YOUR SECRET WEIGHT CONTROL WEAPON

You, too, have a secret weapon for bringing Thumper's weight under control: a l/a-cup measuring cup and a kitchen scale. My l/a-measuring cup stays in the container I use to store pellets, and I use it to measure all my foster rabbits' food. It takes no extra time because itis right where I need it. I use the following guidelines to maintain a rabbit's weight:

• 2- to 4-pounds bodyweight: 1/.-CUp pellets dai1y
• 4- to 7 -pounds body weight: 1/2-CUp pellets dai1y
• 7-to 10-pounds body weight: ½-to ¾-cup pellets daily
• 11-to 15-pounds body weight: ¾ to 1-cup pellets daily

however, to lose weight you need to reduce those amounts further. In geneal, to lose weight I reduce the pellet servig size by 1/8 cup daily. I feed 10 to 20 rabbits in my foster home twice daily, and the 1/8-measuring cup is a fast and easy way to ensure that each rabbit receives his or her proper food ration.

With measuring cup and kitchen scale at hand, you then need to adop these feeding rules.

Is your rabbit Overweight?

Several tools can help detemine if your rabbit needs to lose weight. Find a pincture of of your pet when it was younger. Compare the recent body shape to today’s appearance. Notice anything different?

Viewed from above, does the body have a nice hourglass shape? The upper chest should narrow immediately behind the shoulders. You should clearly see the knees, and the waist should be obviously narrower than the hips. From the side, you should see daylight beneath the tummy whem your rabbit sits up and alert. The belly should curve upward to the chest, and the chest should continue curving upwad to the neck.

In an overweight rabbit, these differences in body proportion are reduced and even absent. The belly has little or no curve, and a straight line conects the belly, chest and lower neck. Viewed from above, an overweight rabbit’s body is more like a rectangle than an hourglass, looling more like a “meatloaf” than a rabbit.

Overweight rabbits excercise les than lean ones, explore less and prefer lounging to sprints and jumps. Some decrease in excercise occurs naturally with aging, but even elderly rabbits still engage in lots of exploratory behavior. Finally, if your are unsure if your rabbit is overweight, ask an experienced rabbit veterinarian to examine your pet for signs of excess weight or obesity.