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eating cardboard...

poppymoon

Wise Old Thumper
how bad is eating cardboard and paper (yellow pages) for rabbits? i have had to take all of it away from eric as he won't stop shredding and munching it. he's not poo'ing enough so i'm worried he's blocked himself with cardboard:(
 
Hi - my bunnies, particularly Dennis, always eat cardboard and shred the paper in their hutches (newspaper) and it doesn't cause them any problems. Dennis has been chewing cardboard since he was a baby and he is now 18 months old.
 
thank you for your replies. eric often nibbles the boxes he has to play in and on. suppose i'm just trying to fathom out why he's not pooping so much even tho he's eating and binkying:?
 
Tinkerbell used to eat newspaper, shredded paper and phone directories, she loved them :D
 
Can't say in general but had this prob with mine. (Dental/stasis bun) It turned out that he had a mild overgrowth of the wrong bacteria in his caecum (dybiosis) & they were causing his colon to slow down. He was trying to get it moving again by eating pure waste fiber - wood pulp. He also had squidgy poohs.

The final answer was a short course of Ranitidine (Zantac). [metaclopramide - maxolon only gets the top end of the gut moving - the problem is the caecum/colon bottom end]
Fiberplex paste has fiber & probiotic & is the best to get the gut flora back in balance. But I gather Eric is a bit fiesty too. Can get probiotic to add to water.
Diet - nothing with starch or sugar at all. Keep low on "nutrient" - greens & veg, & pellets. Extra high on hay & fibrous leaves from shrubs & trees.

Just have a feeling from reading several of your recent posts that Eric has a similar prob. Everything crossed for you both.
xxx Judy & Thumper xxx

ps. Although many buns are OK eating cardboard paper etc. it's not a good idea if they've GI probs. They can get caecal impaction or obstruction with it.
 
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Can't say in general but had this prob with mine. (Dental/stasis bun) It turned out that he had a mild overgrowth of the wrong bacteria in his caecum (dybiosis) & they were causing his colon to slow down. He was trying to get it moving again by eating pure waste fiber - wood pulp. He also had squidgy poohs.

The final answer was a short course of Ranitidine (Zantac). [metaclopramide - maxolon only gets the top end of the gut moving - the problem is the caecum/colon bottom end]
Fiberplex paste has fiber & probiotic & is the best to get the gut flora back in balance. But I gather Eric is a bit fiesty too. Can get probiotic to add to water.
Diet - nothing with starch or sugar at all. Keep low on "nutrient" - greens & veg, & pellets. Extra high on hay & fibrous leaves from shrubs & trees.

Just have a feeling from reading several of your recent posts that Eric has a similar prob. Everything crossed for you both.
xxx Judy & Thumper xxx

should i give him his cardboard back then - or does it not help? he's sproadically eating hay and has happily munched green beans, basil and a cabbage leaf but he's not eating many pellets during the last few days.

he seemed ok wednesday when i got him home, thursday fine too. this all seemed to start when he had his post op check up on friday and as he'd pulled one of the stitches out, he had to have an antibiotic injection as it had opened up a bit.

i've looked and i don't have any fibreplex to hand but the one time i did have to add it to his water, he refused to drink.

really am at my wits end. 12 hours til vet opens. exhausted but scared to sleep as i'm constantly on poo watch.
 
all cardboard removed - i think. all i can find is a sachet of bio-lapis (protexin). should i try adding some to his drinking water?

just tried a tummy massage:roll: lasted 5 seconds til he bounded away playfully:(
 
Charlie always chews it, and he's always fine. I don't know how much he actually swallows but I always see him munching it
 
It's actually eating the cardboard & paper that's inadvisable.
I honestly believe that Eric will be OK tonight, but needs to see the vet tomorrow, to PREVENT the situation from getting worse. If poss take a specimen of his poops with you.
( If it helps I usually had 3 weeks warning of gut slowing down before we had stasis. Sadly my GP vet did not understand the significance of the symptoms or know about zantac as a hind gut stimulant.)
 
Beau gets thru a couple of pages of the yellow pages, a bit of an Argos catalogue and at least one kitchen roll a day and seems to be none the worse - touchwood! My mum said "that can't be healthy" when she saw him eating the yellow pages, but I couldn't bare to take it off him, it's his favourite!
 
Beau gets thru a couple of pages of the yellow pages, a bit of an Argos catalogue and at least one kitchen roll a day and seems to be none the worse - touchwood! My mum said "that can't be healthy" when she saw him eating the yellow pages, but I couldn't bare to take it off him, it's his favourite!

I accept that many buns do eat wood pulp products without problems. When I discussed the matter with an exotic's specialist vet at a referral center, I was given the information about risks & inadvisability of allowing it as detailed above.

I believe that you will find a post on this forum within the last 12 months warning against the use of shredded paper in litter trays for the same reason.
 
Nettle has always eaten paper, and will actively seek it out - sometimes she'll have some nice greens or a treat sitting next to the paper and guess which she chooses? :) I have tried so many times to stop her eating it but I've now resigned myself to taking the bits with lots of dye on away and leaving her with the plainer stuff. Most places use soy ink so provided your bunny is going to the loo properly (as Nettle always has) it should be fine.
 
How's Eric doing today? Hope he's ok :wave:

Daisy is a terror for shredding and eating the wallpaper, but so far it doesn't seem to have affected her ... obviously I try and keep her away from it as the side effect of her dietary choice is a destroyed house :roll:

Vibes for Eric
 
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