What Bugs a Bunny? The Wrong Diet
This week the RSPCA launched a new campaign called ‘What Bugs a Bunny?‘ based on detailed research carried out by a whole team of welfare scientists, behaviourists and vets at Bristol University.
So what does bug a bunny? Top of the list – too many carrots and not enough grass! Because, if anyone likes grass, it’s a rabbit:
That video is just brilliant – doesn’t it make you want to rush and top up your bunnies hay pile right this minute?
According to the RSPCA, in a recent poll only 8% of people knew hay and grass are the most important parts of a rabbit’s diet. Which is just shocking! That’s potentially 92% of bunny owners not knowing that the most important thing about keeping their bunny healthy.
Feeding the wrong diet, particularly not enough hay/grass, is trouble waiting to happen, it means increased likelihood of
- stasis (a potentially fatal slow down of gut function)
- excess ceacel droppings aka sticky bottom (a major risk factor for flystrike)
- overgrown teeth and dental abscesses (expensive and life shortening dental problems)
- obesity (which has all the same risk factors, eg heart attack, as it does in humans)
- stress and abnormal behaviour (bunnies naturally spend 80% of their day eating – diet is a big factor in keeping them mentally stimulated)
What can you and me do about this?
I’m sure a lot of you reading this already know what the right diet is – can we all shout ‘hay’ together? But what about all the poor bunnies that are sitting by their food bowls, yearning for the taste of fresh grass or hay and not getting any? Lets do something about it! So my bunny loving, hay giving, blog reading friends, please take a moment to:
- Send a tweet about what rabbits eat
- Share a photo on facebook of your rabbit tucking into his/her dinner and label it with an appropriate message
- Share the RSPCA ‘No-one Likes a Grass – Except Rabbits’ video
- Tell a random stranger, work college, or parent in the playground what rabbits eat – go on just drop it into the conversation – must stop in and get some more hay – you wouldn’t believe how much my bunny eats!
- Blog about your rabbit’s diet
Here is the link to the RSPCA Campaign to share: http://www.rspca.org.uk/getinvolved/campaigns/companion/rabbits/-/article/CAM_Pet_rabbits_June12
Or perhaps a nice food pyramid: http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/images/rabbitfoodpyramid.jpg
And a couple of my past posts on hay, in case you want to brush up:
- Why Hay/Grass is Essential for Your Bunnies Teeth
- Rabbit’s Eat Grass
- 5 Ways to get your rabbit to eat more Hay
Now, go forth, spread the word: Rabbits Eat Grass!
Ps. It would be great if you popped back and let me know how you’d help spread the message…
Tags: Diet, diet-grass
Funnily enough, before I even read this blog post, this happened;
My hairdresser told me On Thursday that he just got two rabbits from a rescue. I thought, great, rescue bunnies, we’re off to a good start! Then we were talking about rabbit food (and chicken food, incidentally as we also both keep hens!), and he told me he feeds them Wagg bunny brunch (oh no! That’s the muesli stuff right?) So I told him my rabbits mostly eat hay, grass, readigrass and green veg, and occasionally a handful of pellets. He was quite surprised! I hate being all “preachy” but I did mange to slip him the address and number of my farmer friend down the road who charges pennies for bales of the sweetest freshest hay! Fingers crossed my hairdresser got the message!
Go you! What a great opportunity to spread a little education, and you never know how far it will travel – perhaps next time he’s chatting to a customer with a bunny he’ll pass your tip on to them and it will spread even further. If everyone did that we could improve the diet of hundreds – even thousands of bunnies!
Great job again! I will repost on my website and Facebook!! It’s so easy to just buy a bake of hay from a farmer and it’s so cheap and lasts a long time. The store bought stuff is so expensive and low quality.
That’s so true, in most cases it’s actually cheaper to feed the right diet than the bad stuff!
[…] The Rabbit House. It’s a MUST read if you love your bunny and want to maximize their health. What Bugs Bunny Diet Rate this:Share this:TwitterFacebookPinterestMoreEmailTumblrPrintStumbleUponRedditDiggLike […]
[…] What Bugs a Bunny? (therabbithouse.com) Rate this:Share this:TwitterFacebookPinterestMoreEmailTumblrPrintStumbleUponRedditDiggLike this:LikeBe the first to like this. […]
I just learned this the hard way! After having a hotot dwarf for about 3 months, she became extremely weak and lethargic. Very scary. Luckily, we got her to the emergency veterinarian in time for them to save her via a glucose H2O IV and high vitamin emergency feed. After an overnight stay at the ER animal hospital, we were able to take her home. We/the vets believe that, although she was eating pellets/fresh veggies and grass but NO grass hay (duh), she had become very malnourished.
After that stressful close-call, her main diet is now timothy grass hay with green veggies and pellets added as supplement (and occasional fruit/carrot treats). We hope this will keep her healthy as she is such a sweet pet!