treats

hi

do you think rabbits need to have treats??

is it a case of the feeder feeling the need to treat does the rabbit really care ??

just wondering

regards

I'm glad this has been taken off Willow's thread it was getting waaay off topic.

I've seen from your posts on the other thread(s) that you are against treats, and that is fair enough, your buns are your buns and who are we to argue whether or not you give them, but I'm curious.... Do you feel this way about JUST rabbits? What about dogs? Cats? Humans for that matter?

I don't think anyone suggested buns NEED treats.

I had my Thumper for nearly 11 years, goodness knows how old she really was when she died, and she got treats. Albeit not treats made for buns, but bits of apple etc.

I see no harm in giving treats if they are given in moderation and are not detrimental to said bun(s) health.

If you can bring an extra bit of joy to their lives without harming them, then why not?

I would sure be ****** off if someone told me I wasn't allowed chocolate ever again!

I don't think it's really a case of if they need them really, it's more of a case of whether they are healthy or not.
A lot of us feed fenugreek crunchies and they are far more healthy than yoghurt drops and treat sticks and plenty of other processed, sugar and dairy filled 'treats' that you find in supermarkets and pet shops.

My two also get a small bit of pineapple sometimes, this is sometimes as a treat and something different but quite often to help with the massive fur build up they will get during moult.

In terms of if they care, if they'd never had treats before and went through life without them I can imagine they wouldn't care as they wouldn't know what they're missing. They also don't stamp their feet to demand them but when they hear the fenugreek crunchie jar or smell/see the pineapple, they get really excited.

I concur,
I don't believe it's a need but it's more a gesture of love for a pet in a similar way as there is no need to buy you're child a sweet but we do it in moderation as we know they love it and we love them so allow them some on an occasion

I also feel this debate should NOT be in the infirmary but in members lounge:

I love giving my little ones treats, my last bunny Mrs Snuffles was very unusual in that he could eat anything without it having any adverse effect on him. I do however realise that he is one in a million and I am m,ch more circumspect with regard to what BInky has. One of his favourites is pear.

I love seeing him happy and if he has something he really enjoys, his little bottom twitches, which is lovely to see.

Hugs

JO xx

hi

Well i have a labrador he does'nt have treats i reward him with the same nuggets he has for his dinner....and he acts the same way as he would if i gave him a proper treat.

obviously rabbits are different but mine do not have treats but you should see them when i go in to give them their daily nuggets happy as ever! simply because they never get more than they need.

their diet is hay and some readigrass i spend a lot of money on hay buying lots of different varieties .

i am ashamed to admit i had a giant rabbit and i gave him treats he began eating less hay but yes would always take the treats ..he died of bloat at the beginning of last year.

made me realise that actually i may of helped kill him with kindness!

you all love your bunns and want to make them happy so cant blame you for that .

my point i was trying to get across in the other post was the poorly rabbit was being fed 4-5 treats a day i just think it may of been defeating the object giving medicine for a runny bottom on low fibre treats

regards

...

I am going to stick my ambassador hat on and remind people that we pride ourselves here as being a friendly forum here. Everyone is entitled to their opinion but please try to express it in a sensitive manner.

i agree

jag wrote:hi

at last some HH who don't mind having a civil debate about something.....well i have a labrador he does'nt have treats i reward him with the same nuggets he has for his dinner....and he acts the same way as he would if i gave him a proper treat.

obviously rabbits are different but mine do not have treats but you should see them when i go in to give them their daily nuggets happy as ever! simply because they never get more than they need.

their diet is hay and some readigrass i spend a lot of money on hay buying lots of different varieties .

i am ashamed to admit i had a giant rabbit and i gave him treats he began eating less hay but yes would always take the treats ..he died of bloat at the beginning of last year.

made me realise that actually i may of helped kill him with kindness!

you all love your bunns and want to make them happy so cant blame you for that .

my point i was trying to get across in the other post was the poorly rabbit was being fed 4-5 treats a day i just think it may of been defeating the object giving medicine for a runny bottom on low fibre treats.

but i was basically told to shut up by a couple of know it alls on HH .............sorry but it had to be said

regards

You shouldn't blame yourself for what happened to your bun, it would likely have happened whether he got treats or not.

My Thumper was found a stray and I think she ate about a handful of hay the whole time I had her. She just wouldn't eat it, and she lived to a ripe old age despite not eating it.

I wonder if the people who had her before me didn't give her any hay and by the time she came to me, she was out of the way of eating it. And I tried to get her to eat it! Believe me!!

You need to let the guilt go, sadly some buns just get bloat (and other conditions) and can't be helped

My two get very little in the way of treats. They get crunchies and a bit of banana at the weekend. I don't do pet shop "treats", they are typically full of nasty things, including animal derived stuff in some cases

My two get treats, they get crunchies and various other bits and tbh it allows me to gage if they are feeling poorly. They know where the treats are kept, they beg if you go too close to the area

However they also go mad for their pellets which they have in the morning, and other than that they have hay/hay based products. The last time they went to their boarding place I was told they were the two healthiest buns that go in. So I must be doing something right. I'm the first to admit Dougal is slightly overweight, but that's because he refuses to run around it has nothing to do with a couple of crunchies daily.

Let's all calm down, it would be like having a conversation about whether we as humans should have a daily treat (or four). No one is right and no one is wrong.

icedancer wrote:My two get treats, they get crunchies and various other bits and tbh it allows me to gage if they are feeling poorly. They know where the treats are kept, they beg if you go too close to the area

However they also go mad for their pellets which they have in the morning, and other than that they have hay/hay based products. The last time they went to their boarding place I was told they were the two healthiest buns that go in. So I must be doing something right. I'm the first to admit Dougal is slightly overweight, but that's because he refuses to run around it has nothing to do with a couple of crunchies daily.

Let's all calm down, it would be like having a conversation about whether we as humans should have a daily treat (or four). No one is right and no one is wrong.

Is Dougal a lazy boy? I never realised

Come on guys this is getting silly! HH is such a friendly place normally

We can all discuss/argue about this until the cows come home because there is NO right or wrong answer. If we were talking about "should buns be fed chocolate" or something the answer would be an absolute "no", but there is no right or wrong answer to this, its peoples opinion. We all know bunny museli isn't great for buns, that we all agree on, but the odd treat let's just let sleeping dogs lie.

Deep breaths all and calm down.

And yes Thumper, Dougal is VERY lazy!!!

I use treats to let Hector know different things, for example, he knows that a fenugreek crunchie means bedtime, we're working on herby heart thingys meaning 'I need you to go in your cage for a short time but you will be out in 10-15 minutes' and carrotys meaning 'good boy' for when he listens when I say no or tell him to get off my bed.

The only thing he consistently gets is his bed time crunchie, he knows what it means and goes and sits by his bowl when I open the jar. It doesn't put him off his hay, he eats an incredible amount of hay for such a small rabbit, and he gets just as excited about hay top up time (grunting and running around) as he does about pellet or veggie time.

At the end of the day a few, rabbit safe, treats aren't going to kill them, all bunnies are different so you can't always apply what works for your rabbit to someone else's rabbit, it's common sense really.

That's a good point I failed to mention Zo!!

Molly and Junior are really bright and I've trained them to do some great things, using treats as rewards. The one that has been the most useful is when I say "bedtime" and they run upstairs to their bedroom. This means I don't have to chase them round the room or carry them up the stairs.

They know lots of other commands too.

Once we nailed the training, I slowly cut back the crunchies and now they follow the commands without them.

thank you sooz xx

My thoughts on treats are that they are good ways of relationship building with your buns. However you do need to consider what you give. I would not feed them the vast majority of treats but I do feed fenugreek crunchies. I break them up into much smaller pieces and then feed by hand. What I look for in a treat is something that is free of sugars or things that taste of things I don't want my buns to have. The other treat I use is mini shredded wheats. Flo has to have metacam every morning at the moment because of her feet. To syringe it into her would be extremely stressful for both of us. She will take it willingly from a shredded wheat with no fuss at all. However to do that she needs to have a taste for shredded wheat and she got that from me occasionally using them as treats throughout her life. For me feeding treats has a purpose - either bond building with me or giving meds. They don't get them day in day out and I am mindful of giving the buns a well balanced diet which includes commercially made foods, a mix of hays and fresh herbs and veg. What I have are 2 very healthy rabbits - everytime a new veterinary nurse or vet comes across Bruce they comment on how good he looks for his age - so I believe I have got the balance right.

hey thank you Thumper 2001

yes i think pet shop treats are designed to appeal to the owner and agree they are full of rubbish ..

the same with the rabbit foods some owners are more prone to buy the meals with all the colourful bits in instead of a complete food which looks boring.

mine adore oat wheat and barley hay and that is their treat...

regards

I give Buttons treats but not very often, I use them on a reward basis when he has done something good. For example, Buttons isn't good at being picked up, he really dislikes it, im not sure if it is because he is so small so doesn't smush into your arms like a bigger bunny, but whatever the reason he isn't keen, so when I pick him up, as soon as I put him down I give him a little piece of a fungreek crunchie as a reward. He now isn't as hard to pick up and wriggles very little while holding him. Which as you can imagine makes it much easier to give him a check over and for nail clipping etc.

But he also loves his pellets and goes mad when its dinner time, and also goes crazy over hay!

As long as people don't go crazy with treats and give them just because their rabbit looks cute, and use them more as a reward and in small quantities then they are fine.

jag wrote:hey thank you Thumper 2001

yes i think pet shop treats are designed to appeal to the owner and agree they are full of rubbish ..

the same with the rabbit foods some owners are more prone to buy the meals with all the colourful bits in instead of a complete food which looks boring.

mine adore oat wheat and barley hay and that is their treat...

regards

Molly and Junior's treat hay is Burns green oat. I give it to them when I need to leave them unattended in the living room They can be very naughty and I know they won't budge when they are munching that!

I can completely see why you are a treat free zone given what happened to your bun.

To some extent I agree with you - the more treats given the less hay they are eating so yes, they should deffo be given in moderation.

I do give treats, and the buns love them, I use them as bribery ( the only way to get them in from free ranging) or to give medicine on.

To your point about willow getting a fair few per day my thinking is this - willow needs to get her meds with as little stress as possible - a stressed bun is one that is less likely to pull through or fight infection. Also there are times when getting some food into a bun - whatever the food - is much better than the bun taking no food at all. No, this is not ideal, but I believe in treating for the illness now, get the medicine into them now, save their stress now, and then worry about things that may or may not have an effect later on.

Rory doesn't like treats! Even tiny bits of fresh apple or bananana! All of our others loved their little wedge of apple or couple of dried cranberries.

I give treats, but with others they're more as bribery than anything. It's the only thing that'll work to make Nibbler get off his little butt and do some exercise!