Hi guys is this why my baby bunny is fat?

[Xxventanaxx]

Hi guys first time bunny owner. I have a 10 1/2 week old dwarf Netherland female who is just a doll. I love her to death. Took her the vet last week and she had a good bill of health except for parasite in her poop. I was told to watch that. But my main question is she has seemed to gotten larger in the Tummy and sides of her tummy the last 7 days. I feed her pellets and alfalfa and I know it’s bad like the vet said. The vet said use only a certain pellet and use more hay then alfalfa. She just started eating alfalfa the last 5 or so days since she discovered where it was in her huge cage. Should I be worried about the big tummy on by sides of her? Other then that she still runs fast and plays and let’s us pet her for however long we want too. We are going out tomorrow to the pet store since it’s my day off to get hay and actual rabbit food that’s not pellets. I just hope nothing is wrong with her I love her!!!

[Eepster]

10 weeks is still a growing bunny, so I wouldn’t worry about fat and calories too much. That said, a suddenly bulging belly could be a sign of bloating, not fat. Boating is a concern, it could be a sign of gas or constipation which could lead to GI stasis.

If it is bloating, the cause could be the change in diet or the parasites, or something else we don’t know about. Did you get more information and a treatment plan for the parasites?

[Roberta]

How bunny savvy is your vet ? If there is evidence of intestinal parasites then they should be following that up. Did they say what sort specifically ?

[Bam]

Puppy-dogs and cats get very round bellies if they have worms. What type of parasite did the vet say it is?

It’s not likely that she’d have gained so much weight in just 5 days that she’s become fat. How does her belly feel if you gently palpate it with your fingers? It should be squishy and soft, much softer than the tummy of f ex a dog.

[Xxventanaxx]

She seems fine. She is runny around none stop which is good still gives us kisses and stuff. Her stomach is soft no bump feelings no nothing like that. She ate a ton of alfalfa last night and today we are going to start taking away the pellets. I don’t remember the name of the parasite but my vet who has years and years of expierence with bunnies said the parasite is not really something to worry about unless she starts changing the way she acts.

[kirstyol]

I would get a second vet opinion to be honest. at ten weeks old you bun should be eating an unlimited amount of alfalfa pellets along with a good quality hay, it really shouldn’t be making her fat that’s a normal young bunny diet. I would be extremely concerned about a parasite and even more concerned about a vet that adopted a ‘watch and see’ approach to one. Your bun Is too young to have her pellets restricted and they certainly shouldn’t be taken away. I am slightly concerned when you say ‘get a rabbit food that’s not pellets’ All good rabbit foods are pellets, that muesli stuff is actually really bad for rabbits, if that’s what your vet has recommended I would definitely find another vet.

The expanding tummy could be all sorts of things and if its happened over just a few days I would definitely be going to a vet, and a different one from the one you have already seen.

[Eepster]

Years of experience can either be a good thing or bad thing when it come to experience with rabbits.

I had rabbits 2+ decades ago as a teenager, so much has changed since then. Life expectancy back then was 5 years if you were lucky, now it’s 10+. We just have so much more available now designed for pet rabbits, instead of just having to treat them like farm animals we were overly attached to. Back then, we never took our rabbits to vets, b/c we didn’t trust them.

If your vet has been going to continuing education and reading the latest journals, so that he is combining it with his first hand experience, then years of experience is a good thing. However, if he feels that the ways he’s been doing it for all those years has been just fine, then those years are just years of reinforcing bad habits.

[Author]

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