autumnrabbit

<< parts water to one part
concentrated juice (normal mix for juice is 3 parts water to 1 part juice). He
will drink apple
juice or orange pineapple juice and will drink 3 to 4 ounces a day. I sure wish
I could get him to
drink plain water again, but don't know how. Do you think this is hurting him?

Probably will long-term. Too much fruit juice isn't good, and bunny needs plain
water too. I had this problem as well once. Slowly dilute the juice more and
more over the period of a few weeks, and eventually your bun should be drinking
plain water again.

scgram

Thanks ... I will definitely try this
--
Dori ... BB and Cissy
--------------------------------

scgram

Yes, I realize that they are concentrated ... I only buy the "no sugar added" ... but still they are
high in carbohydrates. I am going to try to wean him off the juice, but don't want him to dehydrate.

--
Dori ... BB and Cissy
--------------------------------

splashbunny01

the company is Small Animal Pellets. Thats right..veggies, hay, water and
pellets. So far not too often anymore. Keeping my fingers crossed! Its hard to
say like once a week or once a month because it comes when it wants to.
Judy and Precious (my little bunny boy)
(Y)
( ' ' )
O((''') (''')
http://community.webshots.com/user/splashbunny01

will robinson

did you think of pedialyte or ensure? I have used both

scgram

Will, I do sometimes add pedialyte, but BB turns his nose up at the unflavored (can't say I blame
him, it tastes "awfull") but he loves the apple. Course it has sugar too. As far as using ensure, he
eats great, salads, pellets and hay so wouldn't I just be adding too many calories with ensure? I
always give him his greens dripping wet, so he is getting some plain water there ... just not
enough. I give him a small bowl of juice and a BIG bowl of water. Maybe he will just decide one day
that water "ain't so bad after all" ... Here's hoping <g>
--
Dori ... BB and Cissy
--------------------------------

will robinson

Mine likes the fruit flavored pedialyte. It has sugar? Yuk I figured that it would be good
for bunnies since I can't see giving babies a sugar bomb.... Ensure has many formulas. I
use the high fiber one when Biskit has GI problems. When all else fails, I always give him
either pedialyte (he will drink the unflavored) or just plan water through the mouth with
a syringe.

rhonda

Hi Judy,

Welcome back from your damp camping trip! Camping in the rain, wow, that
can be exciting. Any moss growing on any clothes?

Hey, I tried to find Small Animal Pellets on the web, and didn't see
them specifically. Is it just pellets, doesn't have any dried veggie
chips, seeds, nuts, etc? That can make a big difference. On the package,
does it list the nutrients? A really good pellet is one with
(approximately) 20-22% fiber or more, 14-15% protein, 2% or less fat.
Does the pellet bag tell what percentages of those three things?

If the percentages are good, and you aren't feeding treats, sugary
things, or other people food, I think it's a good idea for Precious to
get a check-up. If he is still having cecal issues, he could have
coccidia, a parasite. It's very easily treated with antibiotics in the
water. The vet would probably do a fecal float test, so you'd have to
bring in some droppings.

Let me know if you have those percentages. I'd love to see that boy with
a dry hiney all the time...

See ya,

Rhonda

scgram

Will ... I did some label checking and this is what I found. The unflavored pedialyte has 25 grams
of dextrose (sugar) per liter ... Which would equal about 3/4 of a gram of dextrose (12 calories)
per ounce. That is still 96 carbohydrate calories per 8 ounces.

The Gerber Pediatric Electrolyte - natural apple flavor (same ingredients as Pedialyte, fruit
flavored) Lists as their ingredients ... Water, dextrose, natural apple flavor, potassium citrate,
sodium chloride, tartanic acid, sodium citrate, carmel color, ASPERTAME, ACESULFAME, and potassium.
It does not give amounts per ounce. I should have read the ingredients before purchasing it ... I am
not in favor of giving anyone, bunny or hoomin, aspertame as it breaks down into two chemicals in
the body. I cannot believe that Gerber is adding it to a product for babies and I will not buy it
again for my bunnies.

I personally use Splenda for a low calorie sugar substitute ... It is a plant derived sweetner which
does not break down after consumption.

The frozen apple juice does not contain any added sugars, but has 29 grams of carbohydrate (natural
fruit sugar) per quarter cup (2 ounces) undiluted. When this is reconstituted as per directions it
makes 8 ounces. This is 116 carbohydrate calories per 8 ounces (not that much higher than unflavored
Pedialyte) ... When I use a 10 to one ratio for reconstituting it makes 22 ounces which comes out
to 5.272 carb calories per ounce. (or 42 calories per 8 ounces) This is half the carbohydrate
(sugar) calories of unflavored pedialyte. BB drinks about 4 ounces per day (22 calories or 5.5 grams
of sugar).

I figured that a medium apple cut into 16 slices would provide about 8 carb calories per slice (or 2
grams of sugar) and a g**** is 4 carb calories (1 gram of sugar) so BB's juice is like giving him 2
slices of apple and one g**** per day. A little on the high side but I don't feel it is terribly out
of line with what's allowed and I have cut out ALL other sweet treats.

It might help to make our own apple juice, but it would still have the natural sugar calories. Do
you know what a safe level of sugar calories is per day for a bunny? or know where I could find out?
--
Dori ... BB and Cissy
--------------------------------

will robinson

You know, as I was feeding Biskit pedialyte (the fruit flavored generic I bought at Wal
Mart) it seemed his drinking was going up, up, up.... I think I posted here once that he
was drinking almost 30 ounces of it in a day! That's more than 2 Pepsi cans (12 oz each).
I had a range of tests run on him and everything came back ok. Some people here theorized
maybe it was the beginning of renal failure. But he had none of the other symptoms, He
eats like a HORSE; his poops are classic textbook ok. The only problem I ever had was when
we moved into the fruit realm. Too much sugar for a 9.5 year old bunny. When he started
eating parsley, his water intake dropped. I removed the pedialyte and it went down even
further. Now he eats Timothy hay by the bag full (from Petsmart), a few pellets, one good
helping of papaya a day and parsley on demand (he usually "demands" it every time I walk
close to the 'frig). Today I bought a cu***ber because it is on the list and also Bashas
had blueberries 2 little plastic dishes for $1.88. He loves blueberries and has never had
any adverse reaction to them. He drinks about 5 oz of ice water a day.

I am inclined to not give him any more pedialyte based on my experience and after reading
your post. The Ensure I only use as a base for the blenderized pellets/baby food mash that
I use if he gets any type of GI slowdown requiring hand feeding. He had a disastrous start
for this year but things have smoothed out now and (fingers crossed) he is doing just
fine. He weighs in at about 2.5 pounds, maybe a little more 2.75+/- (my scale is not
perfect) but as long as he stays constant I won't change anything. Sugar is the real
culprit for upsetting his little tummy. As for sugar levels, no I don't know unless the
House Rabbit Society has something. I was feeding him some carrots and romaine lettuce as
well but one or the other made his poops yucky. So I dropped both. Now his poops are
fluffy: when I step on them (hard not to do sometimes because he has so many) they
crumble apart and are really flaky (poop ****ysis?).