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My rabbit is overweight. How can I help her lose weight safely?

Updated On September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Small Animal | Rabbit | Female | spayed | 1 year and 5 months old

My rabbit is a but overweight, but how can I help her lose weight? I have cut down on her pellet intake but haven't seen much of a difference and cannot weigh her as I have no scales. Also should I get one?

3 Answers

Most Helpful Answer

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Answered By Dr Stafford, BVetMed, MRCVS

Veterinarian

Published on December 10th, 2017

Rabbits really should be able to exist on a diet of hay alone, often when pellets are added they become lazy and favour these. I would try increasing her hay intake, feed a good quality grass hay such as Timothy grass, but avoid legume hays such as alfalfa as they are higher in fat. I would only offer the pellets once a day to try and encourage her to eat more hay. Increasing exercise will also help. You could build her an outside run to play in, invest in toys or train her to walk on a harness. A companion could help with activity but it can be difficult introducing​ a new rabbit. Females can fight, so you could try a neutered male.

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Other Answers

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    Answered By Kevin Sanada, DVM

    Veterinarian

    Published on January 15th, 2018

    It's good to see that you are noticing Flopsy get overweight and are wanting to help prevent this. Rabbits usually get overweight because they are eating too much concentrated food like fruits and vegetables; or are eating rabbit pellets that have too many calories. Feeding the correct diet can usually get them to lose weight and keep it off. Rabbits should eat a diet of mostly grass and high quality hay. Fruits and vegetables should be no more than 10% of the diet; for weight loss it's best to limit the amount and types of these he is being fed. It's also important to have a high fiber pelleted food. Oxbow rabbit pellets are a good brand for this. For more information about feeding rabbits, I recommend you read the information at the link below. http://rabbit.org/faq-diet/ I hope that helps and all is well with Flopsy.

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    Answered By Dr. Andrea

    Veterinarian

    Published on July 11th, 2018

    Your best bet is to limit the pellets that she eats to a maximum of 1/4 cup per 4# of body weight. FI she finished those, she can eat hay is she is hungry. Split that into two meal You can also give her some veggies as well. Try different brands of hay like Orchard grass, Brome and Oat hay and try different brands as well. Bunnies like to eat hay that is stacked above their litter box. Also, the fact that your bunny is unspayed is contributing to her being overweight- unspayed does store all their fat in their uterus ligaments!

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