Need to loose a little weight!

[Spring]

Hello! I have a little netherland dwarf Pepsi,and she is a tad bit on the chubby side. Her back is alright but needssome work but around her head and neck she's growing a fairly largedewlap and has a lot of excess fat that I'd like to see go for healthissues!

I don't have her out because she's not the tamest bunny when it comesto being handles and if very sulky if I get her out of thecage when she doesn't want to and just sits there :?. She's not veryactive...

She has a fairly large two story cage, enough room to do a binky and run around but she just hops where she wants to go.

Any suggestions on how to loose weight on the diet part of things? Shemostly gets timothy hay, alfalfa pellets (trying to findagood quality timothy hay pellets but when I try it she just picks outher old food :?) rarely fruit, and an assortment of vegetables. Whatcould I try to change her diet so she can loose some weight? I'm goingto try this once she's back to normal, and for now she's just ontimothy hay, a bit of alfalfa hay, timothy hay tid bits and water untilher mushy behind clears up.

**I'm planning to build her a ramp off her cage.. although thingshappen really slowly at my house when yuor at the "construction" end ofthings:X. Then she can come out more often!**

 

[Maureen Las]

I have a chubby boy too, Rudy..he was chubbywhen I got him from the shelter and I thought I could get his weightdown with a change in diet but so far I think that he is larger. Hetends toward hi blood sugar so I have to figure out a plan too. He isvery mellow and likes to lounge about.

 

[Spring]

Yes I just noticed I need to get her down tosize drastically. She was eating a peice of hay and a piece fell so Ithought it was at teh ground but it was on her dewlap under her chin:shock:.

 

[Maureen Las]

I really wish that I could let Rudy free roamthe house as I think that the exercise would really help him. I wasexercising him in my computer room and I left the room for maybe aminute and he had clipped the wires to my speakers.....then my husbandgot involved in putting innew speakers and I can't let Rudyfree-roam. Yesterday I put a cat harness on him and took himoutside for a little walk . It didn't hurt but he needs more exercise

 

[Spring]

I think some rabbits just have it in their geneslike humans do about being chubby. My rabbit has always been a bitchubby.. never on the slim side. Last time I weighed her she was 2.4pounds and that was at the vets office when she wasn't eating much.From then I bet she's weighed more then that!

 

[Maureen Las]

Actually I think thats true. I feed Rudy..reallygood timothy, an assortment of greens, no other treats and a smallamount of pellets...exactly what I feed my other 5 and he is the onlychubby one I have. I'm afraid tho that he will devellop diabetes.

 

[thor]

I used to think my lop Thor was chubby, but itwas only her thick winter coat grown in. She stays outsideabout 9-10 months of the year. She looked plump and puffy allthrough the winter, but in the summer, she pulls out her fur and shedsin that heat. Then she's not such a 'fat' rabbit. Ifeed Thor only 2xdaily, and outside she eats much less. Ifound also while she is inside during the winter, she seems to acceptfood willingly (treats, too), I think, because there is not much tokeep her occupied or stimulated. She also seems to just gnawin general. Are you able to keep your bun outside (for thespring/summer)? There's a lot of activities out there to keep your bunoccupied and efficiently burning calories, not to mention the temp.change (esp. at night).

 

[Maureen Las]

I havealargeyard but.....because of having dogs I don'tlike having them ( the rabbits)run there because of thepossibilityof him (or any of the rabbits) getting into dogpoop thatwe didn't clean up right away. Also summershereareunbearably humid and hot as I livein a river town near the Mississippi River....most of all Iam terrified of bot flies. i am going to possibly try taking him to aclean city park before it get hot and let him run around...I haveanyother idea too. My rabbits are not in cages but each has a fairlylarge portion of one room and I may try to totally bunny proof anotherroom for exercise. I plan to line the walls with Precisiondog fences ( a couple of my rabbitschew the mouldings) andthen let each rabbit (or pair) take turns in the room. If my husbandhad not found out that Rudy chewed the cords I would still beletting him out ...I care more that the rabbits are happy than aboutthe mouldings but my husband doesn't. Rudy does get bored in hisportion of the room because he isn't bonded . Thanks for your ideas Iam going to continue to work on this.

 

[charlottes mum]

yes my rabbit is getting chubby and she needs to go on a diet.:?

 

[Maureen Las]

She doesn't look chubby in your picture. but maybe it isn't recent...is she an English Spot?

 

[naturestee]

Actually, a dewlap does not mean your rabbit isfat. A lot of it is related to genetics. You shouldbe able to feel the rabbit's ribs without too much of aproblem. This is a good thread on how to tell if your rabbitis actually overweight:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=4646&forum_id=1

I think that the best way to help her loose weight is to give her lotsof play time out of her cage and encourage her to make good use of it,as well as limiting pellets and sugary veggies like carrots.Switching to timothy pellets can help, too. Toys will alsoencourage her to play if you find ones that she likes.

 

[charlottes mum]

she is a dwarf rabbit and she is small and chubby lol she doesnt look it in the picture but she is lol

lauren and charlotte