I was trying to breed my rabbits today as more of them have made it to that age. One of my NZ Red Bucks was thin as heck, almost a skeleton. They all have been eating, 5 oz of pellets in the morning, Straw or Timothy hay at night. None of them have the runs. I'm kind of lost on this one. The Buck to his right is perfect and the one on his left is slightly underweight, and won't produce, not interested no matter which Doe I put in.

I increased his pellets tonight, added a piece of apple and timothy hay.

Straw has no nutritional value. The fiber can help the digestive tract but a rabbit that enjoys eating straw can starve to death. 5oz of pellets sounds small but I don't measure in oz and have never seen pellet suggestions measured by oz despite weight being a better way to measure feed than amount.

I'm thinking, too, that 5 oz of pellets may be too little for an adult New Zealand. I do not know, though. The one NZ I have has a cagemate, so I don't really know how much she eats.

Straw is probably better as bedding or nest box material than as something to feed them. It absorbs well, but, like Akane said, besides fiber, has nothing to add nutritionally for the rabbit. Hay has varying amounts of nutritional value depending on what type it is. Alfalfa is very nutritious and plentiful in protein. Timothy is also an excellent hay. Both of those are prohibitively expensive here, so I use coastal Bermuda grass hay, supplemented by St. Augustine grass cut and dried on my own lawn. St. Augustine is a mediocre forage nutrient-wise, but it's free.

I'd think probably you need to up the pellets, cut out the straw, and possibly add in temporarily some oatmeal and black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS). The BOSS may help also to get them ready to see the ladies. Hopefully some others will chime in, though, with more NZ experience.

If the rabbits on either side are doing well, I have to wonder if this particular buck does not have a health problem. I agree with giving him more pellets and adding a bit of oatmeal and BOSS to his ration. Hay would be more beneficial than straw.

How does he act when you give him his pellets? Ravenous? Eager? Indifferent? If he is not diving into them, I would suspect that there is more to this than not getting enough to eat.

Parasites are a possibility. I would isolate him while you try to figure it out. If he does not improve on an increased ration, I would suspect a serious problem. I would likely cull a rabbit that was obviously failing to thrive on a diet where others are doing fine. Do you really want this trait in your herd?

She/he said the buck on the left is also low on weight.
Forget feeding straw and up the pellets.
While your doing that, check for illness and deworm them if you can find a rabbit safe wormer.

Free feed them ALL. For large breeds like that, restricting feed to a certain amount isn't necessary. Also, as everyone has stated before, drop the straw and feed hay. Straw does nothing but fill the belly.

Feed some pineapple to clear up any fur block or any other gut blockage he may have. Mix in some oats and BOSS with his pellets. That will help him put on some weight, maybe even some molassas if you want. Molassas increases palatability of their feed, and the yummier the feed the more they'll eat!

And it may seem simple, but check his teeth. I know a gal that had a healthy juvenile suddenly get skinny, even though he ran to his food when she put it in the cage. But then he wouldn't eat.

First thing I did was open his mouth; one of his bottom teeth was broken and jagged.

Good luck! Red NZs are hard to come by; hope he pulls through for you!

generally speaking..if feeding a 16% protein ration.. most adult meat rabbits need about 1 cup in feed (about 8 oz). Some can get by on less...but generally you'd be looking at feeding a cup of pellets daily.

I'd check his teeth (Front and back), check his poops for worms and if anything there worm him. If you have two that are underweight I'd be wondering what was going on with them.

By all means, check his teeth! It's always a good idea when a rabbit is not doing well.

I recently cut down on their pellets because they were putting on too much weight. A week ago I increased it. I give them more than the breeders did and they were all doing well. They all, including him sit at the food bowl and eat right up with no exceptions. I am going to give him a week or two to see if he put's on weight. If not... I am thinking parasite. I have to see what I can get for that. I haven't seen any worms in his poop. I've also noticed that his ears are droopy. So much so that I have a bad feeling that I was misled and he has some Lops in him.

As said I would up the feed..you can over feed if you plan to show I would feed two cups of feed a day.
Also the straw and hay thing is true. Straw does nothing but fill the belly. Hay will help.

I tend to wonder though if uping the feed and taking the straw away does Not work..Try worming your whole herd.
I had problems when I first started showing with my animals just not feeling like they had good flesh condition and someone told me to worm them and my rabbits got a lot better. Also recently I Had problems with my rabbits having not terrible but not what they could be with their flesh condition and I talked to judge Molly Covert and her and her husband who is also a judge said to treat for coccidiosis. Its really easy. I did it with Corrid. You give it to your whole herd babies and all. Give it five days with a two day break for two weeks(so i did mon-fri then break on sat and sun then start back up on mon). I got it at TSC. It is kinda expensive but well worth it.

How old is this buck?

Ears can droop in juveniles and during heat with no health problems or lop blood. Dunno where you are in the world as to temperatures. My checkered giant x new zealands get lop ears here and there especially over last summer but grow out of it. It's not uncommon especially in large breeds that the standard has no ear size restriction on like some of the small breeds.

If I have to deworm one I deworm them all. If one can get in to enough parasites they probably all could benefit. If you have a little extra cash and your vet doesn't over charge for it you could have a fecal run and solve that question within a couple days. I would take a couple fresh droppings from the ones with low weight and maybe one healthy one in bags to the vet and see how many parasite eggs each rabbit has. Try to get a livestock vet to do it since they tend to be much cheaper and will run batches of samples through for one price instead of per animal.

Exactly what I was thinking, and why I asked how old he was.

Juveniles can also get gangly and skinny, and have too-big ears and heads... like teenage humans can sprout and get really skinny, but have big hands and feet. They look really awkward for a while, but they grow into their bodies eventually. They do need a healthy amount of food, though!