Rabbit / guinea pig food

[Shreddiessorter]

I've run out of rabbit food - is there any health reason why I can't give the rabbit the guinea pig pellets?

[DoesItWearingWellies]

In the short term no (so just for tonight), but if you give your rabbit plenty of hay, grass and dandelions if you can get some, that'll be even better.

[Shreddiessorter]

Thank god for that couldn't be bothered to go out tonight, will get some tomorrow. Plenty of hay and grass, no dandelions though.

Curiosity - what's the difference between the two?

And can I do it the other way round - give gp rabbit food?

[Shreddiessorter]

I mean difference between two foods not between the two animals

[tabulahrasa]

rabbit food doesn't have vitamin c in it and some brands have too much vitamin d for guineas

[DoesItWearingWellies]

tabulahrasa is right - guinea pigs need supplemented vitamin C as they can't make it themselves, whereas rabbits can so their food doesn't have it added. Again, it would be okay for a day if you ran out of GP food, but not as a regular thing.

[LordOfTheFlies]

I've noticed on my shopping travels (now with the 2 boys to buy for) that loads of things are rabbit-and-guinea-pig as though they are interchangeable.

Rabbit & GP food.Can't be good for either if it's meant to feed both.
And pictures of the two together, though the GP forums and rescues don't advice keeping them together.

And scented shavings WTF !. Our boys are on Megazorb, shredded plain paper and hay. I don't want their bums smelling of lemon or lavender.

[DoesItWearingWellies]

I feel that scented shavings should be banned. If you can't deal with/don't want the occasional smell of critters, don't buy them in the first place, or clean them out more often.

When you think how much more sensitive the noses of small furries are than our own, and with them only being a few inches from the scented shavings, it must be torture. Imagine having the shavings under your nose all day...it would drive you mental.

It is such a shame that people (especially pet shops, both chain and independent) don't realise just how harmful wood shavings (scented or not) are to animals.

[purplewerepidj]

Are wood shavings bad for bunnies?

Mine has a crate full of hay for over night, run of the house all day, but wood shavings in his litter tray because if we use cat litter the cat uses it and the rabbit tries to eat the poo (cat has covered tray that bun can't get in)

Should I change it?

[DoesItWearingWellies]

I would suggest changing it as wood shavings contain phenols that can irritate the respiratory system of the rabbit (and other small furries).

If you can, get some megazorb (as Lord said). It is a soft wood pulp that is meant as horse bedding and is highly absorbent, both of urine and the associated smells. Tack shops/saddleries/feed shops sometimes stock it, or it's available online. The cheapest I've found so far are Farmways (for one bag), or Millbry Hill (for 2 bags). They are rather big bags (85 litres) and last for ages.

[purplewerepidj]

There's a paper-based one in the pound shop up the road, would that do? Otherwise, I can nick my parents newspapers once they've finished with them. I worry about that too though, because he likes to eat paper especially the bleached white stuff!

Any tips on keeping him away from electrical cables? At the moment, he goes in his crate for 10 mins or so every time he so much as sniffs one which appears to be working...

[DoesItWearingWellies]

The one from the pound shop would be fine, but it might work out cheaper in the long run to buy megazorb. I wouldn't use newspaper as the ink may not be non-toxic.

As for cables, we had a rabbit who loved cables and candles (!) and even after singing his whiskers on a candle, he came back and did it again 5 mins later. You could try getting some of the harder plastic cable tidy stuff. I will Google it in a bit and post a link to what I mean, but am on my phone atm and it's a bit of a pain to search and mn at the same time!

[DoesItWearingWellies]

This is what I meant.

[purplewerepidj]

I've thought about that (thank you for the link) but I'd rather try training first - DP threatened to send him off to rescue when we discovered it on Saturday

And yes, I was very FFS!!