Daily rabbit diet proportions

[Lexidavoulas]

My rabbit stopped eating hay around Christmas time and I don’t know why. Recently I started introducing veggies and now I give him a small serving of mixed greens every night. The problem is I feel like he won’t eat pellets during the day now and he rarely ever eats hay, he just waits for night when I give him his greens. What are the correct portions of pellets and greens I should be feeding him and how can I balance his diet more? He Is almost nine months and is a medium sized holland lop. I don’t think there is an issue with his teeth because he is perfectly fine eating the occasional treats!! Thanks

[LBJ10]

Hay is always unlimited. The recommended serving size for veggies is 2 cups per 6lbs body weight. Some rabbits will eat less, so I don’t think there is anything wrong with seeing how much they will eat and then offering them that amount (no sense wasting it). Mine, for example, will eat about a heaping handful each. Too much and they will let it sit and wilt.

At his age, pellets should be limited. How much do you offer him? I’m just guessing on his size since I have a Holland and he weighs 4lbs. He gets 1/8 cup or a little less of pellets each day. His pellet ration is combined with my other rabbit’s ration. So it’s really 1/4 cup or a little less that goes in their bowl.

[Lexidavoulas]

Right now I give him unlimited pellets and unlimited oxbow Timothy hay and a small bowlful of greens every night. If I limit his pellets will it encourage him to eat more hay?

[LBJ10]

Yes. That’s usually the recommendation when bunnies aren’t eating hay – give them fewer pellets. At 9 months, he should be getting fewer pellets anyway. He is likely done growing at this point, so unlimited pellets is unnecessary.

[Elrohwen]

Has he had his teeth checked by a vet? Many times when teeth issues are mild they will still eat some things, like greens, but will eat others slowly or not at all.

If it’s not his teeth, then limiting his pellets will definitely encourage him to eat more hay. One of mine barely ate hay when he was young and getting lots of pellets, but now he eats a ton of hay since his pellets are limited.

[NuggetBuns]

LBJ10 and Elrohwen make good points, but I also want to add that maybe your rabbit likes a different type of hay. When my rabbit grew older, he started getting picky with the hay that we bought. Hopefully limiting the pellets will get him to eat more hay but if it doesn’t, switch up the hay.

[Beka27]

This is actually GOOD that he is self-regulating the pellets! As a smaller bunny, he should be fine with about 1/8 cup pellets per day. Get a measuring scoop and use that to feed pellets. You might be surprised by how few pellets he actually needs! I am horrible at “eyeballing” amounts, so I have to use an actual measuring cup to scoop pellets. This is also helpful if you have other people (friends, roommates, family members) who feed him sometimes. Just tell them he gets one level scoop per day, no more.

Decreasing the pellets should help increase his hay consumption, but you might also want to play around with times. Maybe he would prefer his veggies in the morning and pellets served at night? Or two daily servings of veggies (once in the morning, once at night)?

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