eaters

Question
I need to go out of town overnight and have no bunny sitter! I have 2, 1 yr. rabbits, that are usually fed once in the morning and once in the evening. I know that they will be fine  together since they have their own "bunny proofed" room. I am just worried that they will eat all the food i will leave out for them at once.  I have been doing research and I can not seem to find rabbit eating behavior. I guess what I am trying to ask is...If I leave a large bowl with enough food for one day, will they eat it all at once, or do rabbits stop eating when they are full?  

Thanks!

Answer
Dear Kelly,

If the bunnies are given only pellets, there's a chance that they'll scarf them all up and leave nothing for the next morning.  But if they are getting the recommended amount of timothy/grass hay in their diet, they should have plenty to eat overnight without your having to worry.  

Please have a look at these recommendations for healthy rabbit diet, which might be surprising:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

As you can see, pellets should be only a *minor* part of the diet, with the bulk of it being timothy or other grass hay.  Unless your bunnies are unusually big eaters, it would be very hard for them to completely devour a very large bush of hay if you leave it out for them to nibble continually while you're gone.

Also be sure they have a nice, full, BIG crock of clean water--or maybe two crocks, in case they knock one over while you're gone.

As long as they have lots and lots of fresh timothy hay and water, they should be fine if you'll be gone only over night.

Hope this helps.

Dana