what to feed a rabbit to make it gain weight

• Feed Hay and grass to rabbit. Hay and grass are the best way to start because they are essential for rabbits, as you provide them enough for all day.
• Dry foods: Dry foods can certainly provide the highest concentration and easy to digest nutrition. ...
• Fresh food help rabbits to gain weight. If the rabbit is used to eat fresh foods then you can consider giving him a small portion of vegetables and fruits.
• Go for some treats: When you find out the rabbit is starting to eat well, but failing to gain weight, and then you can try to give him treats.
• Exercise routines: This is not an exact food tip but still can prove beneficial for rabbits’ weight gain. Examine the rabbits exercise routines to help burn calories.
• Some cautions you need to take: Changes to a rabbit’s diet can be done gradually. So your rabbit’s gut can adjust to the process of new foods.

How can I Help my Rabbit gain weight?

If any part of their diet can be unrestricted at this stage, it is the pellets. Feed them unlimited pellets, along with their other food, so that weight gain can occur at a natural pace. In addition to dry food, many rabbits eat fresh food like leafy greens and other root vegetables.

What is the best food for rabbits to digest?

Generally speaking, dry food pellets have a higher nutrition concentration, and they are one of the most accessible foods for rabbits to digest. For a rabbit that needs to gain weight, do not use the standard adult pellets. The standard adult pellets are low in protein and high in fiber.

Do you know how to fatten up a rabbit?

Do you know how to fatten up a rabbit? To fatten up a rabbit, these two types of foods will gain weight by adequately feeding them.

How can I Make my Rabbit eat more pellets?

The primary way to give your rabbit more significant portions is with their dry pellets. As mentioned, dry pellets are a concentrated source of nutrition—they’re a great way to jam-pack a lot of nutrition into a smaller amount of food. An underweight rabbit should gain weight with unlimited pellets.

How can I fatten up my rabbit?

Putting weight on bunnies or rabbits:Give high-fat and high-carbohydrate treats, but remember to limit these properly or they can be deadly.Provide small portions of alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets for small periods of time. ... Free-feed timothy pellets, so the rabbit could eat anytime during the day the mood strikes.More items...•

What should I feed my underweight rabbit?

In many cases, an underweight rabbit will benefit from increased consumption of fiber-laden foods, especially grass hay and, to a much lesser extent, leafy greens. (However, too many greens can lead to weight loss instead of weight gain.) A high-fiber diet reduces dental and other health problems.

What causes weight loss in rabbits?

Dietary causes, including too little food or poor quality food (malnutrition) Neuromuscular diseases and pain, including degenerative joint disease. Spinal problems including spinal fractures or luxations (dislocations) Joint or facila infections, which can cause malformations, leading to problems with eating.

Can you feel the rabbit's spine?

If you feel the back bone too easily and it is sharp to the touch, your rabbit may be too thin. You should be able to feel a softly rounded spine. If you do not feel it, your rabbit may be overweight.

How can you tell if a rabbit is underweight?

A very underweight rabbit will have depressions each side of the pelvis and spine. As fat decreases muscle starts to be lost too, which means the legs will be thin and their ability to move maybe compromised.

Are oats safe for rabbits?

Oats make a good treat for rabbits. Like everything else, they should be given in moderation. One teaspoon a day is plenty unless you have an underweight rabbit. Oats are low is sugar but higher in fat.

Method 1: Visiting The Veterinarian

First of all, you have to bring the rabbit to the veterinarian, even before starting the weight-increasing steps. There are many reasons a few rabbits look skinnier than their usual weight. Some rabbits might lose weight due to a lack of nutritious food when they are young. A few pets become skinny because of parasites or a decline in hunger.

Method 2: Reduction Of Stress

After visiting the veterinarian, you can determine the reason why your pet weighs less. As per the directions and instructions from the vet, you can make the rabbit gain weight. Though it is better to follow the diet plan from the rabbit expert, here are a few extra steps you can try to increase the rabbit’s weight:

Method 3: Slow Change

Sudden changes in the rabbit’s everyday routine might cause stress. If you need to modify the rabbit’s daily nutrition plan, take it slow. When you give the pet plenty of new foods, it tends to move away and would not even eat a single piece. While changing their diet, introduce one food at a time.

Method 4: Choosing Calorie-rich Foods And Leafy Greens

Increasing the number of calories for the rabbits will help in gaining weight. Putting plenty of calories in their diet is the simple yet effective way. Choose different high-calorie foods that the rabbits already have in their daily routine.

Method 5: Giving Plenty Of Dry Food

Rabbits love to eat dry food, especially pellets! In general, any pet expert would not suggest you feed pellets to rabbits because there are chances of obesity. But, if the rabbit has to gain weight, you can include these pellets into its everyday diet.

Method 6: Keeping More Food Bowls

If the skinny rabbit is living with other buddies, then it would not get access to eat food from the bowl. A few rabbits will cover the food bowl, avoiding other pets from consuming it. When you see this kind of situation, it is better to keep many food bowls at different places in their cage.

Method 7: Oats

Oats are another decent food for your pet! They are much more delicious and help the rabbit to gain the necessary weight! Make sure that your pet has a good enough digestive system to absorb oats. From method 2, you need to remember to take it slow and small. When you rush this process, they might get stressed or suffer from digestive problems.

How Do I Know If My Rabbit Is Too Skinny?

The easiest way to check if your rabbit is too skinny is to feel along your rabbit’s back and sides gently with your hands. If, as you pet your rabbit, you can easily feel your rabbit’s backbone or your rabbit’s back feels sharp and pointed under your fingers, your rabbit is likely too skinny.

What To Feed A Rabbit To Help It Gain Weight?

Any changes to your rabbit’s diet should be made under the care and advice of a certified veterinarian. After your veterinarian agrees your rabbit needs to gain weight, they may suggest several foods to help with weight gain.

How Much Weight Can A Rabbit Gain In A Week?

The amount your rabbit can gain in a week depends a bit on age. Young rabbits with otherwise healthy histories can safely gain up to 12 ounces in a week, though 8-10 ounces would be more common. Adult rabbits or rabbits that have struggled with their health will gain more slowly and can be expected to safely gain around 4 ounces per week.

Finally

It can be scary to be petting your rabbit one day and realize that perhaps they aren’t at the weight they should be.

Why is my rabbit losing weight?

If you notice your rabbit losing weight, it could be a sign of an underlying health problem, and you should take your pet to see a vet.

What is Sherwood rabbit food?

Sherwood Pet Health Adult Rabbit Food is a high-quality food that supplies your rabbit with 100% balanced nutrition that uses natural vitamins and chelated minerals. It contains a mixture of grasses and legumes that help with dental and digestive health.

What is SARX Plus for rabbits?

The Sherwood SARx Plus brand is a bit of a recovery food meant to nurse sick rabbits and those who are experiencing weight loss back to health , but some people also like to use it as a weight gain food. It’s a complete meal and contains a balanced set of vitamins and minerals. This meal is a powdered formula that you mix with water to the desired consistency. It’s soy and grain-free and contains ingredients meant to stimulate the appetite and increase energy.

How to keep a rabbit from throwing off balance?

If you are changing the food or increasing new foods like fruits or oats, give your pet slightly more each day and work up to the correct amount while keeping a close eye on your rabbit for any signs of problems.

What is the best food for rabbits?

Oxbow Oat Hay Small Animal Food is our pick for the best weight gain food for rabbits for the money. This low-cost food uses oat hay, which is nutritionally like western timothy hay. It’s high in fiber, and our rabbits enjoyed the oat grain seed heads. This food is also great for dental care as it helps wear down and clean their teeth. It provides variety to your pet’s diet, can help them gain weight, and you can also use it as bedding.

How to increase the weight of a rabbit?

Pellets, or dry food, is the easiest way to increase the weight of your rabbit. These foods have plenty of nutrients and calories, so we usually only feed our rabbits 1/8 to 1/4-cup per day. Increasing the pellet count will almost always increase weight, but you want to do it carefully with healthy food that doesn’t contain harmful ingredients.

Do rabbits eat fruit?

Rabbits usually like fruit, and they may start to eat again in some cases. If your rabbit is already eating, adding some extra fruit treats to their diet can help increase weight, but you will need to watch out for signs of gas and other digestive problems.

What do rabbits eat?

Our rabbit feed diet that may be available for you are carrots, cabbage, papaya, strawberry, pineapple, and broccoli. lern more here can rabbit eat broccoli. We also have different grasses that you may feed for them, such as congo signal grass, guinea grass, and para grass.

How to get bunnies to fatten up?

If you are giving a low protein or high fiber pellet to your rabbits, you can try mixing it with pellets that are mostly given to a young or breeding bunny.

Why are root crops good for rabbits?

Root crops have more energy stored than green leafy vegetables and more calories. This is not efficient to fatten up your bunnies, but it is good to provide them a healthy diet to avoid unnecessary diseases. Fresh foods will help balance our rabbit’s diet; just provide fresh foods for our bunnies.

How to fatten rabbits?

Here are the methods and techniques for fattening your rabbits: #1. Feeding them nutritious food. Rabbits are small mammals; rabbits have more than 30 species worldwide, and they also live in many different environments, but most rabbits have similarities in common.

Why do rabbits gain weight?

It only makes them underweight if they have an illness or other medical conditions that lead to underweight.

How to fasten a bunny's growth?

If you want to fasten your rabbit’s growth, feed them pellet and watch them grow and fatten. As you feed them with pellets, they will likely eat fewer hays. My rabbit Thumper love’s to eat so much pellet. I notice that he’s not healthy.

What to do if a rabbit refuses to eat hay?

If our rabbit refuses to eat this kind of hay, we can give them fresh grass , but it’s good to choose a new growth leaf as it is more nutritious. #2. Dry food. Dry food can be easily used to feed our bunnies, and dry food can easily digest.

Why you rabbit needs to gain weight

Prior to starting the weight gain program, you have to assess the problem first and identify the root cause as to why your rabbit is underweight in the first place. You cannot provide an effective regimen if you do not know the cause and formulate a solution based on that.

Increasing the weight of your pet rabbit

The first thing that you need to do is take your pet rabbit to the vet for a consultation and examination for you to know the reason why they are underweight. By doing that, you will know a good treatment plan for the underlying problem and build a diet regimen plan from there.

Cautions to take

Diet changes should be taken with caution. It should be done gradually and not abruptly to give the rabbit time to adjust to the new changes in meal plans.

Checking if the rabbit is gaining weight or not

Experienced pet owners already know their pets by heart that they are able to distinguish any changes in their behavior or physical appearance. That means they are also able to know whether or not their pet is gaining weight or not.

Baby rabbits

Malnourishment at their early stages of life can be cause for baby rabbits to become underweight.

Adult rabbits

In the case of adult rabbits, there are a lot of factors that may be involved in their being underweight. Their lack of physical activity or arthritic pain are leading causes of weight loss.

Weight gain tips for your pet rabbit

For a sick or injured rabbit, home remedy for weight gain can be done as advised by a veterinarian. The first thing to do is to determine what causes the rabbit stress and take that out of the equation. A balanced meal plan consisting of essential nutrients and minerals can regulate the metabolism of your pet rabbit back to normal.

1. Determine Whether They Need to Gain Weight

Before trying to increase the rate of gain for your rabbits, it’s essential to identify whether weight gain is truly even necessary.

2. Change Diet Slowly Instead of Abruptly

When it comes to helping your rabbits gain weight, one of the best ways is to offer free feed. If you’re in the habit of measuring out pelleted food, you can stop doing this. Giving your rabbit free choice of all the high-calorie pellets it can eat is a great way to help it gain weight.

3. What to Feed Rabbits to Gain Weight Faster

Here are a few foods you can feed your rabbits in addition to their regular diet of pellets. These foods will help them gain at a reasonable rate for their breed and age.

4. Slow but Steady – Be Consistent in Your Approach

While some meat rabbits gain weight quickly, others put on weight more slowly but steadily. To know which category your rabbits fall into, you may have to get into the habit of weighing them often. Track the progress of your meat rabbits. In most cases, as long as they are gaining, they will continue gaining until they reach maturity.

What kind of hay should I give my rabbit?

Another nutritious hay is oat hay. You can give your rabbit oat hay just as you would alfalfa hay. Mixing small amounts into the timothy hay encourages eating and adds calories. Oat hay is irresistible and contains plenty of protein and fiber to gain healthy weight.

What to feed a rabbit with beet pulp?

Rabbits go crazy over beet pulp. It is high in fiber and gives a boost of energy to your rabbit. This energy boost is especially beneficial to rabbits, which are a little sluggish from being sick. You can sprinkle beet pulp on their food or make it into a paste to syringe feed. Some owners even make beet pulp into cookies by adding alfalfa and water to make a dough. Any way you can give your rabbit beet pulp works fine.

What can I feed my rabbit to get his appetite back?

Another high calorie and high carb fruit are apples. Fresh apple slices will boost your rabbit’s immune system and entice them to eat more. Once they get their appetite back, they will soon return to regular eating habits. And the best part about an apple slice snack is that you don’t have to worry about weaning your rabbit off of it. You can stop at any time, even if your rabbit might resent you for it.

What is the best hay for rabbits?

This grass is more nutritious than regular hay and is high in fiber. Mixing Readigrass into your rabbit’s timothy hay is the perfect way to add more calories to their diet. And the best part is that it’s not empty calories. Readigrass is jam-packed with essential vitamins and protein to kick start your rabbit’s digestive system.

What happens if a rabbit refuses food?

If your rabbit is ill, they might refuse all food. It can be distressing when this happens, and the best option for this is to syringe feed. You can do this with many of the food options mentioned above. But you have to be gentle and patient for this to work. If your rabbit gets too stressed, it might make the process worse.

How to help a bunny gain weight?

One of the best ways to help your rabbit gain weight is to free feed. Most of us measure out pelleted food to prevent an overweight rabbit. But when your rabbit is feeling unwell, you should never restrict food.

What scale should I use for my rabbit?

Now that you know a healthy weight for your rabbit, you need something to track the journey. We recommend using a kitchen scale like the LEVIN Food Scale. This scale is large enough for most rabbit breeds and holds plenty of weight.