New Feeding Dish

[Dulmit]

My bunnies have a habit of digging in their food or knocking it over. So I came up with this dish so that I would not be throwing out food or having to vacuum up spilled food. Works so well with my guys I decided to share it with people in the hopes that it will help someone else.

The build is simple. It is a large flat bottomed metal feeding pan from the Big Box store. In the middle I have glued a smaller ceramic bowl. My GF thinks a chip and dip bowl would work, but I haven't had much luck finding one.

The food goes in as such

 

[MiniLopHop]

Great dish idea. This would also prevent any one rabbit from hogging the dish because they have the outer rim to deal with.

You may want to take a look at the nutrition section about your food though. Corn is not good for bunnies.

 

[Dulmit]

I am still up in the air about their food choice. I always get them this brand because of the low calcium, but I try to mix it with a cheaper brand which is all pellets, but has a slightly higher calcium content. Maybe I have been overly concerned with calcium. They also have all they hay they can eat. Why is the corn bad? The nutrition info on the back seems inline with what I have been reading.
Is there any readily available brand of food you would recommend and Why?

 

[MiniLopHop]

Corn is bad because of the high sugar content, the same reason why you wouldn't want to give carrots all the time. It can cause stomach upset. You want to find a basic pellet that doesn't have nuts, seeds, or any of the fancy tid bits in it.

I like Oxbox bunny T basics because it is timothy based. Many are alfalfa based which has higher protein and calcium than adults need. This is also the brand my vet recommends. It can be a bit on the expensive side, but when fed in small doses (I use 1/4 cup per day per bunn) it lasts a long time.

There's a lot of information in the library section on nutrition. Your vet might also be a good source of information if they are good with rabbits.

 

[Cheyrul]

wabbitdad told me bunnies cannot digest corn and sent me a link, I think. It was very useful as a new bunny owner.

 

[Cheyrul]

oh, cool dish. Our rabbits poop in their food dish and it grosses me out.

 

[Tweetiepy]

The pictures are gone!

 

[Ponyta]

I really like this. I have to have heavy ceramic bowls because Lily likes to nudge hers off the cage shelf and spill her food. There was a whole two days they didn't eat because she kept doing it, and it would spill between the wire. Eventually she understood that her actions meant no food and knocked it off.

 

[LindyS]

I like the idea. Our buns would knock over any dish unless it's heavy. Thought they did this to pizz me off.

 

[hln917]

That's a great idea for a feeding dish! We waste so much pellets b/c the buns are always making a mess.

I agree about switching to all pellets only. We gave Baci the same type of pellets with all the "goodies" a couple years ago. Of course we learned an expensive and stressful lesson. He ended up at the vet from the bad diet. I now give all the buns Oxbow Basic T pellets.

 

[Kizza]

This is great, I've been trying to think of a way to stop the wastage of food at my place! Rocky loves to dig around in his food, and I get the Oxbow pellets, and they are a little pricey where I live. I would like him to eat every single last pellet from that bag! lol

Also, corn and other starchy veges are no good as they have too much starch which buns cannot digest and there can be a lot of sugar. Starchy foods were making rocky sick, so to avoid having to take a trip to the vet when your buns tummy starts playing up like I did I would switch to high fiber, low calcium and protein foods. Quite often the bagged pellet food you can get isn't the best for bun. Maybe take a look in the diet section, I did and rocky is getting better now due to his new diet.

Sorry, didn;t mean for that to be a long winded speech!

The bowl is a fantastic idea I will attempt to make one

 

[Zoeylionhead]

Dried corn can have a fungus on it, which is toxic to bunnies and other little furry creatures.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

That looks cool--pretty much like a chip and dip combo. s everyone else suggested, I'd definitely change the food to a plain pellet only type.