i bought a rabbit from wards like a month ago.It wasn't that active and it was normal size and now it doesn't want to eat. But when it does eat it eats normal rabbit food and it doesn't get fat its skinny and its weak can u give me tips on how to improve his health.PLEASE!!!How to make my rabbit fater and more healthy?
Adult: All adult rabbits need to be healthy is 80-90% oaten/grass hay, 1 and a half to two cups per kg body weight vegetables (a good list of safe vegetables can be found here: http://www.adoptarabbit.org/articles/pac鈥?/a> . Feed about 3 or 4 different vegetables or more a day) and unlimited water.
Do not feed supermarket mixes (neither RSPCA or Dr Harry鈥檚 brands), pellets (unless it鈥檚 U.S made Oxbow pellets from a rabbit-savvy vet clinic), pet shop mixes etc as they are not a necessary part of a rabbit鈥檚 diet and a lot of their ingredients (like dried corn, molasses and seeds) can be harmful to bunnies.
Babies: All baby rabbits need to be healthy is unlimited Lucerne hay (gives them the calcium and calories they need to grow) vegetables and water. Always introduce new vegetables one at a time, and over a period of a few days to see how he/she handles the vegetable. If there鈥檚 any runny poo, stop immediately.
Baby rabbits should also not be fed any Australian-made pellets or mixes
Fresh hay and greens
Rabbits,bird,guinea pig,rodent
Ingredients
500g grass hay
1cupo freshly cut grass
1/4 freshly picked clover
4 green beans
2 celery tops-the leaves from the top of a stick of celery
6 carrot tops-just the leaves from freshly picked carrots
1/2cm slice of carrot(no more)
Serving method
Rinse your ingredients with clean water and serve immedately
Alternative greens include dandelions and radish tops.
Treats for rabbits
Ingredients
1 slice of apple,0.5cm thick
2-3 raisins
1 pistachio nut
pinch of oatmeal
apple cider
dish of herbal tea
Serve treats fresh to your rabbit
Rabbits feelings poorly
Ingredients
2kg grass hay
1 cup freshly picked grass and clover
Serve fresh to your rabbit.How to make my rabbit fater and more healthy?
You need to get that bunny to a vet as it could well be dying. If by ';normal rabbit food'; you mean commercial pellets it is in big trouble. The majority of a rabbit's diet MUST be timothy hay, fresh greens, carrots etc. A rabbit should only eat about 1/4 cup of pellets per day and have the hay in unlimited amounts.
First you should know what kind of rabbit it is and what is the proper weight for your breed? A fat rabbit is not healthy.
Feed it a high quality pellet feed like Purina Show Bunny or Nutrena Rabbit. I mention thes names because you should be able to find them almost anywhere in the country. When you bought the rabbit it was normal and healthy. I guarantee you the store was feeding it pellets and that is why it was healthy.
It must always have water available.
Provide Timothy (grass type) hay.
A pelleted diet is balanced and nutritious and gives the rabbit what it needs. Feed companies have facilities with hundreds of rabbits and they have been developing feeds for over 50 years for rabbits. I think their labs are better than my barn.
I have over 30 rabbits. They range from 3lb dwarfs to 12 pound does. They all eat a pelleted diet. They are healthy, well kept happy animals. It is difficult to balance a diet on your own.
Your bunny will be healthier and you will be happier if it's diet is consistent and regular. Their digestive systems are much more delicate than a dog or cat. High sugar or carbohydrate items make a disruption of their digestive system worse since they feed the growth of any bad bacteria.
Do your rabbit a favor and feed it mostly pellets with Hay available. Follow the directions on the bag. Here are some common amounts to feed:
Dwarf 1/4 to 1/3 cup a day.
A 6-8 pound rabbit 1/2 to 3/4 cup a day
You need to weigh your rabbit to see if it is gaining, maintaining or losing weight.
You can go to Yahoo! Groups and find a rabbit group (Showbunny is a good one) and maybe you can find a rabbit breeder or 4H group in your area. Rabbit folks are a pretty good bunch of people and will help.
Good luck!
Your rabbit needs to go to th vet.
If you can not provide vet care, contact your nearest Rabbit Rescue (Just google rabbit rescue in ';location of choice';). A rescue will take them to the vet (if it isn't too late) and find him a home with some one who can properly care for him. Make sure it is a rescue and not a shelter. A shelter will not give any animal vet care.
Good luck
FOOD
I like Davel17's answer.
It would be a good idea to take your rabbit to the vet to have it checked out just incase it does have a disease. A number of diseases can make your rabbit not want to eat and skinny. I'd recommend talking to some local rabbit breeders that show rabbits to find where a rabbit savvy vet is around your area. Many vets are just used to treating dogs and cats and don't know much about rabbits because they rarely treat them.
As far as feeding your rabbits, there are several good brands of feed around the country that make good rabbit feed. I agree with Dave that Purina is one of them. Heinolds is another. Some others are:
Buckeye
Nutritional
Kent
Show Rite
Manna Pro
I have to disagree with the people telling you to avoid pellets and to feed greens. I've read enough on rabbit nutrition to know that you don't want to do that. The majority of a rabbit's diet needs to consist of dehydrated food. And the majority of their diet should not consist of foods that are high in starches or sugars.
Many of them will tell you that you need to feed tons of hay. Look at the what probably the first ingredient is on your rabbit feed. Normally it's alfalfa hay. If you are going to give a treat to your rabbit though, hay is probably the best treat to give them. Alfalfa is a good source of fiber and minerals for the rabbit and it has more protein than Timothy hay. That is why it is usually one of the first ingredients. It does a pretty good job of meeting many of the rabbit's nutritional requirements. Then things such as soybean meal are added to up the protein a little more so that the rabbit can grow properly. Ingredients such as wheat middlings and corn are a cheap way to give the rabbit the energy in its diet it needs. Then there are minerals and vitamins in there to meet those needs and sometimes they add ingredients such as Yucca Schidigera Extract to control the amount of ammonia the rabbit gives off in its waste and ingredients such as papaya to help avoid hairballs.
Purina does a good job of trying to educate people about rabbits. They even have a program called Rabbit U, an event where you can take kids to learn about rabbits and rabbit nutrition. Feed companies and universities have done nutritional research on rabbits since about the 1940's. Below is an article from Purina Feeds on feeding treats. Purina does a lot of research on rabbit nutrition.
http://rabbit.purinamills.com/NutritionM鈥?/a>
The only book that I've found that is very thorough on rabbit nutrition is called Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition, written by Peter Cheeke. Peter Cheeke researches rabbit nutrition at Oregon State University. Below is a link to one place where you can find the book for sale online. As you can see the book is very expensive and I doubt any of the people recommending feeding mostly vegetables have read it like I have.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/offer-listing/0鈥?/a>
If your rabbit is having trouble gaining weight, make sure you are feeding it a rabbit ration with at least 16% protein. That should help your rabbit get enough protein to develop muscle. However that is no guarantee that your rabbit will get fatter and gain weight. Sometimes when a rabbit loses weight it never gets more than a small percentage of it back. I raise New Zealands Whites. New Zealand Whites are supposed to have a wide muscular loin and that loin is supposed to be smooth and straight. However, I can tell when a rabbit has gone off its feed in the past because the rabbit will get what feels like an indention in that loin when it goes off its feed for a day or two. If it continues for more than a day or two then the rabbit starts to feel bony over the back. The rabbit never really fully gets that muscle back and once it gets that indention or boniness over the back, you can never fully get rid of it. You might make it a little better, but you never get rid of it. That's why I have to make sure I feed mine right and they never get diarrhea or go off their feed. If they do even once, it hurts that rabbit as a show rabbit for the rest of their life.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment