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the rabbits or Oryctolagus cuniculus they are, among small mammals, those that have the most tendency to get fat. Therefore, it is not surprising that a domestic rabbit ends up being obese.
In fact, many people with pets often show their affection for them with excesses that often manifest themselves in the form of food. But we must bear in mind that excess food is never healthy, much less if it is a different type of food than the basic one.
If you have a rabbit or are thinking about adopting one, find out about the obesity in rabbits, its symptoms and diet that we should offer you to improve your health.
What is obesity?
Obesity is the overweight in the form of fat on body. It occurs in animals that are genetically and/or lifestyle-prone to it.
In addition to being a problem in itself, it aggravates or accelerates other possible illnesses over time. Other more direct effects of obesity are loss of agility, wear on joints, tiredness and increased sleep, among many others.
Obesity symptoms in rabbits
As we mentioned before, the rabbits are pets that are prone to obesity, especially if they spend most of the day in the cage sleeping, eating and with little space to run. An unhealthy diet and lack of exercise greatly increase weight.
Some problems arising from obesity in rabbits are poor hygiene, since the animal will not be able to reach all parts of the body to clean itself properly and the reduction or impossibility of carrying out the coprophagy they need to do to obtain all the vitamins of food. In addition, there is the appearance of mycoses, which is an infection that occurs in the anal area, among other infections that can appear as dermatitis, which occurs in the skin due to the folds produced by excess weight. Early arthritis and foot sores pododermatitis are more diseases that occur as a result of being overweight. So it is advisable to know how you can prevent and detect this problem as soon as possible in our furry little ones.
When we see that our partner is very tired with little effort, eats and sleeps more than normal, his volume is greater and touching his loin it costs us to feel his ribs, we may start to suspect obesity or, at the very least, overweight. It is advisable that on each visit to the veterinarian specializing in small mammals, our rabbit is weighed and follows its evolution. O specialist will tell us if it is overweight, a problem that is easier to solve, or if we are already facing an obesity that we should start fighting for the health of our pet.
As with any other living thing, the best way to prevent and fight obesity in rabbits is healthy eating and exercise.
Diet
Rabbit feeding should be based on abundant hay available all the time, as they need large amounts of fiber. To complement their proper diet, we must offer them special food of the best quality we can and in daily amounts that are adequate for their weight. Below is a table with a general guideline of recommended amounts of food according to the weight of the rabbit:
- Rabbits of less than 500 g - 30 g of food per day
- Rabbits from 500 g to 1000 g - 60 g of food per day
- Rabbits from 1000 g to 1500 g - 100 g of food per day
- Rabbits from 1500 g to 2000 g - 120 g of food per day
- Rabbits of more than 2000 gr - 150 gr of food per day
In addition to the most basic food, we can give them other high fiber foods, but we must have them as a treat that we offer you from time to time, never as a basis for your diet. For example, some of these natural treats with a high fiber content are leafy vegetables and alfalfa. We should think that roots like carrots contain high levels of sugar, so we can give our rabbit some as long as we allow enough exercise to use up the energy input and not accumulate it. Fruits are the same as with roots, due to their high sugar content, this should be an occasional premium.
Lastly, we have the goodies that are sold ready-made in stores, but they have much more sugar than the natural ones mentioned above, so if we choose to buy some of these treats we should give it with a great deal of time and in small portions.Lastly, we must not forget that they must always have fresh water in abundance at your disposal.
In case you have your little furry overweight or obese detected we should start to reduce the amount of food gradually and eliminate the treats. In addition, we should increase your exercise hours as much as possible.
Exercise
As a complement to a proper and healthy diet, we must add daily exercise to prevent or treat obesity in rabbits. We must bear in mind that they are living beings and need to move and relate to others of their species so we must let them go out, run, jump and play, thus providing their good health, as the rabbit will strengthen its muscles, the your skeleton and will also burn calories. In this way, we are able to help you lose excess weight and further on to maintain the optimum weight in each copy.
If our partner lives in semi-freedom and has a large free space for running and jumping, but he is still obese, it is clear that the problem is food.
We should play with him to make sure he gets the necessary daily exercise. Most domestic rabbits are usually in the cages where they have food and water, but we must be aware that taking them a few minutes a day from the cage to run around a room in the house is not enough.
For this reason, we recommend that get the rabbit out of the cage as long as possible and play with it so that it moves and doesn't sit still in some corner. Besides, there are ways to make these races around the house more fun, for example you can build a circuit and hide things in it for them to look for.
By following these advices, you will be able to see that your rabbit remains healthy and if it is obese, it will quickly lose weight in a very healthy way. In this way, you will regain vitality, agility, the desire to play and, above all, the health of your friend with long ears and legs, something that will allow us to enjoy more years of your company.
This article is for information purposes only, at PeritoAnimal.com.br we are not able to prescribe veterinary treatments or perform any type of diagnosis. We suggest that you take your pet to the veterinarian in case it has any type of condition or discomfort.