Baby bunny picky eater

Question
Hey!  We bought a baby bunny last Saturday.  On Sunday we notice she was not eating anything but her poop & bedding. We called the store we bought her from on Monday & they gave us some mixture of pellets w/corn, nuts & some color fruit stuff.  They said to start this out to get her to eat.  We have now taken that away from her cause she dumps all the pellets out of the bowl to get to the other things.  She will not eat timothy hay either.  Since we have taken the other things away she still want eat the plain pellets or timothy hay.  She is back to eating her poop & bedding.  I have been reading on the Internet that the bunny should not be eating the above mixture because of digestive problems.  I am confused because that is what they gave us to feed her.  We don't know what to do next? Her poops are still drops not diarrhea.  She does lick us a lot too!  She is drinking her water & is active.  When I asked the store how she was they told me around 8 to 10 weeks?? I don't think they know a lot about their animals which is making me frustrated.  I am wondering if she was just wean from the mother?  Please help!!

Answer
Hi Tanya,

you have just figured out (I hope) why you don't go to a pet store to learn about animals.  They basically are a very poor resource for animal information, overall.  They take less than adequate care of the animals for sale.

They gave you crappy food.  They probably don't know the sex of the rabbit being so young.  

The cecal pellets she is eating are okay - she needs to eat them to get vitamins.

You need to get rabbit food that does not have corn, nuts (NO extras) in it.  I recommend Oxbow brand as it is both very high quality, it has a good mix of what a rabbit needs, and I have never met a rabbit that didn't like it.

You can give her both Timothy and Alfalfa hay right now.  She will like the alfalfa more, but when rabbits do not have anything they like better left to eat, they will eat whatever is left because they are hungry.  What you should do, though is replace once a day, any old hay not eaten, and replace with new hay.  If she eats all of it before this time, just give her more.  Rabbits should always have hay around to eat.  They will not eat old, dry hay that doesn't smell fresh.

I also recommend oxbow timothy and alfalfa hay.  You can also give her Orchard grass hay.

Do not give her any fruits or veggies until she is older than 6 months, her gi tract is too immature right now to digest these right.  Never give dairy, no high sugar/high carb items.  No meats, no dog or cat food.

Lee