Normal behavior?

[Krazyrabbit]

I’ve adopted a female adult rabbit from a shelter, this is my first experience as a bunny slave   Blossom is about two years old, has been spayed and was in the shelter for over a year – she was abandoned in a neighborhood and someone rescued her. I chose her because she was curious about me and didn’t seem to be too shy.

Blossom has been with me for about a week now. She doesn’t seem to have much of an appetite, she’ll eat a bit of dill, kale or lettuce from my garden twice a day, but not a lot. She ignored the pellets the shelter gave me to give her, so I bought some Adult Oxbow. Over two days she’s hardly eaten any. The timothy hay I put in her open feeder had not had to be been refilled yet. The feeder is sitting at the end of a wood pellet/hay covered cat litter box. She did eat a small piece of banana out of my fingers, but since that time she has not shown interest in taking another from me. I had to leave it on the floor and she ate it after I left the room.

Is this lack of appetite normal for a newly adopted rabbit? She is pooping – not sure if it’s a normal amount because I don’t have anything to compare it to! 

Blossom has a large condo that I keep open to the sunroom so she has a nice sized area to romp in. So far she has been quite cautious, not really doing much but slow hops, looking around and sitting on the far side of the room while I sit quietly on the floor for a while. She has not chewed on any of the cardboard boxes, paper or hay beds, nor has she played with any of the toys. On the good side, she has not chewed on anything inappropriate like carpet or molding. 

I do have cats, so far I have kept them shut out of the sunroom but I am sure that their smell is all over the room, and myself. I also have chickens so I know that smell is also present. One time she did “grunt” and thump at me when I was putting fresh water in the condo. I am hoping that in time Blossom will be able to relax a little if I am patient. 

Any comments or suggestions would be great!

[Krazyrabbit]

I forgot to put up a few pictures, here she is!

[Aki]

That’s really concerning. A rabbit not eating much is never normal, especially when they are not eating hay – the stress factor can explain a rabbit not eating much when he just arrived at a new place, but that shouldn’t last for more than 24h. A rabbit should eat an amount of hay about equal to their own size every day. What does the poop looks like? Is it round, brown and ‘hydrated’? A bunny normally make about 200 poops everyday so… quite a lot.
If you have chicken, I’m guessing you have a garden. Try giving her some slightly wet grass (cut by hand and thoroughtly washed) and things like dandelions or herbs (mint, parsley or basil are great) and leave her alone to see if she eats that better. If not, I would take her to the vet before she goes into full stasis. If her guts are just a bit slow because of the stress, a few days of Critical care and / or laxative (Emeprid / Reglan) might be in order to ‘start the machine again’ so to speak before a blockage occurs.
If she doesn’t eat hay very well, you might try second crop – it has flowers in it, it smells good and a lot of rabbits likes it better than plain old timothy (I use that whenever my rabbits are not eating as much hay as they should).

[Bam]

It’s never good when a bun has a low appetite. Their GIvsystem can slow down so much it stops. If she’s eating very little I think you should syringe feed her pellet mash (Oxbow pellets soaked in water) or Critical Care.
The best thing would be to see a vet about this if you can’t make her eat more soon. She might need kick-starter meds as Aki says, a gut motility drug and some sub q fluids with vitamin B12 will often do the trick.
It’s good that she’s eating dill etc, if you have dandelion that’s very good too. Some buns like canned plain pumpkin (not pie filling), on its own or mixed with pellet mash.
To make her feel comfy: Bunnies often like to be pet on the ears and head and nose. Try to approach her from the side -buns don’t see well straight ahead + they’ve poor close range vision.
She’s very pretty

[FloppyBunny]

How big is she? I see the pictures but don’t have a great frame of reference. My boy is a fairly large rabbit and eats a lot, but my girl weighs 2.4lbs and eats very little. She eats maybe a tablespoon of pellets and a fistful of hay each day. I got her a few weeks ago and she refuses vegetables except carrots. If yours is the same size, she might actually be eating enough. Try giving her a piece of carrot (anything to make her eat)!and take her to the vet.

Edit: I reread and saw that you said she didn’t eat any pellets. I would take her to the vet as soon as possible. Try to feed her treats so she has something in her stomach.

[Krazyrabbit]

Update on Blossom. I did take her to the vet last week, one that has experience with pocket pets. He said that she was healthy and probably wasn’t eating due to the stress of moving from the shelter to my home and being a new environment. She got a vitamin B shot to stimulate her appetite and he gave her an injection of fluids even though she wasn’t dehydrated.

Good news is that her appetite has increased. Blossom is eating more greens twice a day plus her 1/4 cup of timothy pellets. Her poop output is much larger – but she still is not eating any hay! I even tried putting her pellets in a hay nest, but she’s just not interested.

Does anyone else have a rabbit that won’t eat hay?

[tobyluv]

It’s good that she is eating more, but she really does need to eat hay. You should try some different types or brands of hay. Bunnies can be picky. She might like orchard grass, it’s a sweeter hay. If the timothy you have is harder and stalkier, she might like a second cutting of timothy better, since that would be softer. American Pet Diner Timothy Gold is a good second cutting hay. Or, some rabbits prefer harder or crunchier hay, such as oat hay.

[Krazyrabbit]

OK, I will try to find some of other varieties. Are they available at Tractor Supply, or Rural King? 

[Kodachrome]

I definitely noticed the lack of appetite with my new bunny. He barely ate compared to my previous 2 ravenous fosters. I think some are maybe more sensitive than others and may take longer to adjust… it was a good 2 weeks before my Wicket’s appetite picked up to what i would consider ‘normal’.

[vanessa]

Fantastic that her appetite is picking up. She loks big. Those are 14-inch square frames in the background… big like my Guin. Guin is a big-boody-bunny 🙂 I’d give her a smaller amount of hay everyday, so you can give her fresh hay daily. Three of my 4 bunnies eat a pileof hay their body size, every day. Lancelot eats a few bites of hay, but not much. Try different types – orchard, oat, timothy. Give fresh hay daily. Bunnies dopn’t really like old hay. It looks clean and fresh to us, but it collects dust, dander, hair, etc. My bunnies rush up to their litter box to eat the fresh hay when I refill it. I would try giving her smaller amounts of hay every day, so it is fresh, and try different types. There are all sorts of other ideas, like putting it in a toilet roll as a toy, and mixing it with treats. I have nto been able to get Lancelot to eat as much hay as he shoudl be eating, so I feed him a timothy-based pellet, as much as he wants – and he gets his teeth filed twice a year. Hopefuly you don’t have to resort to that. 1/4 cup pellets a day is great. The only reason I free-feed Lancelot, is that he doesn’t eat more hay if I restrict his pellets, he just loses weight. He is my special case bunny. Judging the size of your bunny by the NIC frames, her poops should be about a centimeter long. She looks relaxed.

[FloppyBunny]

My rabbit was also really picky with hay. It took almost 4 years to get him to eat any. He would eat a ton of grass from outside instead, which my vet said is better for them anyways, so you can try that. Now my rabbit can no longer go outside for various reasons, so to get him to eat hay I had to restrict pellets. I gave him his bowl from 7pm until 10am the next day. In between he only had hay. It usually took him until 5pm before he would start eating hay. I did that for maybe a week and now he eats it even when I leave the pellets. Also, he’s picky on the type of hay so you might want to try a different brand. My boy refuses ANY hay bought from a pet store and will only eat the hay from the acreage we just bought (good timing!). If you can find a farmer that sells hay it might be best because it’s much cheaper and often fresher. My vet also said to spray some apple juice on the hay at first to get him to eat some. It didn’t work for me, but it might for you.

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