Is my rabbit overweight?

[Palomino_Bun]

Pickles is a Palomino 4-5 yo neutered male. He weighs *ABOUT* 3.6 – 4 kilos. Is this too much? Is he overweight? he has a lot of fatty deposits beneath his chin and on his chest and ribs/’torso’ area. When we first got him about two years ago, he was lithe and tiny, like a dainty little hare. Since then he has however put on a lot of weight!! But when we got him he was only about 1-2 years old, so a a little weight gain was to be expected but surely not to this extent? 

I mean when I weighed him a few months ago, he was about 4.8 kilos but has lost tons of weight since his wife died (for a little while he wasn’t really eating but has started again now). Now he’s lost weight he binkys and does Bunny 500s which i’d never seen him do before!! 

If he is overweight, how can I help him slim down? I’m already trying to help him get more exercise, he’s being fed a special feed for ‘good-doer’ type rabbits and doesn’t get many greens, mainly hay and pellets. Also I say he’s a Palomino, but I’m not sure; that breed isn’t even recognized in my country, though he matches all the traits for this breed of bun.

Honestly I don’t think he is *too* big but as the largest rabbit i have ever owned I’m not really sure. He’s definitely a big boy, bless his heart, and has the character to match. 

Anyway I will attach photos – thanks in advance, Pickles and I both really appreciate it! 

http://i.imgur.com/Lbw4rrv.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/kNoOFDD.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/6OiYEO3.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/85tmm2a.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/FCzLZxI.jpg

[Bam]

He’s so cute!

To me it looks like it must’ve been good for him to loose all that weight even if the circumstances of course were very sad. That he binkies now sounds excellent, if he’d still been depressed about the loss of his wife, he probably wouldn’t binky at all. So that’s good both as a sign of a heathier weight and as proof of his recovery emotion-wise. I honestly can’t say if he’s very fat or not. I have a hard time doing that with my own buns, I tend to rely on the scales and my vet. But if you don’t know what your bunny ought to weigh, scales are of course just an indicator of up and down.

In general, pellets should be given sparingly if at all to plump adult bunnies. It’s better to up the greens and cut back on pellets if you want a bunny to slim down. But all dietary changes must be done gradually and slowly, you should never introduce large amounts of new food or go cold turkey, in your case on pellets, bunnies’ tummies need time to adjust. And all signs of a bunny not eating must be acted upon. (No use giving lots of healthy food to a rabbit if the rabbit doesn’t eat it).

Edit: How idiotic of me, I mistakenly linked to one of your own pix =) The guide I was trying to link to is the same one that Reem gave you. Thank you, Reem =)

[Reeem]

This is the best thing i found so far.
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp

Looking at this site it kind of looks like hes overweight but i cant really tell. I checked some pics of palomino rabbits and he does look very similar to them. His weight also seems to fit with the breed too , try comparing it with the site and if he doesnt seem overweight , i guess he is just naturally chubby !!

[Palomino_Bun]

Posted By Reeem on 10/29/2015 6:42 AM

This is the best thing i found so far.
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp

Looking at this site it kind of looks like hes overweight but i cant really tell. I checked some pics of palomino rabbits and he does look very similar to them. His weight also seems to fit with the breed too , try comparing it with the site and if he doesnt seem overweight , i guess he is just naturally chubby !!

That’s what I thought  He’s my Big Bun.  I don’t really trust our scales though but looking at those pictures I’d say he’s at either the lowest end of over weight or the very very highest ‘ideal’. Lol. Chubby Chappy  

[Palomino_Bun]

Posted By bam on 10/29/2015 5:42 AM

He’s so cute!

To me it looks like it must’ve been good for him to loose all that weight even if the circumstances of course were very sad. That he binkies now sounds excellent, if he’d still been depressed about the loss of his wife, he probably wouldn’t binky at all. So that’s good both as a sign of a heathier weight and as proof of his recovery emotion-wise. I honestly can’t say if he’s very fat or not. I have a hard time doing that with my own buns, I tend to rely on the scales and my vet. But if you don’t know what your bunny ought to weigh, scales are of course just an indicator of up and down.

In general, pellets should be given sparingly if at all to plump adult bunnies. It’s better to up the greens and cut back on pellets if you want a bunny to slim down. But all dietary changes must be done gradually and slowly, you should never introduce large amounts of new food or go cold turkey, in your case on pellets, bunnies’ tummies need time to adjust. And all signs of a bunny not eating must be acted upon. (No use giving lots of healthy food to a rabbit if the rabbit doesn’t eat it).

Edit: How idiotic of me, I mistakenly linked to one of your own pix =) The guide I was trying to link to is the same one that Reem gave you. Thank you, Reem =)

Thanks for this bam. Helps a lot. Will probably keep the amount of greens he’s getting the same then and reduce the pellets by a quarter of a handful or so daily. His appetite is back with a vengeance now a few weeks have gone by since his wife died and each day he’s running about more and more.  Rearranged his entire room yesterday!! 

[Eepster]

He looks pretty good weight wise right now. As Bam pointed out, the higher energy levels suggest that his current slimmed down weight is healthier than his previous weight had been.

I wonder about the special pellets for “good-doers.” Palominos are mostly raised commercially, not as pets, so anything recommended specifically for the breed is probably based on commercial rabbits. Without getting into the details about why, rabbits being kept as pets have very different recommended diets from rabbits being raised commercially. It’s more of a lifestyle and goals thing than anything about the breeds actual nutritional needs. I would do a very gradual shift to feeding him more like the pet rabbit he is.

As Bam pointed out the gradual part is very important.

[kirstyol]

I also have a probable palomino bun who we rescued a few months back when he was around two and a half. when I first saw my Ron I knew he was overweight and unable to properly groom because of it. we went to the vet the very next day and he weighed in at a little over 3.5 kgs which is actually not too heavy for the breed but my vet thinks he is either crossed with something smaller or perhaps the runt of the litter – he is definitely smaller than average palomino buns so that doesn’t necessarily mean yours is overweight. My vet did point out that palominos are plumper looking buns compared to most other breeds (this is why they are often bread commercially) but that the fat under the chin was a give away that he was needing to lose some. I was shocked to find that the vet didn’t think he was terribly over weight, maybe half a kilo or so. he has since had another check up where he has lost less than half a kilo and its already made a huge difference to him, he can groom properly and is more active.

Palominos are big buns though, my Ron is huge next to Bramble and I thought Bramble was massive compared to other people’s buns.

In a way it was easy for me to put Ron on a diet because when he came to me he was being fed basically an unlimited amount of cheap muesli and kale so I worked on switching him to decent nuggets and veggies then reducing nuggets and increasing veggies. The problem was that Bramble was so distressed knowing there was another rabbit in the house that he couldn’t see that I had to let them meet – they became inseparable instantly meaning that they now share food which makes it harder to monitor Rons diet.

[vanessa]

He does look a bit hefty. I’d trim him down till I can start to feel his backbone. IOf my 4 bunnies, I think Lancelot has the best weight. I can feel his backbone. Morgana, Avalon, and Guin have all developed a thick layer of fat under their skin since they started off as outdoor bunnies. Lancelot is a holland lop, the others are california/rex/new zealand varieties. These three are all overweight to some degree. I think Avalon looks like yours – size wise. Guin is definitely a BBB (Big Beautiful Bunny). She has fat folds over her feet, ankles, and an “extra” butt under her but, where her thigh would be. Id work at cutting your bunnie’s pellets down to around 1/3 cup based on an ideal weight of about 3 kg. (That’s just my opinion looking at the pics). But I suspect it might take that to start to feel his back bone. Most house rabbits are overweight. So much so that it starts to look normal to us. That being said – even though I have Guin down to 1/4 cup pellets a day, I still don’t see her losing weight. She is a lazy bunny. She’ll binky up to me, run up her ramp, down her ramp, binky again, but she won’t leave her room and exercise, like Lancelot. I got her overweight at 5 months. How is it going with him and your dad? And the litter training?
(The rest of Guin’s food is 5 cups of veggies a day and unlimited hay).

[Author]

Messages