feeding bunny questions- please help!

[In His Service]

I have an adult large Rex bunny, I tried breeding her, but it didn't work. I heard somewhere that if your bunny is too fat, she can't have babies so I decided to cut down on her diet a bit because I was feeding her unlimited pellets when I'm supposed to limit how much I give her. How much should I feed her. Please help me.

 

[minifarm]

I have two unknown breed rabbits that I feed about a half cup of pellets (total for both) two sprigs of parsley, carrot slices, apple pieces and two leaves of spinach every day.
They are in a pen that is about 12 feet by 15 feet with a dirt floor half of it covered with grass hay. Their house mates are three miniature chickens. The rabbits are not thin
or fat but probably get enough exercise playing with each other and the chickens.

 

[In His Service]

Thanks so much!

Also if anybody has any knowledge about breeding rabbits, please share with me.

 

[AinaWGSD]

Usually you want to aim for about 1 Tablespoon of pellets per pound of adult rabbit. If she still seems hungry after she's finished all her pellets, then she can eat all the grass hay (not alfalfa) that she wants. It's hard to over feed dark leafy greens too, although watch out for too much spinach as it is high in calcium and can cause urine sludging (wich is just as unpleasant as it sounds) or even bladder/kidney stones. The real culprit in overweight rabbits is the pellets. If you are trying to get her to loose weight you could also shop around for a timothy pellet to switch her to in addition to limiting the amount of pellets she has access to. Most rabbit pellets are alfalfa pellets and alfalfa will be higher in calories than timothy pellets.

 

[Laingcroft]

Quote:
+1

Only thing I would say different is to weigh the food rather than measure. It is one ounce of pellet per pound of animal. Weigh her and reduce her feed by one pound/measure less until she reaches prime weight. For example, if she is currently 10 pounds, then feed 9 oz. Excercise helps too. Gauge that prime weight by her body condition instead of actual weight. She should be well muscled and ever so lightly padded but not fat.

Though rabbits can be bred anytime of year and don't have heat cycles per se, they are also daylight sensitive like chickens. Since the days are (slowly) getting longer now, it won't be long before she is ready to breed, particularly if she is also getting fit and trim. And remember to put her in the buck's pen for breeding so she isn't more concerned with chasing an interloper out of her space. Her genital area will also be darker when she is ready to breed.

We feed Purina Sho formula, but you can try Purina Complete which has less protein or the Fibre3 formula. Manna Pro is another good feed.

 

[In His Service]

Thanks so much!