Caring for Your Rabbit - Your Bunny's Weight
Maintaining your bunnies’ weight at the proper level is one of the best things you can do for his health, and it’s not difficult. By controlling your bunnies’ diet, you can usually prevent them from becoming overweight, which will help them in lots of ways. So, how do you evaluate your bunnies’ weight? In this section, we’ll give you some guidelines. Visit our rabbit food and feeding care page too for recommended diet, daily feed amounts, and the highest quality pet rabbit food brands we ourselves use and highly recommend for maintaining a healthy indoor domestic pet rabbit at home.
Keeping extra weight off your bunny will have many benefits, both for them and you. The cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) of an overweight rabbit will need to work extra hard and suffer for it, just like in humans. The joints will also be taxed with carrying the extra weight around. An improper diet (and/or lack of exercise) is the usual cause of an overweight bunny.
An improper diet can also cause soft stools and the accompanying messy hind end. In fact, this is one sign that your rabbit is overweight. Fixing the diet not only results in a better weight, but the messy bottom can also clear up too - which makes everyone happy! Your rabbit’s intestinal system is highly efficient; in fact, the food is processed twice in order to extract all the goodness. The result are cecotropes - small, glossy and smelly “droppings”. The rabbit will usually eat these directly from the anus when they are produced, so you usually don’t see them. However, if your bunny is overweight, they might not be able to reach them. Thus, being unable to access essential nutrition (and they can make a mess). So, if you see cecotropes lying around, it may be time to take a careful look at your bunnies’ weight.
It’s always a good idea to pay attention to your rabbits’ weight. Become very familiar with how he/she looks and how their body feels, so you can detect any changes. A monthly weigh in gives you a more precise way to detect changes when they start to occur. When you run your hands over a healthy rabbit, you should readily feel the spine and ribs, with a thin layer of padding. As a rabbit gains weight, it’s spine, ribs and even hips become more difficult to feel distinctly. Fat accumulates on the chest and stomach areas and may even hang down. When your bunny is standing “at attention” (i.e. up on all legs), the stomach should not be on the floor. When a rabbit is overweight, they can have rolls of fat around the tail and ankles.
When you look at your rabbit, you should be able to see definition of their hind hips. Look at them from above - the hips should tuck in a bit just ahead of the hind legs. If they look like a pear, they're overweight!
On the contrary, a rabbit that is too thin will feel “bony” along its spine and ribs. This is not good either! Depressions on each side of the pelvis and spine will develop. Their liver and kidneys will suffer, and extreme thinness can quickly place their life at risk. A healthy average weight is what is most desirable to help your house bunny maintain.
If your bunny is overweight, it’s time to evaluate diet. Stick to unlimited quantities of good quality timothy hay and very LIMITED quantities of timothy pellets (just pellets - not the type mixed with treats) and fresh greens. If your bunny is overweight, they're probably not eating right. You need to start by eliminating treats from their diet. You can probably cut back on the pellets as well. You want them to be eating mainly hay. It’s so much fun to give them treats, but they’ll eat way too many of them - and it doesn’t take much to be “way too much” as a rabbit doesn’t process sugar very well.
*IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure you also make any diet changes slowly, and progressively. You don't want to change their diet drastically, as this can cause them digestive upset and gastrointestinal issues too. Any diet changes need to be done slowly, in small steps, over the course of a couple weeks, until fully changed over, so that their bodies have time to adjust.
Have fun with your bunny by interacting with them in other ways, instead of with sweet treats. Get them some new toys to play with, rather than giving them treats. Or some timothy cubes, which can be fun because they are compressed. Your rabbit will be happier and healthier at an ideal weight.
Keeping extra weight off your bunny will have many benefits, both for them and you. The cardiovascular system (heart and lungs) of an overweight rabbit will need to work extra hard and suffer for it, just like in humans. The joints will also be taxed with carrying the extra weight around. An improper diet (and/or lack of exercise) is the usual cause of an overweight bunny.
An improper diet can also cause soft stools and the accompanying messy hind end. In fact, this is one sign that your rabbit is overweight. Fixing the diet not only results in a better weight, but the messy bottom can also clear up too - which makes everyone happy! Your rabbit’s intestinal system is highly efficient; in fact, the food is processed twice in order to extract all the goodness. The result are cecotropes - small, glossy and smelly “droppings”. The rabbit will usually eat these directly from the anus when they are produced, so you usually don’t see them. However, if your bunny is overweight, they might not be able to reach them. Thus, being unable to access essential nutrition (and they can make a mess). So, if you see cecotropes lying around, it may be time to take a careful look at your bunnies’ weight.
It’s always a good idea to pay attention to your rabbits’ weight. Become very familiar with how he/she looks and how their body feels, so you can detect any changes. A monthly weigh in gives you a more precise way to detect changes when they start to occur. When you run your hands over a healthy rabbit, you should readily feel the spine and ribs, with a thin layer of padding. As a rabbit gains weight, it’s spine, ribs and even hips become more difficult to feel distinctly. Fat accumulates on the chest and stomach areas and may even hang down. When your bunny is standing “at attention” (i.e. up on all legs), the stomach should not be on the floor. When a rabbit is overweight, they can have rolls of fat around the tail and ankles.
When you look at your rabbit, you should be able to see definition of their hind hips. Look at them from above - the hips should tuck in a bit just ahead of the hind legs. If they look like a pear, they're overweight!
On the contrary, a rabbit that is too thin will feel “bony” along its spine and ribs. This is not good either! Depressions on each side of the pelvis and spine will develop. Their liver and kidneys will suffer, and extreme thinness can quickly place their life at risk. A healthy average weight is what is most desirable to help your house bunny maintain.
If your bunny is overweight, it’s time to evaluate diet. Stick to unlimited quantities of good quality timothy hay and very LIMITED quantities of timothy pellets (just pellets - not the type mixed with treats) and fresh greens. If your bunny is overweight, they're probably not eating right. You need to start by eliminating treats from their diet. You can probably cut back on the pellets as well. You want them to be eating mainly hay. It’s so much fun to give them treats, but they’ll eat way too many of them - and it doesn’t take much to be “way too much” as a rabbit doesn’t process sugar very well.
*IMPORTANT TIP: Make sure you also make any diet changes slowly, and progressively. You don't want to change their diet drastically, as this can cause them digestive upset and gastrointestinal issues too. Any diet changes need to be done slowly, in small steps, over the course of a couple weeks, until fully changed over, so that their bodies have time to adjust.
Have fun with your bunny by interacting with them in other ways, instead of with sweet treats. Get them some new toys to play with, rather than giving them treats. Or some timothy cubes, which can be fun because they are compressed. Your rabbit will be happier and healthier at an ideal weight.