Type of Pellets

[toyabrooke]

Hi Everyone,

Yes another question from me Sorry...

I was just wondering if the type of pellets I am feeding Poe is okay? He is 5 months old and came to us about a month ago. He went straight onto these pellets when he came (we weren't given anything form the breeder), and he has been eating and drinking perfectly. I have had a few discussions though with other people on other threads about him sometimes leaving soft squishy poops around. Some of this is due to me giving him too great a mix of veggies every 3 days or so which would all be new to him. I have since stopped his veggies with the aim or starting them back up (1 kind of veggie he had with the breeder plus 1 other kind and then monitoring to see if that extra new kind makes any changes in his poops and continuing from there) once his poops are completely back to normal, but he left a few squishy ones around today (about 3 or 4) and I was wondering if this may be due to a few of the dried fruits in his mix?

Our other bunny Dudley just gets a plain old mix of normal pellets, but Poe seems to love this one and I saw it and thought it looked good for him.

I also stress that his soft poops aren't frequent at all and are only a few a day along with a few squishy cecotropes (which he doesn't eat), but they do STINK! Most of the time though they are perfect little balls with a nice colour of yellow through them so I know he is getting enough hay

This is the link to the kind of pellets Poe gets:

http://www.jumbopets.com/sflf11007-lil-friends-rabbit-and-guinea-pig-food-1kg

Thanks for any advice!

T

 

[I_heart_Fraggles]

Hello
So an honest answer to your question would be no. This is not a good food sadly
All those dried bits of fruit and what nots is just "filler" to make the package look appealing. But its like giving a kid a big bowl of candy for breakfast. I would switch to a high quality plain pellet like oxbow. It might take awhile to wean Poe off the junk food but its in his best interest. Hope that helps.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

It really doesn't look like a good feed. IT is advertised as a rabbit and guinea pig food. Rabbits and guinea pigs have different needs. Guinea pigs need vitamin C in their diet while rabbits do not. There can be problems with not enough (guinea pigs) or too much (rabbits). While rabbits and guinea pigs do have similar diets, they also have some different needs that can't be accommodated with a single food.
Seed mixes are pretty much junk food. Rabbits tend to pick out what they want and leave what they don't. The seeds, nuts, dried fruit and other bits are not needed by rabbits and tend to make them fat. It can be ok to give these in small amounts, but not in the amount that would be in the feed mix.

I would recommend feeding a plain pellet. If that is what your other rabbit is eating, then that should be fine.

 

[toyabrooke]

Okay I will change it then and maybe give a little bit of this to him as a treat every now and then? I will try and mix a bit in with his new pellets so he doesn't stop eating it right away.

I hope I haven't done any harm to him Poor Poe and his silly mummy! It is had here to get any advice at all about Rabbits - Not many people like them/know much about them at all.

Thanks so much for the helpful advice!

T

 

[toyabrooke]

These are the only plain looking pellets I could get him from the best pet store in our area (you can really see how much people dislike rabbits around here ). There was no Oxbow or anything like it. I know you can order it online, but I wanted to get these as soon as possible so he can have a good diet! I have mixed half and half with his other type of pellets so he can change over ASAP.

T

 

[Toady]

Where in Australia are you located? I don't know if those are the same Barastoc pellets that our local Petstock carry or not but look similar to them, I've found that most of the pellets made here are for meat rabbits so feeding too much will make them fat if too much is consumed. Or that's what I've discovered in researching for my own bunny

 

[toyabrooke]

Well he is only 5 months old so I have just been filling his bowls almost full and it takes him about 1 week to even get close to the bottom. When he is older though I will just feed him once or twice a day so he doesn't get fat (our Dudley is a bit of a fatty, but nothing too serious). The other feed we were giving him was a mix of fruit and peas and oats and lots of lovely fatty things that aren't good for rabbits but are okay for Guinea Pigs apparently He did love it though!

We are near Tweed Heads - not much in the way of rabbit supplies though!