tractor & Supply here, either. Just local feed stores.

 

[Spring]

I use Martin's Less Active too.. definitely recommend it! My bunnies love it and seem to be doing well on it.

 

[undergunfire]

Spring wrote:

I use Martin's Less Active too.. definitely recommend it! My bunnies love it and seem to be doing well on it.

Where can I order it online? Is it just as good as Oxbow? Is it cheaper than Oxbow? We don't have this food here, as I have never heard of it until this thread.

 

[Bo B Bunny]

Yeah, $10 for 5 pounds is crazy! I don't pay that much either.

It's difficult when stores buy and sell that junk. Too bad about Kent feed. I think it's only like $14 for 50 pounds.

 

[undergunfire]

Bo B Bunny wrote:

Yeah, $10 for 5 pounds is crazy! I don't pay that much either.

It's difficult when stores buy and sell that junk. Too bad about Kent feed. I think it's only like $14 for 50 pounds.

Right now I pay $14 for 50lbs of Star brand pellets, but it is alfalfa based. I guess I can probably charge the 50lbs of Oxbow to my credit card, then pay it right off the same month.

First, though, the $206 credit card bill needs to get payed off next Thursday and then clear.....THEN I can order the Oxbow, lol.

Arg, vet bills . The big total was for the two neuters!

 

[myLoki]

I feed the buns Kaytee Timothy Complete because it's the best I can get around here. Pretty sad really. The buns are fine on them and Loki eats every last pellet. Lily has cycles where she won't eat all of her pellets but I think it may have something to do with all the veggies and hay I give them. Lily LOVES hay with a fiery passion. She will eat hay over anything else. I hope Morgan is just being a spoiled bun and wants his Oxbow. :biggrin2:


t.

 

[NZminilops]

Hmm, I'm sure I saw Oxbow for a good price online yesterday, I'm trying to think where. I'll go have a look.