What to do if your rabbit is overweight?

My vet said give less pellets each day.


Anything else? She needs to loose at least 2lbs!What to do if your rabbit is overweight?
She should be eating vegetabale as well as pellets. An adult rabbit should be eating 1/4 -1/2 cup pellets per 6 lbs of body weight, and a minimum of 2 cups fresh veggies per 6 lbs of body weight.





When you feed a lower quantity of pellets, you must replace the nutritional value without the calories, which is done by increasing the vegetables. Also, a variety of hay and straw must be encouraged all day long.





The veggies must be varied, three different veggies every day(choose ones with different vitamins/minerals. If you don't know what vitamins/mineral are in each veggie choose ones that are different colors until you know more. Every day offer a different three veggies.





Safe veggie list


http://www.rabbit.org/care/veggies.html


http://www.adoptarabbit.com/articles/pac鈥?/a>What to do if your rabbit is overweight?
Easy on the treats.
We had the same problem!! We started making sure she got more exercise by letting her out, strictly supervised, twice a week. We also cut way back on giving her fruit with her greens, and gave her more fiber, (timothy hay). She lost two lbs, can get her whole self in her house again!!!
Be careful about trying to get your rabbit to lose weight. Vets oftentimes are not the most savvy on rabbits.





Don't judge your rabbit's health by its weight. The weight of the rabbit has nothing to do with how healthy it is. However, the amount of fat on the rabbit does.





For instance, I could tell you that a man weighs 300 pounds. You would think he's overweight just going by the weight. Now what if I told you he was 6'6'; tall and was a professional body builder? Changes the whole outlook from overly fat to really healthy doesn't it?





Here's my point. Don't look at the weight but rather the percentage of fat the rabbit is carrying. You may ask, ';Well how can I tell that?'; Here's a good simple way:





Grab the fur just behind the neck, can be at either side or directly behind. The more hide/fur you can grab and the looser the hide/fur is, the fatter your rabbit is.





What can happen when you try putting your rabbit on a diet by reducing the amount you feed it is that you reduce the amount of muscle on the rabbit rather than getting rid of the fat. You don't want to get rid of muscle. That is bad.





Fat on rabbits does not occur because of rabbit inactivity. It occurs because the rabbit is being fed a diet that is too high in energy. What happens to that excess feed energy? It goes straight to fat. Also if your rabbit's diet is high in fat that is not good. Fat goes to fat as they say.





So now we need to look at ways your rabbit gets excess food energy. First and foremost on the list is giving it treats such as vegetables and fruits and grass, etc. These are all composed of carbohydrates/starches/sugars that are all high in energy and can make your rabbit fat. Not only that, but they can give your rabbit diahrrea too. This is a two-fold reason why I tell people not to feed vegetables or treats.





Second on the list is the quality of the feed/rabbit pellets. Your rabbit pellets could be too high in energy, causing your rabbit to get fat. To assess that, look at the percentage of fat in the rabbit feed and compare it to other quality rabbit feeds such as Purina or Heinold. Also compare the percentage of crude protein with other feeds. The percentage of crude protein should not be high. Finally, look to see if the rabbit pellets have corn in them and if they do look to see how close corn is to the beginning of the list. Corn is high in energy. The closer to the beginning of the list that corn is listed in the ingredient list, the higher percentage of it is used in the mix. Ingredients are listed from the ingredient that makes up the largest percentage of the weight to the least percentage of the weight.





Lastly, if you notice your rabbit tending to molt all the time and it does not have fur mites or any other kind of parasites on the fur, that is a good sign that your feed has too much energy.





If that is the case, I'd recommend changing feeds or possibly giving your rabbit some timothy to eat and slightly lower the amount of pellets you give your rabbit, letting it partially be replaced by the timothy. What this does is increase the percentage of fiber in the diet, thereby reducing the amount of energy in the rabbit's diet. This can also be done by giving your rabbit a show formula instead of a regular formula. Show formulas are typically higher in fiber, however they are typically not good in the long run because they usually need more protein for the rabbit to grow properly. They are meant to help sustain a good show coat on a rabbit once the coat of fur has reach good condition. I would rather suggest a family ration and giving a little timothy in addition to the family ration. Family rations are typically higher in protein and better for growing rabbits or rabbits with babies.





Notice that I've not mentioned at all reducing the total amount of feed to properly reduce the weight. There is partly a reason why. When a rabbit is full, unlike a cat or dog it will stop eating. What I've mentioned so far is monitoring WHAT it eats and not HOW MUCH it eats. As far as the amount, feed your rabbit just what it will eat in one day. The bowl should barely be cleaned up at the end of one day. This is done not to keep the rabbit from getting fat but to keep the feed from getting stale. A rabbit doesn't like to eat stale food and once it gets stale you might as well throw it out.





Lastly, when doing all of this you don't want your rabbit to get boney. Run your hand over their back. Their back on most breeds shouldn't feel boney. If it does, you either aren't feeding your rabbit enough or the rabbit feed does not have enough protein or the rabbit isn't eating like it should because it is sick.
Give her a certain amount of food each day. Such as give her 3/4 cup of food every evening. Only feed her once a day.
I've been breeding and showing rabbits for over 20 years so I speak with a lot of experience.





We have never had issues with rabbits going overweight and we adhere to a ***BALANCED*** diet of Pellets, Grassy Hay and Water. That's it. No fruits, no veggies. Okay, so I do treat them with some oatmeal now and then and they occasionally get supplements to help bring a nice gloss to their coat... but if you stick with those three things - pellets, hay and water and give them in the proper amounts you won't have a problem.





Do NOT give fruits or veggies as their main diet. A good commercial pellet, like those made by Purina, ManaPro, Pen Pals, Nutritional or Heinhold are pre-made and balanced with the right ingredients and nutrients for your rabbit. Why guess with the fruits and veggies (domestic rabbits don't need all of those ';wet'; foods anyways).





A rabbit should get roughly 1 ounce of pellets for every 1 pound of adult weight.





2 lb is A LOT of extra weight for your rabbit to be carrying a round / or to loose. How much does your rabbit weigh now and what breed is it?
if you follow to what the vet says then your rabbit willl soon be back to normal again!
we show rabbits and they only get a small piece of carrot now and then. They don't get too many greens either. We feed a good quality pellet from a feed store, not pet shop 1oz per pound of rabbit per day and grass hay all they want. Too many greens can cause diarrhea and sometimes kill them. Never feed a rabbit iceberg lettuce or ';gassy'; veggies like broccoli or cabbage. If you want the bunny to lose weight, cut pellets in half but leave the hay. we even sometimes make sure the water is as far from the feed as possible in the cage so they have to go back and forth. Time in a play yard is also good.
put it on a diet feed it more veggies and fruits with hay pellets do not give it any store bought treats