Not eating

[equestrian<3]

We brought home a 5 month old netherland dwarf buck on saturday, but he hasn't eaten any pellets since we got him. I do not know if we are using the same brand of pellets, but it is 16% protein, which is what the breeder used. He is drinking, very friendly and active, but does not seem to have any interest in his food. He eats hay but the breeder we got him from said to only feed him hay 3 times a week. I would love to give him a few apple slivers or chopped up carrot pieces and mix it in his pellets to see if that will coax him to eat, but when I got my HL buck he was about 5 months old and the breeder said we couldn't give him fruits or veggies until about 6 months. Any suggestions? I figured he wouldn't eat for a day or 2 just because of the change, but I didn't think it would go on this long.

 

[ladysown]

feed him safe foods with his hay. (you can give that daily). the important thing is to keep him eating. A bit of rolled oats (like 1 tsp max), changing out his pellets for new ones, dandelions, grass, chicory (the one I know has blue flowers (http://www.vancouverseedbank.ca/product.php?id=385), the non-flower portions of queen anne's lace. These things are fairly safe to give to bunnies. Avoid the carrots. If giving apple...just a little bit to see how he goes. But the greens would be a safer start. just keep him eating.

DON"T overdo it. Think ONE leaf of dandelion. Grass (is like hay just not dry) so just mix it in with the hay. The hay should keep him from getting the runs, the greens just encourage him to eat.

 

[MaggieJ]

I agree with Ladysown. I'd likely feed a touch more oatmeal than 1 tsp., but that's a good place to start. Hay for sure... as much as he wants. Ladysown has mentioned some great weeds to try him with, a little at a time as she says.

My personal favourite first green for rabbits is the lawn weed plantain. It will not cause diarrhea and in fact is an excellent plant to combat it. It will not constipate the rabbit either. Very, very safe and very nutritious.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plantago_major

It is always a good idea to ask for a supply of the pellets the rabbit is accustomed to and to get the breeder to write down the full brand name for you. It's fine to gradually switch the rabbit to your own preferred brand, but doing so later on is less stressful for the rabbit. New home, new people, new smells and noises, new food... It's a lot of stress all at once.

 

[equestrian<3]

I mixed some oats in with his pellets. He went over to the bowl and started chewing on the bowl...not the food :/ I did not check on him until just now when I went in there to do that, but he has strange poop. It is long and dried out and about the color of the food pellets, only bigger. It is light colored and looks hard and dry. I have never seen this before

 

[MaggieJ]

Neither have I. I'd try him on a moderate amount of greens and make sure he always has hay. It is important to keep things moving on through.

Does he seem nervous or stressed? What is his demeanour like? Is he curious and alert or sitting all hunched up at the back of the cage or what? Will he let you pat him without objection?

 

[equestrian<3]

At times he is curious and hopping around, and a few minutes later he will sit in the corner of his cage and not move. He lets us pet and hold him without a problem

 

[MaggieJ]

Well, that sounds okay. I was just concerned because if a rabbit is too reclusive out of fear, it may not eat as a result. I would imagine the problem is that he does not like the pellets you are feeding him.

Is the breeder far away? Can you get enough to mix into his current food to get him started? Or at least find out what brand/formula his old food was so you can get some?

 

[Anntann]

Are you able to tell how much water he's drinking? I'd be really concerned about that right about now.

When I brought home the rescued french angora buck he wouldn't eat at first. not even hay. I started giving him some dried papaya pieces to get his stomach juices going again. just a tsp on top of his oatmeal and pellets. That worked well. (he had no CLUE what to do with plantain or dandelions, poor thing). If maggie's suggestions for getting him to eat don't work, you could try the papaya (expensive but you don't use much)

 

[equestrian<3]

He is drinking normally. Still hasn't eaten anything besides hay though. The poop thing- we did an experiment because it so much resembled the food pellets. Turns out, the water bottle had been leaking and a couple pellets had fallen out of his food dish and soaked up the water. When they soaked up the water they expanded and got smushed and took a funny looking shape, then dried. So the weird things we thought had been coming out of the rabbit were actually just soaked pellets. That's a relief! He has gone to the bathroom normally I guess because he is eating enough hay.

We contacted the breeder but have not heard back from her yet. How long is it safe for him to live off of hay? We took the pellets, hay, and a small sliver of apple and blended it together and put it in his bowl in hopes that when he tried to get they hay he will have to eat to pellets along with it.

 

[MaggieJ]

He could live off hay almost indefinitely. He would lose any excess fat he may have, but good hay should provide enough nutrients to survive, provided he eats enough of it.

 

[equestrian<3]

He is getting lethargic and weak. He is eating hay and drinking though, but you can definitely tell he is losing his spunk and not moving around as much. His struggling when we pick him up is also very weak. He ate a little apple. The problem is I live In Florida and neither me nor my mom have never heard of any of the plants you are telling me about and she is a florist . We mostly have grove weeds here and anything else is likely to be covered in pesticides.

 

[akane]

I doubt florists are too well versed in weeds and wildflowers. The guinea pig info site has pictures of a few common forages http://www.guinealynx.info/forages_common.html but if your area is always sprayed in pesticide that won't do you any good in the short term. Long term you can grow any of these in pots for a safe treat. We've used really big rubbermaid totes to grow large quantities of grass, lettuce, cilantro, and forages over winter when we had guinea pigs. Guinea pigs must have fresh foods daily because they can't manufacture their own vit c and there are about 4 months out of the year here that nothing fresh exists outside.

Try buying banana puree, they sell various plain pureed fruits in the juice aisle here, or sticking one in a blender and then soaking the pellets in the mush. Blueberry Naked Juice brand also works well but banana is somewhat constipating which helps off set any digestive tract upset. Most herbivores can't resist the smell of either especially if you warm it up. You can put alfalfa leaves, bits of forage, oatmeal, etc.. in it as well. That's how we always got sick guinea pigs to eat and I've used it a couple times now with rabbits. Once for a doe that was in pain after a stuck kit and then for some kits who got weaned early and needed some extra enticing to see pellets as food.

 

[MaggieJ]

Good advice from Akane. Try it... The situation is obviously deteriorating.

Anntann suggested dried papaya. Did you try that? And maybe try a different brand of pellets?

Try the breeder again and make it clear the rabbit is at risk.

 

[equestrian<3]

We just left the store and i got the papya. I tried another brand and he didnt show any intrest in it, so i got another brand to try when i get home. The breeder finally replied and gave us some ideas. I am on my phone so this is much shorter than i want it to be

 

[MaggieJ]

Fingers crossed that something works. :clover: :clover: :clover:

 

[SatinsRule]

Try giving him some vitamin/electrolyte mix in his water. A half teaspoon in a gallon of water is about all it takes, but it works wonders for relieving stress, and that sounds like what is going on here.

A bag of timothy hay would work well, too. Just hang in there and don't give up on him.

 

[equestrian<3]

We went and ran some errands for a few hours and left him with his pellets and hay. We came back and all the hay was gone but the pellets hadn't been touched. He seems to have perked up a bit and has gotten some fight back in him We got a new type of pellets at the store and just gave him to him and he sniffed them, but that was it. We will try some of your tricks in the morning and see if he eats any tonight. Thanks for the support everybody!

 

[ladysown]

is he pooping?
how does his belly feel?
is he drinking sufficiently?

if he's eating and drinking well (even if all he's eating is hay) he should not be lethargic and "not okay". I've had rabbits live off hay for up to a month before I got them eating well. so... there's got to be something more going on with him.

how does his gut feel?

if he's not pooping then he's bunged up which means getting extra fluids into him, and slowly, very carefully massaging his gut, and getting him moving, and getting something into him that will break up the fur ball...even if you have to syringe pineapple juice into him (though I find once they get a taste it's not hard to get them to drink it).

 

[equestrian<3]

He is pooping normally and drinking well. He seems to have perked up a good bit. We are going to try different things tomorrow if he still hasn't eaten the new pellets that we got