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Not drinking??

B

Bellatrix18

Warren Scout
My bunny Mork has never been that bothered with drinking. I offer him a bottle and a bowl, put a small ammount of fruit juice in his water so it is more appealing to him, and have also started soaking all his greens so he gets extra water from them, however his poos seem very small, hard and black compared to his wifey, Bronwyns poops which are big (about 3x the size) and much lighter brown.

I was wondering if anything else might be causing this. He's also not too keen on hay (although he does eat it) and prefers grass.

Any info or advice would be great as I'm worrying quite a bit about him! :?
 
The size of a rabbits poo is usually more related to their fibre intake.

You mention that the rabbit concerned is not a good hay eater which is one of the most important methods of getting fibre into him.

The other considerations which need to be made include how what type of dried food you feed and also which type of dried food you feed. It is worth transferring your rabbit to a high fibre food such as Oxbow Bunny Basics T, Allen and Page natural pellets or Science Selective as these are the highest in fibre that can be obtained. If you are feeding more dried food than an egg cup for each rabbit a day I would slowly reduce the amount until you achieve this. Often rabbits fill up on pellets and then dont feel hungry enough to eat their hay.

There are lots of tricks you can do to encourage a rabbit to eat hay this includes putting dried herbs, leaves and flower heads which can be bought amongst the hay making them have to scavenge for them. You can also sprinkle the pellets in the hay.

If your rabbit eats lots of grass this is extreemely good and equates to them eating hay.
 
Thanks so much for the info :) I wondered if it could have something to do with fibre but since he eats so much grass I wasn't sure...

I feed 1 small handful of Excel pellets between my two bunnies per day so he gets just less than an egg cup. Also, he isn't too fussed with his pellets and Bronwyn seems to get a fair few of his. He also does love his grass. He is either in his run or free ranging during the day and all he seems to do is mow the lawn :)

I have been feeding a range of different hays (Oat hay, Herbage, Orchard grass...) so they seem more exciting than his normal meadow hay which he seems to enjoy... but I haven't seen much change in his poos really. :?

I will try mixing pellets and greens (as he loves his fresh food) in with his hay to see if it makes a difference... Also, he does enjoy the herbage more than most hay which has added dandylion and marigold.

I might take him down to the vets to get his teeth checked too as him preferring softer foods like greens and grass to pellets and hay makes me think his molars might be a bit uncomfortable :?

I just hope he's ok and I can get his poops back to normal.
 
I agree with the advice above, but just to add, when my two have been out on grass all day long, especially when the grass is longer and they don't run out as they do now and resort to their hay at times, and therefore eat exclusively grass throughout the day or for a good number of hours, their droppings are much smaller and darker. Grass is very high in fibre too. However, by morning, with a night eating just hay the droppings will enlarge and get paler.
 
A dental check is a good idea but if he is eating a lot of grass and veg he will be getting most of his moisture from that. I rarely see my lot drink and they eat lots of grass! They still enjoy hay though :)
 
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