how can i tell if my bunny bun is the right weight?

Question

When he stretches, you can see the ribs popping out. But sitting, it looks normal I guess. Is this okay? Or is he supposed to be fatter?

Answer 1

Depends on if it is a dwarf, small, medium, large, or giant breed.

Here are their diets. In the pellets, you can see the weight, oz, and cups it should be given.

Pellets:

Feed dwarf breeds (1-2 lbs.) about 1/2 - 3 ounces (1/8 ~ 1/4 cup) of pellets everyday. 1 oz = 1 lbs of body weight. So, small (2 to 6 lbs); 3.5- 6oz (1/8 ~ 1/4 cup) medium (6-9lbs, ); 6 to 9 ounces (1/4 ~ 1/2 cup), large (9-11 lbs); 6-7 oz (1/2 ~ 3/4 cup), giant (11-15 lbs.+); 8 oz (3/4 ~ 1 cup)

Water

You should give your rabbit fresh water everyday and have it changed 1 - 2 times for clean water. It should have unlimited access to water. Some rabbits prefer crocks (water bottles) and others like water bowls.

Hay

FRESH Hay should be available at all times your rabbit. Feed grass hay , like timothy to your rabbits. Anything like Alfalfa or Clover hay should not be fed to your adult rabbits. Originally , rabbits should be eating grass, but in yards, most of them contains pesticides. You can give your rabbit some Priscilla's kitty grass. (http://www.kittygrass.com/index.html)

Vegetables

At least 3 different types of vegetables should be fed to your rabbits daily. Choose a vegetable that includes vitamin A, like broccoli or carrots. The HRS recommends a min. of one cup of vegetables for each 4 lbs. So here are the feeding amounts according to the last sentence. Remember, these are only minimum: Dwarf rabbits should have 1/2 cup, Small ; 1 cup, Medium ; 1 1/2 - 2 cups , Large ; 2 cups - 3 cups, Giant; 3 cups - 3 3/4 cups.

Answer 2

it depends what breed it is.. find out what the average weight is for the breed you have and try to keep him at that weight. i have a new zealand and he is suppose to be 10 pounds when hes fully grown.. i let mine have unlimited access to all the pellets and fresh greens he can eat and he never over eats his pellets or greens.. i hate when people say you can only feed them a handful or whatever because they dont even know what breed it is and as long as the rabbit isnt over weight it should be able to eat as much as it wants. mines still thin and he pigs out but he chooses not to have many pellets anyways. also if i gentley pet my rabbit i cant feel his ribs but if i try to i can and there is only a tiny bit of fat over them.. not sure if it is normal to be able to see the ribs though. i cant see my rabbits.

Answer 3

Heres a diet you should be feeding you're Rabbit: 1 cup of Bunny Pelets a day, and a hand full of hay or more. And of course an unlimited suply of water. If you feel the need rais the amount of pelats to 2 cups a day.

Answer 4

There is a very easy rule of thumb for feeding rabbits. It doesn't matter what the breed is or whatever. I'm going to keep it really simple. Forget all those other numbers everyone else told you and the calculations.

The 1 ounce per pound of adult weight doesn't work. New Zealands get to be about 9-12 pounds, yet they only need about 6 ounces of food a day. So that calculation doesn't work.

I feed my rabbits once a day, except for the babies/litters which get fed twice a day. Give your rabbit just what it will eat in one day. No more. No less. That means at the end of 24 hours that bowl of rabbit pellets should be completely empty or have only about 5-6 pellets in it. Your rabbit should just barely finish all of that food up.

Rabbits will quit eating when they are full. Like the one person mentioned, a rabbit can eat all it wants and not get fat. It's WHAT it eats that makes it fat. The reason why you want the rabbit to finish up all of its pellets is so that the pellets don't go stale in the bowl.

Rabbits will eat different amounts depending up the day and the weather conditions. If you keep it outside and it is hot, your rabbit won't eat as much. It doesn't need to eat as much because it is not using up as much energy to stay warm like it does in the winter. So you'll tend to notice on hot days that your rabbit won't eat as much. If there is leftover pellets at the end of 24 hours, I leave those pellets in there and reduce the amount of pellets I give it for the next day.

For example, my New Zealands will eat right at 6 ounces (if weighed on a dietary scale) of feed a day which equates to a 1 cup measuring cup of feed. If the rabbit eats only 4.5 ounce of feed the day before and has 1.5 ounces of feed left in the bowl, I'll only add 4.5 ounces of feed for that day. If I see that the pellets at the bottom of the bowl look whitish or stale I will dump them out.

What you want to make sure of is that you don't give your rabbit too many snacks. The snacks are what will make your rabbit fat, because they will raise the energy of the rabbit's diet and cause it to get fat. So stick to just the rabbit pellets and maybe a small handful of timothy hay. Timothy hay will increase the fiber and reduce the energy of the rabbits diet. Don't add too much hay. The main portion of the rabbit's diet should consist of the pellets. Remember, a rabbit will stop eating when it is full. If it fills up on hay by you giving it too much hay, it may not eat the pellets like what it should.

As far as water, I water my rabbits twice a day and make sure they get fresh clean water at least once a day. It's very important to make sure your rabbit has good clean water.


IMPORTANT NOTE: Don't listen to what the others said about the greens and vegetables. Don't give those to your rabbit. They will make it fat by increasing the energy of the rabbit's diet. Also, they will increase the rabbit's risk of getting diahrrea. Diahrrea is the #1 disease that kills domestic rabbits. Your rabbit gets all the vitamins and minerals it needs in the rabbit pellets. The pellets are specifically formulated to meet their nutritional needs.

Lasty, don't determine how fat your rabbit is by how much it weighs. Determine it by how much loose hide you can grab around their neck. Most of the fat of a rabbit forms underneath the hide, making the hide loose. That is why it is a good test. A rabbit can be heavier than its breed standard and be perfectly healthy just like a body builder can be heavier than someone of his or her height and still be perfectly healthy. You don't want to relate being overweight to weight but rather the percentage of fat.

Answer 5

The best way to tell is try to estimate how many he will feed at the dinner table.

1-2...fatten him up
3-4...perfect
over 4...too fat and the meat will be gamy

Answer 6

Feed your rabbit one ounce per pound of adult weight (breed dependant) and that will be fine.