{"id":1042,"date":"2012-06-29T13:30:11","date_gmt":"2012-06-29T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/?p=1042"},"modified":"2012-06-29T13:31:45","modified_gmt":"2012-06-29T12:31:45","slug":"rspca-what-bugs-bunny-diet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/2012\/06\/29\/rspca-what-bugs-bunny-diet\/","title":{"rendered":"What Bugs a Bunny? The Wrong Diet"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This week the RSPCA launched a new campaign called &#8216;<strong>What Bugs a Bunny?<\/strong>&#8216; based on detailed research carried out by a whole team of welfare scientists, behaviourists and vets at Bristol University.<\/p>\n<p>So what does bug a bunny? Top of the list &#8211; too many carrots and not enough grass! Because, if anyone likes grass, it&#8217;s a rabbit:<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"560\" height=\"315\" classid=\"clsid:d27cdb6e-ae6d-11cf-96b8-444553540000\" codebase=\"http:\/\/download.macromedia.com\/pub\/shockwave\/cabs\/flash\/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0\"><param name=\"allowFullScreen\" value=\"true\" \/><param name=\"allowscriptaccess\" value=\"always\" \/><param name=\"src\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/tf_m1gOHMLM?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB\" \/><param name=\"allowfullscreen\" value=\"true\" \/><embed width=\"560\" height=\"315\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/tf_m1gOHMLM?version=3&amp;hl=en_GB\" allowFullScreen=\"true\" allowscriptaccess=\"always\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" \/><\/object><\/p>\n<p>That video is just brilliant &#8211; doesn&#8217;t it make you want to rush and top up your bunnies hay pile right this minute?<\/p>\n<p>According to the RSPCA, in a recent poll <strong>only 8% of people knew hay and grass are the most important parts of a rabbit\u2019s diet<\/strong>. Which is just shocking! That&#8217;s potentially 92% of bunny owners not knowing that the most important thing about keeping their bunny healthy.<\/p>\n<p>Feeding the wrong diet, particularly not enough hay\/grass, is trouble waiting to happen, it means increased likelihood of<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>stasis (a potentially fatal slow down of gut function)<\/li>\n<li>excess ceacel droppings aka sticky bottom (a major risk factor for flystrike)<\/li>\n<li>overgrown teeth and dental abscesses (expensive and life shortening dental problems)<\/li>\n<li>obesity (which has all the same risk factors, eg heart attack, as it does in humans)<\/li>\n<li>stress and abnormal behaviour (bunnies naturally spend 80% of their day eating &#8211; diet is a big factor in keeping them mentally stimulated)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What can you and me do about this?<\/h2>\n<p>I&#8217;m sure a lot of you reading this already know what the right diet is &#8211; can we all shout &#8216;hay&#8217; together? But what about all the poor bunnies that are sitting by their food bowls, yearning for the taste of fresh grass or hay and not getting any? Lets do something about it! So my bunny loving, hay giving, blog reading friends, please take a moment to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Send a tweet about what rabbits eat<\/li>\n<li>Share a photo on facebook of your rabbit tucking into his\/her dinner and label it with an appropriate message<\/li>\n<li>Share the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tf_m1gOHMLM\">RSPCA &#8216;No-one Likes a Grass &#8211; Except Rabbits&#8217; video<\/a><\/li>\n<li>Tell a random stranger, work college, or parent in the playground what rabbits eat &#8211; go on just drop it into the conversation &#8211; must stop in and get some more hay &#8211; you wouldn&#8217;t believe how much my bunny eats!<\/li>\n<li>Blog about your rabbit&#8217;s diet<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Here is the link to the RSPCA Campaign to share: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rspca.org.uk\/getinvolved\/campaigns\/companion\/rabbits\/-\/article\/CAM_Pet_rabbits_June12\">http:\/\/www.rspca.org.uk\/getinvolved\/campaigns\/companion\/rabbits\/-\/article\/CAM_Pet_rabbits_June12<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Or perhaps a nice food pyramid:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/diet\/images\/rabbitfoodpyramid.jpg\">http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/diet\/images\/rabbitfoodpyramid.jpg<\/a><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignnone\" title=\"Rabbit Food Pyramid\" src=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/diet\/images\/rabbitfoodpyramid.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"570\" height=\"365\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And a couple of my past posts on hay, in case you want to brush up:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a title=\"Why Grass\/Hay is good for Rabbit\u2019s Teeth\" href=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/2011\/10\/07\/grass-hay-tooth-wear\/\">Why Hay\/Grass is Essential for Your Bunnies Teeth<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/2009\/05\/22\/rabbits-eat-grass\/\">Rabbit&#8217;s Eat Grass<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a title=\"5 Ways to Get Your Rabbit to Eat More Hay\" href=\"http:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/2007\/06\/20\/5-ways-to-get-your-to-rabbit-eat-more-hay\/\">5 Ways to get your rabbit to eat more Hay<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Now, go forth, spread the word: Rabbits Eat Grass!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Ps. It would be great if you popped back and let me know how you&#8217;d help spread the message&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The RSPCA have just launched a new campaign: What Bugs a Bunny? The top of the list is too many carrots and not enough grass. Help spread the message about the importance of hay\/grass to other bunny owners.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[21],"tags":[76,30],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1042"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1056,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1042\/revisions\/1056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therabbithouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}