Buck not eating much

Do buck not eat as much as Does? The 4 Does I have eat easily 3X's what my Buck eats. I find He is a little under weight but seems healthy overall. I have only had my rabbits going on a week this Saturday. One of my does(about 1 year old) eats most of her food every day.My 6 month old doe eats like a pig, The buck eats very little and I can easily feel his spine when rubbing his back.

Could it be that he needs more time to get use to his new home or would it be something else?

Rabbits are individuals and their appetites vary, but it sounds as though your buck is underweight and not eating enough to remedy the situation. Was he underweight when you bought him? Is he pooping and peeing normally?

There could be quite a few reasons for his lack of appetite and there is no way I can tell which is most likely in this case.

1. Stress from the move. This normally only lasts a few days, but it can disrupt a rabbit's digestion.

2. Abrupt change in feed can compound the stress of the move.

3. Change from a water crock to a water bottle can cause problems for some rabbits until they figure it out, leading to possible dehydration. If a rabbit doesn't drink enough, it won't eat enough either.

4. An underlying digestive disorder such as wool block, intestinal parasites or GI stasis.

I would try adding some hay (for roughage) and some kitchen oatmeal (for easily digested calories) to his diet. Without further information, I hesitate to make other suggestions.

Due to lack of eating he doesn't poop that much but he does poop and pee. Poops looks good and firm.
He was a little underweight when I got him and the breeder used some kind of high dollar pellets he traveled about 3 hrs. to buy by the ton.
He is use to water nipples as that is what the breeder uses.
Just yesterday I was able to find some hay and put some in the cage. I can give him some oatmeal and see if that helps him out. Also this week I gave all my rabbits just a few pecan tree leaves, a small piece of willow branch to chew on with a few leaves and each had a small piece of carrot. All my rabbits eat them up the buck ate some but still left some of everything. He only ate a few bits from the carrots.

We are still pretty hot down here in La. but I have a fan that blows through the cages.They are not in direct sun and get airflow from 3 sides of the cages.
When I went to pick up a couple of does this week I talked to that breeder and he told me his bucks also don't eat as much as the does do. He also told me he feeds some pellets and oats. <br /><br /> __________ Tue Sep 23, 2014 3:26 pm __________ <br /><br /> My $25 buck died today. I couldn't get him to eat much of anything. I tried pellets,BOSS,carrots, mixed bird seed,kitchen oats,banana peels,Timothy hay, calfmana, twigs and leaves from my pecan trees and willow trees,olive oil sprinkled on top of the birdseed and pieces of apple(no apple seeds). He would eat just a bite or two while I was there and not much more of anything else.

I don't have a vet that really deals with rabbits around here so I tried everything I could find on the net and in here and other forums to help him out.

His poop looked fine (what there was of it) and he didn't seem to have a problem urinating.

Now I need to find a new buck. That might take awhile seeing as I wasn't able to find one in the past month or so,other than this one.

Sorry you lost him, Craneman. I think there must have been a serious underlying problem causing his lack of appetite. Did you do a necropsy to try to find the cause?

No I didn't do a necropsy. I Just got rid of him. I will call the breeder I got him from after he gets home from work and see if he has been having problems of any sort.
I wont be getting any rabbits from him again though. This buck was skinny when I got him. My fault for buying him without checking him out and handling him myself. I let the breeder just put him in my cage along with the does I bought also, paid him and left. It was storming that day and I just wanted to get home so I could check on the wife. With her dementia bad weather easily causes her sun downers to kick in.

Lesson learned. I wont buy till I handle the rabbits myself.

__________ Tue Sep 23, 2014 6:49 pm __________

Just got off the phone with the breeder that sold me the buck. He said it was probably because he was feeding a different brand pellet. I explained everything I had done to get the rabbit to eat. He said I could go get another Buck Saturday.

I will be sure to hold and check it out before I leave. Hope this one will be OK. <br /><br /> __________ Sat Sep 27, 2014 8:03 pm __________ <br /><br /> I went pick up my new buck this morning. All my rabbits are white NZ's and Cali's, this one is a NZ but has black feet,back,ears and most of the head. His body is mixed black,red/brown with looks like some white or silver tips on his body fur. Should make for some interesting color mixes. He is nice and full bodied not like the other buck I had gotten.

He is not use to being handled as he sometimes runs around his cage at full speed knocking his feeder almost out of the whole in the cage. Hope he calms down quick. I would hate for him to hurt himself and maybe die. I will be handling him as much as possible to try and get him to relax.

I think you did as much as could be expected to try and get him to eat, and that the breeder did the right thing to replace the rabbit.

Sounds like he's probably a black tort color.
Slowly introducing him to all the delicious foods you have for rabbits should certainly win him over!

Yea I tried my best to save him.
I told the breeder he might want to check out the rest of his rabbits. He insist he has no problems with his stock.
I think he gave me another buck so I wouldn't bad mouth his business. Also the buck he gave me was housed in a different area so hopefully if he does have problems they haven't been transferred to the rabbit I got today.

Now I am just waiting for the does to get ready to breed so I can get some little ones. :yes:

He may have tried to foist an old buck on you. My original buck is getting up there and "retired" now. I don't have the heart to put him down after all the great broods he has fathered. The older he gets the less he eats although he isn't snaky thin.

Good luck with the new buck. He'll calm down with time and patience. Treats too Someone else posted that their buck liked them more when they started to bring him does :lol:

Overtime with getting new rabbits, I end up giving water in a bowl just in case they weren't familiar with a water bottle or had used the water nipples in the past. This can help keep their feed intake up. Sorry to hear what happened.

The new buck is trying his heart out when I put a doe in his cage,but none of my does want anything to do with him. I held my youngest doe while he mounted her. He grunted and feel off her all three times. That was 18 days ago. If she is pregnant, would there be a change in her Vulva or anything I can look for? I tried palpating her several times but I felt nothing resembling grape sized balls,or any size round objects.

If you have a problem like that again .....go get some cat fur ball medicine, it is easy to come buy, and a good teaspoon shot into their mouth has fixed all but one of my non-eating rabbits problem. I prefer to get it in a tube so I can force feed the rabbit right from the tube....it will not hurt your rabbits. I do this as soon as they stop eating don't wait!


Bowbuild

bowbuild":3skg5rpq said:

If you have a problem like that again .....go get some cat fur ball medicine, it is easy to come buy, and a good teaspoon shot into their mouth has fixed all but one of my non-eating rabbits problem. I prefer to get it in a tube so I can force feed the rabbit right from the tube....it will not hurt your rabbits. I do this as soon as they stop eating don't wait!


Bowbuild

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Thanks I'll keep that in mind.

BTW tomorrow is day 28 so I will put in a nest box and some hay.Hopefully she builds her nest and has her kits this week. :yes: