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Dried Fruits

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 1:02 pm
by Watermarks
I feed my rabbit dried cranberries and other dried fruits as an occasional treat and I was wondering if I could give a one or two small pieces to Manicotti as a treat as well?

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 3:13 pm
by Tattoo
If you are going to offer fruit I believe fresh is best. Dried fruit will be very high in sugar and will probably hydrate in the gut.

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:26 pm
by Edward
Indeed. 8)

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 9:38 pm
by El Lobo
As Tattoo said, very high concentration of sugars as well as sulphur dioxide as a preservative. Hydrating in the gut and/or possibility of impaction should be considered.

I fed a couple of dried cranberries to one of my rabbits back in January. Thirteen days later she finally ate again of her own accord. This was after several radio-graphs, antibiotics because of elevated temperature, subcutaneous fluids because of dehydration, NSAID's to alleviate inflammation and pain issues and several different gut motility drugs. We ended up calling in the top rabbit vet in the country as a consultant. Diagnosis: a sharp piece of cranberry had probably lodged in the intestine and perhaps even slightly perforated it which could easily have resulted in peritonitis. Following that 13 days of syringe feeding around the clock and other treatments she developed two large lumps in the panniculus which after biopsy were found to be necrotic fat, most likely caused by so many subcutaneous fluids and other medications tracking. So another 2 weeks of flushing and draining twice a day as well as a further course of antibiotics.

Would I feed dried fruit to any pet....NEVER AGAIN!

Posted: Mon Oct 25, 2010 10:20 pm
by Watermarks
El Lobo wrote:As Tattoo said, very high concentration of sugars as well as sulphur dioxide as a preservative. Hydrating in the gut and/or possibility of impaction should be considered.

I fed a couple of dried cranberries to one of my rabbits back in January. Thirteen days later she finally ate again of her own accord. This was after several radio-graphs, antibiotics because of elevated temperature, subcutaneous fluids because of dehydration, NSAID's to alleviate inflammation and pain issues and several different gut motility drugs. We ended up calling in the top rabbit vet in the country as a consultant. Diagnosis: a sharp piece of cranberry had probably lodged in the intestine and perhaps even slightly perforated it which could easily have resulted in peritonitis. Following that 13 days of syringe feeding around the clock and other treatments she developed two large lumps in the panniculus which after biopsy were found to be necrotic fat, most likely caused by so many subcutaneous fluids and other medications tracking. So another 2 weeks of flushing and draining twice a day as well as a further course of antibiotics.

Would I feed dried fruit to any pet....NEVER AGAIN!


Well, taking the responses from everyone into consideration I guess I wont be feeding dried fruit to Manicotti, or my bunny now. It's better safe than sorry, I would hate for anything to happen to her. :(

She's probably better off without them anyway, since I started feeding to her she's gotten rather chunky and begs like none other.

Thanks for the info everyone, I appreciate it.

Re: Dried Fruits

Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2023 7:51 am
by Jameswalker222000
Hi, I think its a pretty good idea and dry fruits will help to give essential nutrients and energy as well so try on. sounds pretty good