Changing rabbit food? with or without transitioning?

[DutchRabbitsFtw]

so i was wondering how bad is it to change rabbit pellets WITHOUT transitioning at all? i plan on adopting a rabbit this or next week from a rescue, and im not too sure what food brand he is on? but i want to give him oxbow pellets. how bad would it be to change his food pellets without transitioning? i mean i could ask them and then buy a bag of whatever food he’s eating at a near by pet store. i plan on getting oxbow pellets here on binkybunny.com (it seems cheaper than getting a 5lb 15$ bag from petsmart, and plus i am getting other things from this website too ha so why not get everything i need now) 

but how bad would it be to completely change his diet to oxbow pellets? and i dont know what brand he is on., for all i know he could be on oxbow. but just incase if he isnt. thanks! 

[BunnyDuck]

I did it without slowly changing over the pellets when I got my buns and they were 8 weeks old. It didn’t cause them any problems, but at the time I didn’t really know about slowly changing over so I didn’t think to ask about what they were already eating. You could always asked what they use.. Maybe they could even sell/give you a small bag?

[Monkeybun]

It’s definitely better to change slowly, but if you can’t then there isn’t much you can do about it. Maybe ask the rescue if you can take a small amount of his pellets with you to transition?

[DutchRabbitsFtw]

hm good idea, i’ll see if they can do that. (:

[Sam and Lady's Human]

I transitioned with Samson, I asked the pet store what she was currently fed and bought that, then learned oxbow was better so transitioned over a week to that. The first 2 days I did 75% old food/25% new food, then 50%/50% for 2 days, then 25% old food and 75% new food for 2 days, then 100% new food on the last day. Actually I think I had a little left at that point, so I sprinkled a handful in every day until it was gone.

Lady I didn’t know what she was fed and forgot to ask the breeder, so she went straight to oxbow, fortunately with no problems.

[Monkeybun]

It’s better to transition slower than over a week. A month is preferred as you can’t really tell over a day or 2 if their tummy has issues with it.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Posted By Monkeybun on 01/02/2012 09:13 PM
It’s better to transition slower than over a week. A month is preferred as you can’t really tell over a day or 2 if their tummy has issues with it.

 

You’re right about the timeline, rabbit.org suggests 3 weeks- “If you are switching they type or brand of pellets in your rabbit’s diet, use a 25% new to 75% old mixture for the first week, a 50/50 mix the second week, and a 75/25 mix the third week.”

 

 

You’d be able to tell fairly quick if their tummy has issues though, as they’d get mudbum if its too fast  I lucked out twice I guess because neither bun did.

[Elrohwen]

It’s definitely better to change slowly. With my second rabbit I didn’t have any of her old food, so I just had to start giving her the new food and she was completely fine. However, my first guy got a couple bites of different pellets once and had poopy butt, so it really depends on the rabbit whether or not they’d have a problem with a quick switch.

[Author]

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