Fat Bunny Diet

[Taysmama13]

Hi everyone, I tried to look under the healthy diet link and kept getting a time out error or just a white empty page telling me to save a life. Therefore, here I am, posting this. I was given an albino lionhead named Kittei who is just under a year old and neutered for about a month now. I recently adopted a large brown short haired boy named D.O.G. from the spca who is also neutered for about a month. I have noticed that my new boy D.O.G has an almost unstoppable appetite. He gets fed a handful of spring mix with herbs at 6:30 a.m., another handful of spring mix with herbs and sweet baby lettuce with brussel sprouts at noon, another handful of baby lettuce at 6 p.m. and at 11:30 p.m. My daughter gives him a small piece of fruit or an organic baby carrot when she gets home from school at 2:30 p.m. and he occasionally gets ox bow organic barley biscuits or the carrot ones. He has unlimited hay that he eats non stop and gets 1/2 cup of organic timothy hay pellets that come mixed with rose, herbs, soy, pine cones and some other stuff (I will not buy it again as my albino lionhead absolutely hates it!)  D.O.G. weighed in at 6.4 pounds at his last vet visit 3 weeks ago. He has a lot of jiggly belly fat, lays and flops funny and cant put his head down without spreading his arms all the way out (think giraffe trying to drink water ) He races to his food dish when its feeding time, slams the bowl and pellet tray if they are empty. I know this can’t be healthy for him. Any suggestions on how to get my tubby bunny on a diet that he won’t starve from? Thank you for any advice

Oh and Kittei gets fed the same amount and hasn’t put on any additional weight, nor has he lost his bouncy happy energy! DOG is also bouncy happy!

[Monkeybun]

If he has unlimited hay, he won’t starve. He’ll just try to convince you he is

[Bam]

Monkeybun is right, of course. But you may give him lots of extra leafy greens too, they’re not fattening but delicious and keep bunnies rather happy, I’ve noticed. A hungry bunny who only gets hay may become destructive and eat f ex furniture and carpet. That’s of course only an issue if he’s free roam.

[Sarita]

1/2 cup of pellets is way too much – he only needs a teaspoon of them – just a very small amount.

[BlueMoods]

You need to reduce the pellets to perhaps 1 TBS and, give him 2 cups of leafy greens a day and, free choice hay. He won’t starve but will get back to a healthy weight. Once he is there, he should have 1/8 cup pellets a day and the rest stay the same. Get him some safe chews like willow or fruit wood sticks. When he has finished his pellets, simply remove the dish or container they go in if he slams it about. He will learn the pellets are a one time a day thing and, he has to eat other things, like mostly hay as he should.

[Taysmama13]

Ok thank you all for your help!

[Eepster]

What kind of hay does he get? Alfalfa is much higher calorie than other varieties. Baskets and wreaths made of untreated willow of grape vine are low calorie things he can nosh on.

[calipa_st]

My Rodan is like this, I will give him his hay and pellets and greens in the morning..he will literally eat ALL of it in one sitting. I’m like, dude…the hay lasts at least until night for the other two I have! lol. He’s 4lbs bigger than them though! lol He’s angry at me right now, i can hear him throwing his veggie dish around. I didn’t give him a big platter like usual because I think he’s eating *way* too much. I give him a little bit of pellets in the morning and at night and he begs all day long. I’m trying to cut back because it doesn’t seem right how much he eats.
My theory is he was deprived where he was before (I think pet store, I got him from the spca where a girl got him without her parents permission from a pet store, they only had him a week and he’s quite big so I assume he was neglected at some point) so he’s trying to make up for lost food lol

I’d just keep up with the unlimited hay, and limit pellets though

[Author]

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