Ideal weight of a lionhead rabbit

Question
Hiya, I have a gorgeous wee 7mth old Lionhead rabbit, he weighs 2.5kg and in no way looks overweight but after his first visit to the vet to get his wee nails clipped he didn't eat much for a day which spurred me on to look up exactly how much he should be eating etc. It seems that most people think he should bea maximum of 1.7kg and should only be eating 50g of his pellets/day, whereas he is 2.5kg and I feed him 70g, do you think I'm over feeding him? And do you think he might be over weight??

Answer
Hi Christan

I hate to say this but the metric system is not my specialty and I actually have a special calculator that helps me convert g-pounds.

If you have a 2.5 kg rabbit that means it weighs 5 1/2 pounds.  Ideally you want to feed a rabbit 1 ounce of feed/per pound per day.  I know that 1/2 cup is 4 ounces.  I just don't know what that converts to in grams without walking out to my shed and weighing something.  

Your rabbit should be eating about 5 ounces of feed per day.  That is just a little bit over a half of cup.  It should also be fed unlimited timothy hay.  If my calculations are correct then you are under feeding him.  However like I said I don't use grams.  If 28 grams = 1 ounce then he should be getting over 140 g per day.. but again I have no clue.  One other thing you want to consider is that not all rabbits stay within their weight limits.  I have mini rex rabbits that are in no means overweight but weigh upwards of 6 pounds.  The standard allows 4 1/4 for a buck and 4 1/2 for a doe.  A judge once told me that there is a difference between a fat rabbit and a large rabbit.  If a rabbit is pre-disposed to being larger than standard, cutting its feed to slim it down is not going to help.  The best thing to do is watch condition.  If it feels bony or looks under nourished then feed it a bit more.  If it is fat with folds of skin then put it on an exercise program and reduce the pellets and give more hay.

As for the standards of lionheads I do not know them so you are going to have to go by body weight.  Unfortunately the lionhead breed is not an accepted breed by the American Rabbit Breeder's Association, although they are occasionally shown due to the working standard.  According to the web-site I found for the working standard they can't weigh more than 3 3/4 pounds.  I am attaching the site in hopes that it will help you.

http://lionheadrabbit.net/genindex.htm

I hope your rabbits are well and good luck with them.

Sincerely,

Pam