Feeding Your Jumpers.....

[MagicStar]

So I was wondering, what sort of "Jumpers Diets" do you have your rabbit hoppers on?

I feed Magic about 1/2 a cup of food daily (which he is going to get it cut) along with access to grass, and veggies/fruit about once a week. He gets fresh hay and water daily and he gets exercise/training (starting now, that the weather is MUCH nicer!) about every day it's nice. I keep his weight at the regular - 5 1/2 pounds.

So, what do you feed your hoppers? How often do they get training and exercise? Also, what are their hopping weights?

Emily

[abjerner]

Our hopping rabbits get dried bread every morning. We cut crusty rolls into 8 pieces and dry them in a herb dryer. In the afternoon they get 200 gr. of carrots and then later in the evening they get 50 – 60 gr. of pellets. They get pure pellets with no other things mixed in. Sometimes they get apples instead of carrots. Our lop weights about 200 gr. and our Dutch about 2500 gr. the males a little more.
We go to our training center once a week (sometimes twice a week) and now and then we take them for a walk in our garden. Too much training is not good.
I have a problem about my showing rabbit – because to be shown he needs a good weight – to be a hopper it has to be slim. ;-)

Aase, Denmark

[MagicStar]

Aase, thanks for your input! I have a few questions though, what is your training center like? Like how many people come, what do you all do, etc?

Also, what do you mean by "Too much training is not good"...?

Emily

[abjerner]

Hello Emily
In our town we have a nature centre. Here school children come (and others) together with their teacher and a ranger. They go from here out to learn about things in the nature.
Here is a little old farmhouse and there is a barn. The barn is the place for the local bee-keeper club and also for the local hopping club. In the farmhouse we can hold meetings in the committee or the club.

We have a little room in the barn at 2 m x 2 m and we have our obstacles there. In the end of the barn we have our carpets, which we put at the cement floor before hopping. In the room we also have a quick boiler (don’t know the right word). We can boil some water for making coffee for the parents and hot drinking chocolate for the hoppers. Behind the farmhouse we have a little garden with grass. Here we hop when the weather is good and when we have light enough. We normally hop Thursday evening from 7 PM to 9 PM. Sometimes we have competitions there in the weekends and sometimes we train there in the weekends too. We book long time before in a book at the office in the farmhouse, and if it is not booked before we can come and go as we want. We have our own key for the barn (the people of the committee). The place is owned by the local authority and they support the local clubs.
The barn is too short for making real courses with 8 – 12 obstacles but we make 2 courses with less obstacles and a very low beginner’s course. If some few of us go there in the weekend to train elite course we just “bend” the course and then we can have 12 obstacles. When we train outdoor we can make many courses. Our club have many obstacles – the most from www.libraartic.com but also some home made from some former hoppers. This place is like being in clover.
If we want we also can have a little garden here at about 4 m. x 4 m. I have had one, but as I also have a garden at my house, it was too much work. When I was there I wanted to hop.

If you train your rabbit every day it might loose its interest of hopping. When you train twice a week it still will like it. I mean, I also run myself in a park near to where I live, but only twice or 3 times a week. If I did it every day I would feel it was too much.
I have 8 rabbits. One is retired because she doesn’t want to hop. Thursday evening I bring the 7 others. As we have 2 hours there, and we also have to roll out the carpets and have to take out the obstacles and all back again after training, we do not have so much time there. I also help the beginners and I cook water for the drinking chocolate. I train every rabbit 3 – 4 rounds with 6 – 7 obstacles. This is enough when they know what hopping is. If you have a quite new rabbit you have to use more time to teach it what it is all about, but when first learned they only need some few courses.

I hope it explained about how we train.

Greetings from Aase, Denmark

[abjerner]

Hello Emily
I forgot to tell we are about 16 - 20 hoppers every Thursday evening. We hope to get more members.
Aase

[MIKOLI. =)]

Ollie has a very natural diet. He is fed on grass daily, occasionally a slice of bread, vegetables, hay, and, when he wants to eat them, pellets. He doesn't really have a fixed diet, but he usually has the same things in a week or so.

He used to be trained in hopping every day, and he seemed to cope fine. I always changed around the courses, and it was more one or two single jumps, then a long run around. Now he's trained about once or twice a week.

Rachel.

[MagicStar]

Thanks Aase...sounds like you have a fantastic set-up for training! Uhm, how would I start a hopping club, If I were to? There is a church on my road that I could find out about using in the winter time for training....

Rachel...does Ollie like pellets? That's cool that he can just eat them when he wants to eat them... I wish my rabbits liked other things as much as they love pellets...hehe.

Last Summer I trained Magic about every day or every other day before Fair and all...now he gets trained about 4x a month, maybe less. But it will be more soon, like 2x a week, because a hopping show is coming up at the annual Spring Youth Fair!!!

Emily

[MIKOLI. =)]

Moved to "Too Many Carrots?" as it fits better there.

[MagicStar]

Rachel, great idea