Just got a rabbit and I just saw u r only meant to feed them certain times?

Question

ok I found a rabbit and put posters up no one came forward so he stayed in my room until I bought him a hutch,

i know got him a big hutch with a huge run, problem is I feed him like I feed my hamster I just put food in the dish and put it inside his hutch when it gone I fill it.

but when he was in my room he just eat it, now in his hutch he flips the food bowl over and kicks it out.

also it just started raining and he was running around the hutch flipping out, then he would run and hide under his hutch or inside then run out again, so i put him in his hutch and locked the door cuz of the rain.

tell me what im doing wrong or right please because I aint got a clue

Answer 1

first i would do research and make sure its a pet bunny not a wild one and i have a rabbit so u got lucky =). What i do with mine is give it natural sping water and they like waterbottles unless they are wild then that dont know how to drink from them.
I feed mine ecotrition and i feed it in the morning and at nite i also keep its hay stocked and im not sure whats up with them but we have 3, 2 mini lops and mine the regular ^.^
Mine flips its house upsidedown and sleeps in his litter box =/
the others wont sleep unless thier heads are touching the other ones tail LOL so i think rabbits have thier own personallity but i know you need a house for them also they like dandilions and usually sweet basil they chomp down. We are thinkink about getting chia pets and putting them in the cage and growing them and they can munch whenever
so all rabbits are wierd but i think that time with the rain it was just afraid and wanted shelter. Its also always nice to feed them extra ones cause mine eats bananas lol not carrots or lettuce just bananas....wierd well i hope that helps and i hope that wasnt to long so c ya. Dan

Answer 2

You're keeping a rabbit outside, for starters. That's wrong.

Second, they make feeding troughs for rabbits, they are metal and attach to the side of the cage. They cannot be kicked over. They are grazers, so food should be available at all times. The bowl-kicking is just from stress, the rabbit does not want to be locked up outside- there are predators outside and the rabbit can smell them, it's torture to him. Either keep the rabbit inside where pets belong, or find him a new home. Stressed rabbits can die from the stress or from injuries caused by 'flipping out'.

Answer 3

Rabbits do not like living outside. It is very stressful for them and they can even die of the stress. If you found this rabbit, he may have been someones inside pet and is not used to the outdoors.

As for food, rabbits are prone to overeating. The best diet for a rabbit is 1/4 cup of pellets(per 1 lb body weight) and 2 cups of three different vegetables mixed together. He also needs unlimited hay(timothy) to eat.

Answer 4

You should only feed your rabbit twice a day with a handful of dried food, either rabbit museli of the nuggets you can buy. If you leave it with food in it's cage, it'll over eat and get fat.

You should ensure that there is always fresh water in his bottle and a supply of hay in his hutch.

Answer 5

If a label says to only feed it a certain time, then listen to what is says. I had the same problem once.

Answer 6

As far as keeping your rabbit's outside. There is no problem with keeping your rabbits outside. There are thousands of rabbit breeders across the United States that raise their rabbits outside with hardly any problems at all.

As far as the flipping out goes. Keep a radio playing out by your rabbit. That will help keep it calm when it hears loud noises. It gets it used to the noise.

As far as feeding, feeding at certain times is partially correct.

There's no totally correct time of the day to feed your rabbits but there are some general things you should know regarding feeding rabbits.

1.) It's good to keep your feeding times constant. If you feed at 3pm, make sure you try feeding your rabbit as close as you can to 3pm each day. Rabbits like consistency and the more consistent and regular your feeding schedule is the less likely you are to have health problems with your rabbit.

2.) The best number of times to feed is 1 to 2 times per day. I prefer to feed once a day. It allows you to get a better idea of how much or how little your rabbit ate that day. If you feed twice a day the difference in the amount of food they eat may be too little to notice a change in their eating habits. For litters of rabbits, I like to make sure they are fed twice a day to make sure they have plenty of feed. It is important that babies have enough feed when they are growing or otherwise they will not grow like they should.

3.) As far as watering, water twice a day and give fresh water at least once a day.

4.) The time of day to a certain extent doesn't matter as long as the time remains consistent from day to day. Rabbits normally eat at night. So I prefer to feed mine in the evening. This makes it so that their feed doesn't sit in the bowl as long before you feed them. The longer the feed sits in the bowl the more stale it gets.

5.) Never let the feed sit in the bowl for over 2 days. If the feed starts getting pale and breaking up then it is going stale and should be thrown out.

6.) Give your rabbit just what it will finish up in 24 hours. The rabbit shouldn't have hardly anything left in the bowl 24 hours later. It should barely just clean up the bowl. If you give too little then they get overly hungry. If you give too much and there is always plenty of excess in the bowl, the feed will go stale and you'll need to throw it out.

7.) The idealogy that feeding a rabbit too much will make it fat is wrong. Rabbits don't get fat by how much they eat. They will quit eating when they are full. Rabbits get fat due to what they eat. So if your rabbit is getting fat, look at what you are feeding it and not how much you feed it. I've been showing rabbits for over 25 years and know this to be true.

8.) A rabbit should not be judged fat based on its weight. A rabbit should be judged fat based upon the amount of fat that it carries. The amount of fat that it carries can be attributed directly to the looseness of the rabbit's hide. Grab the fur around the rabbit's shoulders. The looser the hid is and the more fur you can grab, the fatter your rabbit is. Your rabbit can be heavy and be perfectly healthy just like a bodybuilder can be heavy and perfectly healthy.

9. Avoid feeding greens, vegetables, grass, and fruits. Too many people feed their rabbits "snacks" then wonder why their rabbit got diarrhea. Just because the rabbit likes to eat it doesn't mean it is good for them. Kids like to eat ice cream and candy, but you don't say that a diet that is composed mainly of ice cream and candy is good for a kid. Yet many new pet owners think because the rabbit loves to eat it them and because they are good for humans that vegetables and stuff like that are good for rabbits when they are not.

10.) As far as the bowl flipping, some rabbits like to do that. It's just part of their nature. There are two ways that you can stop that. The first way is to get a heavy ceramic crock to put the feed in that is too heavy for the rabbit to easily flip over with its teeth. The second way I like much better. Get what is called a J-feeder. This is what I feed all of my rabbits out of. A J-feeder fits through a hole in the wire cage wall. The portion that the rabbit eats out of fits through the hole in the cage. There are two wire ends that snap or get bent over the wire on the cage wall and lock it in place. J-feeders are nice because you don't have to open the cage to pour the feed in. They also are locked in place so they can't be flipped over. Due to their lip, they are hard for the rabbit to scratch food out of them also. And finally, one of their best attributes is the wire screen mesh in the bottom of them that allows all of the fines from the rabbit pellets to be sifted out. The fines aren't good for the rabbit to eat. You should be able to find J-feeders at your local pet store. If not, check out the websites:

http://www.klubertanz.com
http://www.bassequipment.com
http://www.kwcages.com