Spaying Autumn

[BSAR]

I'm wanting to spay Autumn this fall but I think she is a bit on the plump side. So I was wondering if she was ok to spay. I am trying to get her weight down. But it isn't working very easy. Here are some pics of her.

Here is a front shot.

Here is a side shot.

And here is her tummy. Chubby tummy. She looks like she is pregnant seriously.

Closer up. She is not pregnant. She weighed about 5 lbs last time i wieghed her which had to be some months ago.

The weight could also be due to what breeds she is mixed with, she has harlequin in her so that could do it. My mom thinks she is supposed to be big because when we first had her she was skinny because she had babies and then less than a year later she would have another litter, she had two litters a year if i can remember so she was skinny from not having babies in her and then because her milk would dry up.

So I don't know. What do you guys/gals think?

 

[Luv-bunniz]

I think she *looks* like she could do with losing some weight, but it would also be risky to take others advice from online if they havnt actually seen her, when you stroke her sides can you feel her ribs? if you run your hand down her back can you feel her spine?
Your best bet would be to book a spay for her, then take her to her pre-op appointment and they should tell you if she is too overweight to spay. It shouldnt cost you anything more then a normal check-up.

 

[BSAR]

I can feel her spine when i run my hand over her back. But I can't feel her ribs. I first need to find a vet that knows a lot about rabbits. Their aren't many around here and our normal vet thinks they know about rabbits but they don't know much. They barely know how to sex babies.

 

[Spring]

I would get her checked out by a rabbit savvy vet, and see what they say. She does seem quitechunky, which can add risks to the surgery.

If you increase her cage space, give her more toys and lots of time out, will help to slim her up!

 

[tiabia0]

Also, another thing is if you feed her too many pellets. I used to overfeed my rabbits a little bit and my girl got a bit chunky so I made her go up and down the stairs a couple times each day and gave her less pellets and she went back to normal.

 

[BSAR]

Thanks. Yeah she only gets pellets once a day. And I keep telling her its going to be not pellets soon. We try to get the bunnies out as much as we can. Right now the weather is horrible. I will bring her up to the house tomorrow and give her lots of things to climb up and over and play with. I also was wondering though if i increase her activity should I increase her pellets just a bit so she won't be hungry from playing hard?

 

[Spring]

Nope, keep heron thesame pellet ratioand you'll see a gradual drop in weight. Do you have a scale you can use for her, to keep track that she's loosing weight at a healthy rate? Just increase her grass hays since you are increasing her exercise.

 

[BSAR]

No I don't have an accurate scale. I need to get one. Ok I will increase her hay.

Edit: Right now she is getting a little less than 1/3 of a cup of pellets. Bascially enough to cover the bottom of her bowl, which is kinda big....well actually normal size. haha

 

[Luv-bunniz]

BSAR wrote:

Edit: Right now she is getting a little less than 1/3 of a cup of pellets.

I dont even feed my rabbits that much, lol. Casper gets 1/8-cup per day and some veggies along with his hay and he does fine. If he gets anymore he gets fat and sits in his cage all day and does nothing.

 

[BSAR]

Yeah but see the bunnies that are on diets like Willow, Autumn and Bruce. They act like they are starving because they only get pellets once a day and it is less then what they are use to eating. But they have been on this diet for awhile now. Willow is eating pellets again so that is good. I know they aren't starving because they get unlimited hay. Some gets wasted though if they have the wire bottoms like Bruce does. They also get grass and veggies when we have them. Like we don't have much grass right now so they don't get that.

They also get roses and dandelions everynow and then. We just don't give them treats that much.

 

[NorthernAutumn]

You're darn right I'm too big!

(Couldn't resist, guys. It's not everyday that I share a name with a bunny, especially one as cute as her!)

 

[BSAR]

I have recently put Autumn into a bigger cage. All the girls in the rabbitry have different cages. Autumn is in Willow's old cage which is quite a bit bigger than her other one.

I have also been letting her out more. And giving her things to play with and jump and climb over and on. I hope that with her coming out more she will lose at least some weight.

 

[Spring]

Another thought, have you tried her with the jumping? Might be something fun for her to do and the jumping might help her loose a bit of that tummy!

 

[BSAR]

Well when I had her in the big pen the other day I put some low jumps in there and the only reason she really went over them was because she had to to get to to other places. I will put the pics of it on here tomorrow sometime.

School is starting on Wed. so any chance I have I will get her out.