Rabbits fighting!!!

[Akane]

Probably had slightly soft droppings. Have you fed any fresh foods? I have one kit in a mini rex litter who seems to have stomach problems easily. Any change in diet or fresh foods results in droppings stuck to it's rear end ever since it first grew fluff. The rest are not phased by my feeding of leftover vegetables and fruits.

While I've never had it happen I've heard they will occasionally breed through wire so I'm always cautious putting does and bucks side by side unnecessarily. Most cage raised rabbits are used to their cage defining their space so don't attack anything on the other side. It's somewhat amusing and somewhat sad to set cage raised rabbits down in a colony. They are completely shocked that another rabbit can enter their space and don't know what to do about it. It takes a few days for them to get used to the idea and not fly out of control every time it happens. I've only had one mentally disturbed rabbit who attacked everything including her own water bottle while it was being filled cause any problems between cages. We got one litter out of her that we are testing out before we take the line any farther and then we butchered her. I wasn't going to sell her to some poor idiot for pet or breeding. The world didn't need more than one litter of her genetics and while spaying might have made her an ok pet there was no gurantee she'd ever be safe to handle. She tore through my leather gloves one evening while I was filling her feeder. I always suggest bucks when people are looking for pets.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

They get pellets and I also give them some of the hay I have for my pony. It is straight grass hay with no alfalfa. Once in a great while I will throw a mini carrot in there but not very often.

 

[GallusGal]

I find that rabbits with a chronic case of "poopy butt" tend to have two things in common when I ask about their diet: too many pellets and not enough hay. Rabbits were intended to be grazing animals - eating grass, weeds, and greens for 100% of their diet. The domesticated rabbit's diet has unfortunately switched to being primarily pelletted, and while pellets will ensure that your bunny does not develop nutritional deficiencies, they also tend to be too high in protein, too low in fiber, and frankly pretty poor quality in the ingredients department - generally loaded with corn, soy, wheat, and legumes like alfalfa (basically nothing you would think to feed a rabbit were it not mixed in to a "fortified diet!") Even the "high quality" timothy based pellets on the market tend to have shoddy ingredients, though they are at least generally lower protein and higher fiber.

I had two bunnies that I used to feed nothing but Blue Seal brand pellets, and the occasional carrot to. They were obese, had awful coats, and always had soft feces and "mud butt." I switched them to a timothy based pellet - 1/4 cup a day only (you would need more for larger breeds, I think it's 1/4c per 4-5lbs of weight or something like that) - with varied hays offered ad libitum, plus daily fresh grass, weeds, or greens (depending on availability). Things like carrots or fruit are a small weekly treat only. They are now sleek, healthy animals with beautiful coats and perfect bunny poos! And when I've advised friends with similar rabbit problems to do the same, they have had the same results, even if they didn't do daily greens and simply cut back pellets and upped hay.

Obviously this isn't a one size fits all solution - if you have a baby rabbit or rabbits who are breeding, they generally need more pellets, more protein, etc. But for a pet rabbit sitting in a cage in the home or yard, or even a pampered house rabbit, a change in diet can work wonders.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

Quote:
Ok couple of questions:

When you say greens what are you talking about? What is acceptable and ok to feed them?

The hay I have is strictly grass hay with no alfalfa. Will that be sufficient?


You also say weeds. I have an overabundance of those. Are most any weeds ok? I guess if my chickens are eating them then they should be ok??

 

[bossynbella]

Quote:
I have a doe much like the one you described who would attack her water bottle when being filled. Thing is I think her issues are from her life experience rather then from her genetics. She is a blue New Zealand. We bought her for $3 at an auction, she seems like an older rabbit, probably who had done nothing but be bred and live in a tiny cage her whole life! We have bred her twice in the last two years (we raise meat rabbits so it was kind of a mute point anyway) she is the best mom we have, and though its a chore to try to feed and water her, once her babies are up and moving around its a total different story. She is fine with you reaching in her cage. This year we decided to retire her. We turned her loose in our garage and it was like watching a flower blooming. She still has attitude and would rather not be touched, but no more trying to kick us. She loves to run free, she will scoot under the door of the garage and run around the yard with the chickens and ducks, then scoot back under if something scares her. I have to say its kind of nice seeing a big blue bunny running around the yard.

 

[Akane]

Mine was violent right through raising her kits. Trying to check on them involved dropping a wire box around the doe. When they were 3 weeks old she then developped mastitis and no amount of heat pads and attempts to milk her would help. The kits started starving and had to be pulled and hand fed the rest of the way. Which was probably a good thing considering what their mom would teach them. There was just a thread on the rabbit forum about a doe teaching her kits to grunt and charge at things because she did it to them when annoyed. Also I got this doe at 8 weeks old and she was fine then. A bit of an odd rabbit but not violent. She turned violent overnight at around 3months old.

 

[DuckLover179]

I'm watching this thread, because my rabbits fight too

Anyway here are some greens I feed my rabbits:

Kale
Romaine Lettuce
Dandelion greens
Parsley
Cilantro

Here's a helpful list, though:
http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html

They mostly like oats, and raisins.

 

[cackydoodledoo]

Thanks my friend!! I didn't realize they liked oats or raisins! I use oats in my chicken feed so have plenty and with kids around the raisins always stay stocked up too! Thanks for the list!

 

[WhiteMountainsRanch]

Feed minimal amounts of treats that have a lot of sugar, like raisins, they can have a harder time digesting the sugars.

 

[GallusGal]

Some safe weeds to feed your rabbits would include dandelion, plantain, henbit (flower and leaves), white clover (flower and leaves), wild strawberry leaves, purselane, shepherd's purse, sow thistle, etc. as well as many/most typical grasses. As for leafy greens, darker greens such as kale, collards and mustard greens, dark lettuces, carrot tops, and many herbs (ie. basil, mint, parsley) are acceptable. I would go very sparing on sugary foods like carrot, raisin, and other fruits.

For hay, grass hays are fine. If you are not feeding a timothy based pellet though, you should try to offer timothy hay as well, as it is one of the best hays out there for bunnies. If you buy it in larger compressed bales it is much cheaper than buying it from the pet store. I personally advocate varying hays; my guys get general grass hay, timothy, oat hay, bermuda grass, botanical hays, etc. - I use grass hay/feed hay mostly then "enrich" with another about weekly.