Rabbits!!

[marie83]

Lol thats funny about the millet.

Still working on getting him onto hay, I've started reducing his pellets a bit to try to get his interest in it but I'm doing it very carefully because I know they cannot go long without food. He is eating his greens well now along with the odd bit of carrot and apple in small quantities.
I also bought a dry mix of various medow plants which is sold for rabbits, he will eat a small amount of it but isn't all that keen.

The litter training isn't going so well at all really, he used to pee in one corner of his cage but now he is picking several spots in it. We have a rabbit ban on the sofa now so he cannot jump up and go there now, if he jumps up he gets taken straight back off as it seems to be his favorite spot to use as a toilet

[liz]

Have you tried blocking the other corner with food dishes and toys? Maybe even give him a cardboard box in one corner.

This bunny has a plastic house but he barely fits. I gave him a cardboard egg carton today and he has about shredded it. I also gave him some pieces of a tree branch to chew on. They parrots love it.

[marie83]

I did actually try to block the corners with toys but he peed on the smaller toys lol. I had put a bix in his cage for him to sleep in, as soon as I took it back out the peeing everywhere stopped. He seems to be behaving himself around the rest of the flat now too. Everytime I catch him peeing in the right spot he gets a treat so hopefully he will catch on and not revert back.

Still not making much progress with getting him to eat hay though

[Polarn]

oh btw I was at a friends place yesterday and his little bunyn refuses to eat hey of the floor, so he has it in a metall ball hanging, looks pretty much as the foragingtoys for birds but with hey sticking out everywhere. just a thought.

[marie83]

oh btw I was at a friends place yesterday and his little bunyn refuses to eat hey of the floor, so he has it in a metall ball hanging, looks pretty much as the foragingtoys for birds but with hey sticking out everywhere. just a thought.

Thanks for the suggestion, already providing it in a ball and in a bowl, also tried soaking it. Am now on day 4 of reducing his pellets but that doesn't seem to be helping either. We will get there eventually, I wont give up any more than I have given up trying to get Harlie to eat fresh foods.

[marie83]

Quick little update, bunny is doing just fine. He will eat his greens before anything else now, I put it all in in the morning and it is all gone within an hour usually, fruit is the same but we don't give him much of that. Obviously hay is the least favorite so the pellets get eaten next but we do have a breakthrough with the hay, he is now eating about half a bowlful a day woohooo

So now I need to work on getting the balance of food right, I *think* he is a dwarf lop but not 100% sure as he wont tolerate being weighed yet and there seems to be a couple of other breeds that look similar. How many grams of pellets would you give him (roughly) per day compared to veg and hay?
Is half a bowl (its a standard sized rabbit bowl) of hay enough or should I work on trying to get him to have a bit more?

Other bit of good news is he has stopped peeing everywhere but he is still banned from the sofa at the moment. We are having a hard time trying to get him to chew on stuff or play though, the only thing he seems to want to do is rip paper up lol.

[Polarn]

as for how much to feed, I honestly doesnt know.. .we weigh our lil rabbits every now and then and keep a record, and well you kind of learn after a while by feel how much of what you put in your hands... But as a general rule (since I usually feed em with the kids) a kids fist of pellets are usually enough pellets to last em a day with greens and hey in the mix, more greens and you can reduce some pellets etc. but just keep track of the weight, on a rabbit its easier to se and feel the weightdifference than on a bird, but to weight em is absolutely the best way to go.

[marie83]

This is it, I don't think he will eat more than he needs now because he has stuff other than sitting in his cage being bored to do now. The person we got him from just used to give him a bowlful of pellets each day, he had little exercise and was a little chubby because all he had to do all day was eat.
I'm just a bit worried that if I give him too many pellets he will neglect eating the hay but at the same time I'm not sure the veg and hay is enough calories for him, I'm giving him about 24g-37g of pellets a day, a good handful or 2 of green leafy veg, a small handful of veg like broccoli, carrot or cauliflower and a couple of times a week he gets a small amount of fruit like apple, banana etc. He also gets a few tiny pieces of those beetroot or carrot flavoured biscuit stick things as a reward for going back in his cage for the toilet.

I guess its just a case of trial and error like I did with the birds but until he is trained to be picked up for weighing or go in a carrier whilst I weigh him I'm struggling to know what amounts to feed him in relation to what. at the moment I'm upping his pellets every third day as he is losing weight but I don't want him losing too much too quickly.