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Forum DIET & CARE overall eating and hay question

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    • zpipes
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        Hey all, bunny is about 3 months old now, and he eats like crazy.  He drinks about 4oz of water a day, and he loooooooves his hay.  I asked the pet store about feeding, they said just feed and dont worry.  The vet said that if unmonitored it could cause obesity.  Is there a certain amount he should be eating or drinking? 

        Also for the hay, we just got Timothy hay and he doesnt seem as enthusiastic about it as the previous Summer Sweet Alfalfa which he could not stop eating.  Should I switch back?  Whats going to be the big difference between the two?


      • LoveChaCha
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          Here is a good site about diet:

          http://www.rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html

          I would not take a lot of advice at the pet store seriously. As long as you don’t have pellets with colorful stuff in it, feeding unlimited to your 3 month old should be okay – for now.

          The first year, the rabbit is still growing, and will need alfalfa pellets. As they get to 7 months to a year old, they should be slowly transitioned to timothy based pellets. The amount of the pellets should be decreased. I have a 4 lb dwarf (she isn’t chubby, she is just a false dwarf that has no typical dwarf qualities) that gets only a table spoon of pellets a day, gets unlimited hay, and a salad at night.

          Alfalfa is fine for now. Some rabbits are picky and will only eat certain types of cuts of hay. Cuts vary from soft to coarse to hard. I would try Orchard grass, or meadow. When he gets to adult age, I would not feed alfalfa.

          Hope this helps


        • OhMommaButterGrits
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            With my first rabbit I didn’t realize that a lot of the pellets were alfalfa based and not suitable for him once he was older, I just went with what the pet store associates said and figured if it said it was made for rabbits it was safe…turns out not so much. Alfalfa pellets are good now, but just make sure when he gets older you look at the ingrediant list for pellets that are timothy based. Oh and it’s important to make a transition with them like mix them and little by little decrease the food you are moving away from.

            I underestimated how important hay was the first time around since the people at the pet store I went to were just like, “Give him the pellets and he should be fine.” So with my second rabbit (who happens to be one of those picky hay eaters that ChaCha was speaking of) when I switched hays it helped to mix the alfalfa with the timothy. At first she only would pick out the ones she liked…too smart for her own good, but now she loves Timothy hay.

            I also mix it up from time to time with orchard grass just incase the pet store runs out of the specific brand of timothy she eats ( I told you picky lol) so that she will still eat some sort of hay if I can’t get it for a couple days.


          • zpipes
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              I have the Wild Harvest Rabbit Advanced Nutrition Diet. It looked very much like bunny would enjoy it over just the pellets. I just read it and I think its Alfalfa based, the first ingredient is dehydrated alfalfa meal. But is is a mix of veges fruits and pellets from what I read on the ingredient list. Looks very healty. Is this ok or am I actually feeding him the wrong stuff?


            • Malp_15
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                Is That the stuff in the orange and green bag? If so it isn’t good for your rabbit. There should ONLY be pellets in it with no artificial coloring.


              • Stickerbunny
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                  If you mean the wild harvest food from 8in1… get him off that ASAP, it has corn and seeds in it. Bad, bad, bad for bunny. Oxbow is good, or any other plain pellet (nothing added, just pellets)

                  He should be getting a good pellet, fresh veggies (introduce slowly) and unlimited hay (at 3 months alfalfa is fine, mix it with timothy or orchard). The HAY is good for them to have all the time as it helps their digestion.


                • OhMommaButterGrits
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                    That stuff isn’t good for the rabbit… Generally speaking any rabbit food with seeds in it is not something that is going to be good for your buns. It’s sad that you can’t trust all the products that are geared to rabbits or small animals. I would have to say more than half the things I see going down the small animal isle is not proper or safe to give our lovebuns.


                  • OhMommaButterGrits
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                      Another good site about diet:
                      http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html


                    • lynnbunn
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                        At HRS Richmond they sell Purina Rabbit Chow for younger rabbits (you should feed him this in large portions) and Oxbow Bunny Basics T for older rabbits (move him on to this when he’s 1 year old, 1/2 cup a day).
                        He should be eating unlimited alfalfa hay (I recommend Oxbow) and he should move on to timothy or orchard hay when he’s 1 year old. If you see that he begins to get too plump (you can no longer easily feel his spine), I recommend you decrease his pellet intake as well as give him a mix of alfalfa and timothy/orchard, slowly increasing timothy/orchard and decreasing alfalfa. This is because alfalfa tends to be fattening and sometimes over nutritious for older rabbits as they cannot digest as nicely. Nevertheless, hay should always be unlimited.
                        You can also begin to add greens to his diet (list of greens to feed: http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html) in a month or two. Be sure to introduce them very slowly as rabbits have delicate stomachs.

                        My rabbits are almost a year old and I feed them 1/2 cup of Purina Rabbit Chow in the morning, unlimited Orchard hay, and a good variety handful of greens per day at night.

                        Let your rabbit drink! I was surprised at first too when I first got Romeo because he ate and drank soooo much. It’s no problem though because hay is dry and will make them thirsty. Just be sure he can get water (in a crock or bottle, but my rabbits tend to drink from a crock more often) whenever he needs it. This should be no different when you introduce veggies!

                        At this point, because your rabbit is so young, you’ll want him to grow by getting all the nutrition he needs as well as lots of exercise. This way he will grow up to be a healthy bunny!

                        But yeah, they are like little machines. They eat eat and eat, then poop poop and poop. Haha~

                        P.S. Btw, if I was repetitive, I apologize.


                      • zpipes
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                          Wow, here is a link and here are the ingredients. I thought this would be healthy for bunny but thank you for informing me. I’ll be looking into some new food, and I will save this Timothy hay and slowly mix it in but time to stock up on Alfalfa for now.

                          http://www.walmart.com/ip/8In1-Wild-Harvest-Super-Premium-Rabbit-Blend-With-Timothy-Hay-Pet-Food-8-lb/10318481

                          Dehydrated Alfalfa Meal, Ground Corn, Heat Processed Soybeans, Whole Corn, Oat Groats, Barley, Sunflower Seed, Soybean Meal, Timothy Hay, Wheat Middling, Soybean Hulls, Carrot Slices, Green Split Peas, Feeding Oatmeal, Yellow Split Peas, Diced Apples, Diced Pineapple, Cane Molasses, Salt, Diced Carrots, Diced Potatoes, Minced Onions, Parsley Flakes, Celery Flakes, Diced Red Peppers, Diced Green Peppers, Cabbage Flakes, Leek Flakes, Diced Zucchini, Tomato Flakes, Spinach Flakes, Ground Limestone, Dicalcium Phosphate, Choline Chloride, Vitamin A Acetate, Cholecalciferol (Source of Vitamin D3), Dl-Alpha Tocopheryl Acetate (Source of Vitamin E), Niacin, Riboflavin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Thiamin Mononitrate, D-Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (Source of Vitamin K), Folic Acid, Biotin, Magnesium Oxide, Ferrous Carbonate, Ferrous Sulfate, Zinc Oxide, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Calcium Iodate, Cobalt Carbonate, Color Added (Red 40, Yellow 5, Yellow 6, Blue 1)


                        • Stickerbunny
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                            Yeah, that food is awful for buns … it’s basically cheap bird food with some alfalfa thrown in. Basically everything at wal-mart is bad for small animals/birds. Even at pet stores, a lot of the time 50% or more of the items are unsafe – there aren’t many regulations on it.

                            Thank you for looking into your buns diet and not just taking the pet stores word on it – your bunny will be much healthier for the changes you are making.


                          • LoveChaCha
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                              I like Walmart for their litter boxes

                              Let us know what food you decide on


                            • Stickerbunny
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                                The walmart litter boxes here were all too small and petsmart was cheaper anyway lol


                              • LoveChaCha
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                                  I buy the large cat ones


                                • Stickerbunny
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                                    I do too, the only cat ones they had were the short sided ones with a lid lol

                                    Hows your bun doing with switching foods zpipes?


                                  • Beka27
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                                      I would continue to give timothy hay with the alfalfa since you already have it. It doesn’t hurt for him to be exposed to both from a young age.

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                                  Forum DIET & CARE overall eating and hay question