Overweight?

[garden lady]

I cannot tell if they are overweight. I decided to cut back on their food. I am going to measure to be totally accurate starting tonight. In the morning I give them 1 tablespoon of oatmeal, put pellets in their bowl, which now is less, it was 1/2 cup with a little bit of BOSS. I then pick leaves and give greens, maybe a cup now that it is hard to find. I was coming back in the evening and pellets were still there, so now I cut back to where when I come back the bowls are empty. They have grass hay all the tiem. I give them in the evening 1 tablespoon of oats (just started this), a little bit of kale or small piece of apple and now leave the bowls empty until I come back out around 8 and give then about 1/4 cup of pellets, but I am going to measure tonight. It was half a cup. Lulu and the kits have food all the time. Does this sound about right? I am saying now they would get 1/4 cup of pellets twice a day. I could tell last night they were more active and they are at the door pawing when I come. I do not want them not getting enough, but pictures below. This weekend I am going to try to get them out and weigh them and trim nails.

 

[Bad Habit]

It's hard to tell from photos. You should be able to feel the ribs and backbone by gently probing, but not have them be horribly evident or bumpy. If there's sharp angles, then they're too thin, if you can't feel them, then they're too fat!

 

[garden lady]

It's hard to tell from photos. You should be able to feel the ribs and backbone by gently probing, but not have them be horribly evident or bumpy. If there's sharp angles, then they're too thin, if you can't feel them, then they're too fat!

I think Cream is getting rounder, Snickers is just starting to, Sunshine and Zoup have big tummies. I don't think there is any backbone to feel on them, slight hip bone on Snickers, but I will check the back, not sure about ribs.

 

[Mary Ann's Rabbitry]

the way i do things here is I only feed pellets once a day and that is at night time because they sleep during the day...
Am.... they get flax seed and rolled oats and hay
pm......they get oatmeal and boss and pellets
as pellets goes they only get a tuna can full unless there is a mother with babies out of the box. Then they get two in the morning and at night.
every week i always take my hand and rub down there spine. The ones that are a bit then i give those ones a can and half. I have a buck that stays slim no matter what i do.

 

[garden lady]

the way i do things here is I only feed pellets once a day and that is at night time because they sleep during the day...
Am.... they get flax seed and rolled oats and hay
pm......they get oatmeal and boss and pellets
as pellets goes they only get a tuna can full unless there is a mother with babies out of the box. Then they get two in the morning and at night.
every week i always take my hand and rub down there spine. The ones that are a bit then i give those ones a can and half. I have a buck that stays slim no matter what i do.

That makes sense about sleeping during the day. I think really the reason I was feeding them more was to calm them down. They were running and jumping like idiots in the hutch. I don't know if they have slowed down because of weight or age. They are now 9 months instead of 6 when I got them.

 

[akane]

Rabbits pack fat in to the abdominal cavity first so it's hard to tell a fat rabbit until it's too late. Like said watch the spine and ribs and make sure you can feel them. Rabbits that really show when they are pregnant may also be building up too much fat. My healthiest rabbits you can't see a difference when they are pregnant versus not but my fat ones look like they are going to explode because they lack space.

 

[JessicaR]

They are so cute! Nothing more to add on their weight, just thought I would say my FG buck now eats 2 cups of pellets a day, and he is a little on the thin size, but I think thats because for the past 5 months he was eating mostly grass and running around the yard.

 

[garden lady]

They are so cute! Nothing more to add on their weight, just thought I would say my FG buck now eats 2 cups of pellets a day, and he is a little on the thin size, but I think thats because for the past 5 months he was eating mostly grass and running around the yard.

I will measure my bowl and see what I was feeding them, but I think it holds half a cup and I fed it twice a day, so they got 1 cup. Right now their bowls are empty and I am going to feed them at 8. No way they would eat 2 cups though. They had 1 tablespoon of oats, less than a half cup of pellets with about a pinch of BOSS and a cup of greens this morning. Later the pellets were gone and all they had was hay. About 4 o'clock they got 1 kale leaf and 1 tablespoon of oats. I will go out at 8 and give them pellets and will measure it. I would say if I gave that at 8 and I go to bed around 12 and if it was gone then I did not give them enough, or gave it too early?

I went out and fed them at 8:30 and measured their bowl. It will hold a cup if I fill it to the top and that is what I was usually doing, so they were getting 2 cups of pellets a day and sometimes more if I refilled it when empty between feedings, so I measured 1/2 a cup and that is probably what they got this morning. I will check the bowls before going to bed and decide then what to do. They were very hungry. That would only be 1 cup of pellets a day for a Flemish Giant, so I am not sure if that is enough. I fed so much greens during the summer and now it is hard to decide what to feed them without all the grass and weeds. The blackberry and raspberry leaves are about gone.

 

[JessicaR]

As long as they are not overweight I would let them eat more if they are acting hungry. I have always free fed my rabbits and dont have any problems with them over eating. I am going to try adding BOSS and maybe some oatmeal to EB's diet, maybe that will help him to pput on some weight.

 

[curlysue]

I cant tell if they are too fat but they are very nice looking rabbits.