diet in relation to temprament "experiment"

I conducted a small experiment this week with two of my netherland rabbits, one is usually quite tempramental the other nice natured but used to be the same. Each day I swapped their food over, they both eat burgess nuggets and/or rabbit royale so one day I fed one and the next day the other. Every day I fed the nuggets the tempramental one was much calmer and the calm one remained the same. The days I fed rabbit royale the tempramental one was a lot worse and the calm one was a little anxious at me cleaning in his hutch and a bit unsure with his ears back. I dont have the bags to check the energy levels but its kinda like feeding a high energy food to a collie dog. This may help people with grumpy buns like the one on here thats biting (dont remember username)

by feeding that day I mean I judged their temprament on the meal I fed the night before.

My buns love the burgess nuggets. I think they would have an entire bag each everyday if they could.

I much prefer them for the fibre content too but they are more expensive for a sack.

That's really interesting Museli mix does have a higher sugar content, so I wonder if it is a similar reaction to that of hyper-active children who are fed too much sugary foods.

I'll mention this to a couple of specialists I know and see if there's been any research on it. Thanks for sharing it, and what a great idea

Perhaps you could look at feeding the pellets, without the mix, but giving them less, so it costs the same. I ran an experiment on by last bun who had arthritis in his spine, and was pretty imobile for a while. I reduced his pellets, which made him eat more hay, then 1 day a week, he just got hay, that then became 2 days week. His mobility increased lots and his energy levels were much better, and he lost .5 kg, and this helped his spine

No problem, have to admit, sugar and E numbers affect me too. Im used to analysing food and energy for having the horses, avoiding laminitis and keeping them calmer while in stables. Didnt expect it to be so definite and with such a difference though. Could have been coincidence with the grumpy one but when the calm one was extra anxious and unsure on mix it made me think/

They are pricey but sometimes P@H has the big bags on offer and even with 7 rabbits it lasts me 2 weeks.

Or I just wait and head to batleys lol

I e-mailed a bunny specialist with your post and got this back. As you also know horses, you'll understand this, I didn't know about over heating, is that what you were referring to ealier - laminitis?

Re the feeding - it is interesting though a lot of the high sugar to kids stuff has been pretty well trashed
Conversely the syndrom of "over-heating" in horses is well known when excessive calories provided. As their digestion is so similar to rabbits, perhaps..?

yes thanks, laminitis is a bit more than that but over heating is a factor.

Just to let you know I've put an update to this thread here