High volume rabbit feeder?

[JacksonPearce]

Hi everyone--

I have two rabbits but am fairly new to them. I'd like to put a higher volume feeder in their pen than the teeny one that's in there now, and happen to have a spare Little Giant chicken feeder. I can't see any obvious problem, but is there any reason why using this in the rabbit pen is a terrible idea?

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00FFZWCN8/?tag=backy-20

 

[SunHwaKwon]

What breed are your rabbits and are they caged, indoors or outdoors. Depending on breed and age, pellets should generally be limited and hay is free fed.

 

[Bunnylady]

As @SunHwaKwon said, free feeding pellets isn't usually a good idea with adult rabbits; they can get very fat that way (and being fat is not good for them for a number of reasons). If your rabbits are full grown, about 1 ounce of feed per pound of body weight per day is all the pellets they should be getting (that works out to about a quarter cup of feed per day for a Netherland Dwarf, or about a cup for a New Zealand). Obviously, growing rabbits, and does feeding litters require more.

One of your first indicators that things aren't as they should be with a rabbit is that it will go off its feed. Sometimes, the only thing that's wrong is the water bottle isn't working properly, but how could you tell, with something like that big bin? Also, I don't know about where you live, but around here, rabbit feed that is exposed to the air gets moldy and gross in about 3 days. It would take a bodacious number of rabbits to wipe out that much feed before it spoiled. Some rabbits love to dig in their feeders, which in this case would mean a rabbit could dump out and waste a good $10 worth of feed in a couple of hours.

 

[JacksonPearce]

Thanks, all! This was more as a temporary solution-- we are going out of town for a few days, and I would rather not have to ask my pet sitter to take care of the rabbits if they can chill on their own.