non veg days

Was wondering if anyone else had tried this, and if I'm doing the right thing here, or not - for the past month, on Thursdays, we've given Bertie just hay, grass & a couple of pellets in the morning and evening. The thinking being that buns don't eat veg every day in the wild, and hay is great source of roughage, and as such, knocks everything out of the digestive tracts, and promotes better digestion.
The amount of hay consumed is about threefold, and the poops on Thursday and Friday are significantly larger and greener than the rest of the week (not that he has huge amounts of veg anyway), and his energy on Thursdays and Fridays is noticeably increased - he's doing a lot more tearing around, binkying, and being generally all over us. I realise this is probably because he's hungry, but I'm weighing that up with what I think are the benefits of it.
Can anyone tell me if there's anything either detrimental and/or beneficial in this approach? Thanks

I would say benficial, as you say bunnies don't eat vegetables every day, although they do eat fresh grass every day, have you tried giving him that on your non veg days to see the effect?, I have cut back a lot on the amount of vegetables I give mine and I think they are much better for it

Interesting idea. Mine get veg twice a day, every day They seem to enjoy their veg so much I'm not sure I could go a day without giving it and try and ignore the seven pairs of pleading eyes. I could maybe substitute for grass though as they love grass too and are on a paved area unless I am home to supervise.

I want my bunsters to be healthy though. I used to give them milk drops but have now substituted them for fenucreek crunchies but they enjoy them so much it was an easy swap to make. I am a sucker for a cute face.

Mine get their veg in the evenings and any time I go into the garden after 6.00 pm, they scamper into their hutch in the hope that their supper is on its way. (they usually have to wait until 10.30 pm just now!)

I might try and give them less but still keep it on their schedule. Otherwise, I don't know how I would get them to bed!! don't want to go back to the days of rabbit herding with a stick - it was hell!!!

jay this is interesting because weve been doing something very similar. Jelly had a dental in january and may need another soon, and pebbles may need her first.

So i decided to cut most of the vet out of their diet. They now have very little veg in the mornings, and at night they have a handful of pellets mixed in with dried grass, their "posh" hay, and some roughage stuff like ginko and herbal garden etc. i did this because i figured it must be better for their teeth, well neither need a dental yet so it must be working.

Every now and then I go for a "just hay" diet, mainly because Bruce is/was overweight when I adopted him and while the vet said he is OK at his current weight, any heavier would be bad.

So I'm trying to take precautions and feed less vegies, and mainly only hay.

Jay, SJ - How do you handle the begging and the guilt trips? Mine get very upset and chase me around, constantly begging, if I don't give them vegies in the morning. They're very good at making me feel like a bad bunny mother.

I think the teeth things is really important, hay is the best eroder for the back teeth.
Nic - I just don't let myself get pulled in by it, it's only learned behaviour, that's all, if he'd never had these things, he wouldn't be able to guilt trip me I have to take the cruel to be kind approach, and once he realises his efforts to guilt trip me won't work, he just starts eating more hay.

I've got much better at this since he's had his arthritis, it's gives me a reason to have better control over his diet!

Most of our "hay only" days are days when I am incredibly busy and am not going to be home much - so I can't see their faces - so it's once every one or two weeks at the moment, although sometimes for several days at a time.

My mum says Bruce's behaviour is like a heroin addict when he knows there is delicious food in the room ha ha poor bunny.

Thanks, I'm going to try harder to have more frequent only-hay days, gradually building up.