Age plays an important factor in how you feed your bunnies.

While young bucks have their male hormones kick in and stabilize, they have a much faster metabolism and easily eat double the amounts that they would as normal, healthy adults. This change happens usually in the region where their testes drop, age 12 week, to about 8 months of age.

Young does peak a bit later than boys, with their initial girly hormones, and eat much more at ages 6 months to 1 year.

This coincides very closely to humans, where early teenage boys raid the cup boards and fridge and leaves the parents reeling, while girls tend to do this more at a later stage.

Lucerne is needed for baby and young bunnies in order to ensure the amounts of proteins they need, so they can grow correctly and to curb these munchies, but should be stopped at the age of 6 months.

Feeding too little in their teen spike years can cause food aggression in their further life, something often seen from rescued rabbits that had wrong diets in their earlier years.

Also like humans, rabbits eat less as they age. Their systems do not use the same amount of energy, and they start decreasing their food intake. This age will depend from rabbit to rabbit, depending on all they have been through in their lives.

Many people panic when their senior rabbit suddenly start eating less, so just ensure they chew properly (no dental issues) and they still move well and poop well. Arthritis can also set in at a later stage, where pain needs management, and teeth also change as they age, so it is recommended to have a 6 monthly checkup (instead of the yearly) at your vet for rabbits entering their senior years. However, if possible, do a 4 month check on your elders, and a 6 month one of your other bunnies. It is easier to correct issues before they get out of hand.