Obesity in rabbits from Pet Webinars (petwebinars.co.uk/): Obesity in rabbits Much like people, cats and dogs, obesity is a common problem in rabbits. In a recent study published only a couple of weeks ago, 35% of rabbits were shown to be overweight. 15% were also shown to be underweight, which is not the topic for today, but it demonstrates the importance of getting your rabbit checked out by your vet. Just checking the weight of your rabbit is not enough, as the ideal weight will vary according to the size of your rabbit’s skeleton. Your vet or nurse will show you how to assess the body condition of your rabbit based on looking and feeling him. Does it matter if my rabbit is a bit chubby? Heart disease, arthritis, cystitis and various other conditions are more common in overweight rabbits. A podgy rabbit will also struggle to groom and eat his caecotrophs properly, which puts him at increased risk of fly strike. How do I know if my bunny is overweight? Ask your vet for advice the next time your rabbit has a health check. If this is not for some time, you may be able to book an appointment with one of the practice nurses to check your rabbit’s weight for you. Some practices will have nurse rabbit clinics. Your vet or nurse can also give you tailored advice on how best to help YOUR rabbit lose weight based on his individual circumstances. How do I help my rabbit to lose weight? It’s not easy, but due to the health problems that obesity can cause, it’s well worth putting in the effort to help your rabbit lose weight. As in any species, the key is to increase the amount of exercise your rabbit does and control his diet carefully. Make sure he has regular access to the outside so that he can exercise. This will actually help him eat less as well as bored rabbits shut up in hutches will tend to eat more. The rules of nutrition are not the same as in omnivores like dogs and us. Fibre helps us to lose weight as it fills us up but cannot be digested so it passes out the other side. Rabbits can of course digest all but the toughest of fibre, gaining calories from it. However, they get less energy from fibre than more simple carbohydrates so these should be reduced in the rabbit’s diet. Any cereal mixtures or pellets should be reduced over a couple of weeks so that after a couple of weeks only hay or grass is available. Small amounts of vegetables can be given as treats, but avoid the more sugary ones like carrots and of course, check that whatever you feed is not toxic to rabbits. If you change your rabbit’s diet, you must make time to notice how he is getting on with the new diet. Even overweight rabbits can be finicky, and it is important that they still eat so that weight loss is gradual. Make sure your rabbit is eating what you leave out and that he is passing hard faeces. If a rabbit eats very little he is at risk of suffering from hepatic lipidosis, a serious condition of the liver. For this reason you should always provide as much hay or grass as your rabbit wants to eat. A rabbit should eat a quantity of hay about the same size as his body every day. It is only the more calorie-dense foods like pelleted foods high in carbohydrates that should be restricted, to never more than a volume the size of the rabbit’s head every day. And remember… Like in any animal, a cycle of losing and putting on weight is really bad. Once you have helped your rabbit to lose weight, help him to keep him off by keeping up the exercise, carrying on feeding the right sorts of food and checking his body condition regularly to check he is of the right weight – your vet or nurse will show you how! You might be able to re-introduce pelleted food, especially the “low calorie” versions, but remember no more than the volume of his head every day, and tail them off if he starts to put on weight again!
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 12:53:15 +0000
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