5 deaths in the last 3 months (rabbits fed from greengrocer)

[Bike guy]

i'd look at their what i call the poop tube, the liver for spots. other than that I don't know. If it's a digestion problem then I would expect you would see packed poop. im sure others on here know exactly what to look for. poor babies, sorry for your loss. so frustrating. is it possible someone is scaring them when you aren't around? dogs? cats?

No they are indoors, I'm the only creature they ever see. After reading comments I'm leaning towards insecticides.

 

[Bike guy]

During your necropsy you could also look for a yellowish liver for toxicity, stomach/intestinal bloat, and you could look for spotty or bloody lungs for respiratory illness. Kidneys should also be checked like liver for paleness and spottiness.

You are not stuck with hay or pellets, but you cannot feed people food only. I would suggest you look for neighbors with gardens and yards and take their weeds, fruit tree prunings, grass etc., and also look at parks and less traveled road side or hedgerow areas. Bramble vines (blackberry, raspberry, rose) are especially well loved, even though they are thorny. So are many types of tree bark, though it may not be as nutritious it will provide fiber.

Unfortunately you will have to learn what is poisonous to rabbits. As a general rule if an ornamental is considered resistant to deer it is not going to be good for rabbits either. Another tip is to learn the latin names of the plants in your area and plug them into a search engine with the word "fodder" or the word "toxicity". There have been many animal studies for alternative fodder sources, which can be old but still useful. Like me!

There are MANY MANY natural feeding threads here on rabbit talk also.

Thank you for necropsy suggestions, this was what I was looking for.

I've been foraging for myself for many years, this was one of the reasons that I started to raise rabbits. I know almost all plants in my area and I fed my rabbits merely on plants that I foraged for at least 6 months. Not even a single death and they were much happier. But this winter I was so busy and greengrocers seemed to me a timesaving solution. I think I should go back to foraging again.

 

[Bike guy]

How about pellets? If you can't get hay.

So this is my final decision; I will start foraging again and buy some alfalfa pellets. There is no rabbit pellets in my country but alfalfa and trifolium pellets are very common.

Actually no time for foraging but I have to. Foraging was so relaxing for me after all.

 

[hotzcatz]

I can't really think of anything at a green grocer that would be a good diet mainstay for a bun. Maybe carrot tops, but that's not a complete diet. Most root veggies have too much sugar and not enough fiber to be a good base for a bunny diet. Lettuces, cabbages, etc., those aren't really good for bunnies. People can't eat the things that wild bunnies generally eat so bunny forages won't show up at the grocer.

Bunnies in the wild eat a lot of grasses, leaves and twigs. Much lower on the food chain than veggies.

 

[eco2pia]

I understand about the time involved in foraging. I would love to do it and here in the Pacific Northwest of the US, we have a rabbit wonderland of weeds. It would be easy...but I work 50h/week, have a house that is in constant need of repair, chickens and a dog. It is too much to do all the things, but I look forward to doing more foraging if I ever am able to drop back to part time work.