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Rabbit poo question

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Rachel WD

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Hopefully some of you rabbit savy people will be able to help (and hopefully you aren't eating your lunch! )

Millie is a pretty overweight bunny, and very hairy. The vet usually trims her back end when we go for injections but I also have to give her bum baths every so often which luckily she tolerates.

As she is on her own at the moment I've been able to see exactly which poo's are hers. She does the normal round, dry droppings but she also has these big lumps of soft poo that look like it's made from loads of tiny wet droppings. These lumps can be pretty big and it's these that stick to her hair - not nice. Due to her size she obviously can't groom/clean herself properly in the bum department.

Diet wise she is on Excel pellets, has some veg, whatever grass she can graze on and plenty of hay. I will be moving her onto SS when she runs out of her Excel.

Anyone any ideas if this is preventable or is it something she will likely do forever? I've had her for 14 months, on a variety of diets without any difference.

Can provide pictures when I get home if anyone is interested :)>>> :))
 
How much pellets does she get? I've heard that this can be caused from eating too many pellets so maybe cutting them down would help. Also would help her lose weight.

My rabbit had loads of soft poops when she was raising a litter of kits, because she was eating so many pellets.

Normally they eat the soft poops, unless they have too many, and many being overweight makes it harder too cos I think they eat them directly from their bun :)>>> :))
 
I agree with the above, the soft droppings are the caecotrophe pellets she should be eating. Eating too much dry food is usually the cause of too many caecotrophes & Excel does seem to have this effect in some bunnies.

How much do you feed per day?

As an example my 2 dutch buns get approx 20-25g of Excel between them daily but they would eat it 'til they burst if they could :))
They have a spring green leaf, half a carrot & a small slice of apple every evening & of course unlimited hay.
Their droppings are big & golden brown & i've never seen any caecotrophes.
 
Hmmm, I get the feeling she is eating too many! :o

She definitely eats more than 25g all to herself. When I put her to bed at night at about 9pm she gets her pellets (probably between 50-60g as I followed the instructions on the bag! ) mallethead a bit of green veg, either spring greens, cabbage leaf, cauliflower leaf etc and a little bit of carrot. The pellets are lasting her until about 4pm the next day.

I feel really bad now, no wonder she hasn't lost any weight since I got her!

Thank you so much for your responses. Poor Millie is going to think I'm trying to starve her from now on!
 
Oh that explains it :) You could definitely cut back the pellets, and that's great now she should lose some weight. :) Hopefully she is ok with it and just fills up on hay :)) poor bunny!

One of my dogs is on a diet right now and she doesn't understand why she is being separated at dinner time! But it's what's best for her
 
I suppose it's a good time to start as I'm hoping she'll be getting a new husbun in the next couple of weeks so can have a new feeding plan sorted before he comes home.

She really is going to hate me :))
 
I suppose it's a good time to start as I'm hoping she'll be getting a new husbun in the next couple of weeks so can have a new feeding plan sorted before he comes home.

She really is going to hate me :))

Oh bless her but don't feel bad you were following the instructions.
She'll not hate you, she'll learn to appreciate you more because you bring "sweeties" & feeding less pellets should encourage her to eat more hay. :)

A handful is supposedly the ideal amount, which i think is about 20/25g.
 
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My advice would be to cut down gradually over 7-10 days, on Rabbits United I think a lot of people feed about a tablespoon of pellets per bun p/day. I know of some that don't feed any at all and just feed hay.


If you want to pm me your email address I could send you some Diet leaflets that the Rabbit Welfare Association have produced?
 
Thanks Bailey, I will send it to you now.

I didn't do a drastic cut last night but she did get less that usual. There was still food in her bowl this morning so she obviously isn't going hungry - in fact she probably didn't notice. I will do it gradually. Will be interesting to see if she loses weight, she's such a flab monster!
 
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