Change over food help

[thunders-mumms]

Ok so I still have some of the change over pellets my bunny came with a couple of weeks ago, however I recently brought a big bag of excel for juniors. So earlier today I put a few nuggets in with loads of her normal pellets to get her used to them slowly over a few days. However she hoovers up the new nuggets and doesn`t seem to want to touch her old pellets now lol she loves them which is great, but now she is just eating the new food, will she get diarrehea? Her poop has seemed fine all day, so not sure how long it would take to notice. Also lately she wiggles her ears around when shes eating lol its really cute but not sure what it means?

[kamdynandsunshinesmom]

Hi there my personall experience is you want a good quality pellet for you bunny depending on how old your rabbit is if you rabbit is a baby you want a good quality alfalfa pellet like oxbow http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?pcatid=16618 the young rabbit food if your rabbit is an adult then you want the oxbow adult pellets which is timothy based. Here is a formula that I have used a number of times and has worked wonders

Week1- Two 1/4 cups new pellets
Siz 1/4 cups old pellets

Week2- Four 1/4 cups new
Four 1.4 cups old

Week3- Six 1/4 cups new
Two 1/4 cups old

Week4- Eight 1/4 cups new
Zero old

Also make sure when you feed pellets they don’t contain any nuts and seeds. Hope that this helps

[kamdynandsunshinesmom]

Also what brand is excel. I have never heard of that type of rabbit food before?

[thunders-mumms]

I live in the uk and I think its a popular brand over here, http://www.petsathome.com/shop/burgess-excel-tasty-nuggets-for-junior-and-dwarf-rabbits-4kg-15676

[kamdynandsunshinesmom]

Any high fiber pellet is good as long as it contains at least 14-18% crude protein and 20-25% crude fiber and about 2% fat. This is for timothy based pellets. I am not sure on alfalfa pellets. They seem ok

[Tate]

Does she eat her old pellets at all?
She will probably be fine… You would see sOme changes ASAP because their digestive system is so quick. My rabbits did the same thing and both were fine.
Excel, from what I know, is a great brand. I’ve looked at switching over to it before finding the buns’ current food but couldn’t find a reliable source on the Internet (I’m in the US).
The ear thing could be… Anything! I’d assume that there is a muscle or two connecting the jaw to the ear area and that might cause some moving while chewing.

[thunders-mumms]

Woke up this morning to find she has ate some of her old pellets too, so I think she should be fine. Going to take her to the vets soon for a check up, so should be able to get some advice from them. It does seem like a good brand for her, she loves them, plus shes really good as she eats loads of hay and gets lots of exercise as shes free roam, so I`m sure she will be fine.

[kamdynandsunshinesmom]

Do you feed her fresh vegetables everyday that is also part of there diet also.

[thunders-mumms]

Not at all, shes only 9 weeks, I thought u wasn`t suppose 2 introduce that stuff till at least 12 weeks?

[Monkeybun]

Wait until 12 weeks at least, especially if she has poopy butt issues. You don’t want to over stimulate her digestive tract yet.

[KatnipCrzy]

I would work of just switching the pellets over for now- if she eats the new ones out first there is not much you can do about it- but it sounds like when she is hungry then she eats the old pellets. So keep that up. Feed unlimited pellets to a baby bunny.

I would wait until your vet visit and ask about veggies- and see what your vet recommends. But you want her switched well over onto the new pellets before introducing veggies/greens so that if she does get mushy stool you know what is causing it. And to start on greens in a few weeks- choose a mild greens- like green leaf lettuce or parsley and offer a small piece- I offered about a 2 inch round square piece and doubled the amount daily as long as the bunny had solid poos- and then introduced a new veggie/green per week.

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