Video Transcript

Hi, I’m Dr. Laurie Hess, exotic animal veterinarian and today, I’m going to address a really commonly asked question that I get all the time which is – why is my bunny fat?

Now, this is Reggie. Reggie is not fat. He’s perfectly trim, and the reason he’s trim is that he has a really good diet. Too many times, people feed too much carbohydrate. We all love carbohydrate, right? It’s yummy. And for rabbits, it’s too much pellets which we see here rabbits love. Really, rabbits should be fed no more than about a quarter of a cup of pelleted rabbit food per four to five pounds of their bodyweight per day. And that’s for an adult bunny. If it’s a growing bunny, maybe they can have a little more than that but if you feed them more than that, they tend to put on a lot of weight.

The mainstay of rabbits diet should be what this is. This is hay, Timothy Hay, lots and lots of Timothy Hay. They can have it in unlimited quantities. Timothy Hay is great because it’s lower in calcium and lower in calories than Alfalfa Hay. There’s some other grass hays that are great too and this should be the mainstay of bunny’s diets. They can also be fed a little bit of fresh vegetables, things like leafy greens or carrot tops, nothing sugary like the carrots, and really, we want to avoid a lot of fruit.

If you stick to these guidelines, your bunny will be nice and trim like Reggie here and we’ll have a much healthier gastrointestinal tract. You should remember also that bunnies need to get out of their cage everyday and run around and have some time out of their cage to exercise. That prevents them from becoming a couch potato bunny. So if you follow these guidelines, your rabbit will be healthy and happy and in good shape for a long life.