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White-ish urine + Bunny Basics 15/23?

D

Danigrl8484

New Kit
Hi,

I am starting the 4 week process of switching my 3.5 month bun from Burgess Excel Junior and Dwarf pellets to Bunny Basics 15/23 pellets.
Now she is having white-ish urine in her cage. I thought that perhaps since it was on a dark blue blanket it was just a reaction from the fabric and colour combo (her litter material only looks yellow with urine, but then again I use Bio-catolet which is white and grey originally), but I just found a fecal pellet with like a thin chalky layer on about half of it that was laying in the dried puddle. Strange thing is, I found a fresh wet puddle and it wasn't white-ish until it dried...again, I would have just blamed it on the blanket until I saw the pellet.
From what I've read it's likely due to excess calcium, but the package says that Bunny Basics has a max of 1% calcuim and the Burgess has 0.9%.
Is it indeed probably from the Bunny Basics? Has anyone else had this experience, with or without Bunny Basics?

Should I immediately pull the Bunny Basics from her diet and see if it goes away? Wait a few days and if it does, start switching her over to perhaps Science Selective Junior Rabbit pellets?

Thanks in advance!!!

Danielle
 
Danigrl8484 said:
Hi,

I am starting the 4 week process of switching my 3.5 month bun from Burgess Excel Junior and Dwarf pellets to Bunny Basics 15/23 pellets.
Now she is having white-ish urine in her cage. I thought that perhaps since it was on a dark blue blanket it was just a reaction from the fabric and colour combo (her litter material only looks yellow with urine, but then again I use Bio-catolet which is white and grey originally), but I just found a fecal pellet with like a thin chalky layer on about half of it that was laying in the dried puddle. Strange thing is, I found a fresh wet puddle and it wasn't white-ish until it dried...again, I would have just blamed it on the blanket until I saw the pellet.
From what I've read it's likely due to excess calcium, but the package says that Bunny Basics has a max of 1% calcuim and the Burgess has 0.9%.
Is it indeed probably from the Bunny Basics? Has anyone else had this experience, with or without Bunny Basics?

Should I immediately pull the Bunny Basics from her diet and see if it goes away? Wait a few days and if it does, start switching her over to perhaps Science Selective Junior Rabbit pellets?

Thanks in advance!!!

Danielle
Click to expand...

I would just try feeding less pellets overall and see what happens for a few days. My experience is that urinary sludge often occurs with too many pellets fed. I'd also avoid any high calcium veg, this means kale, spinach, parsley, carrot tops - avoid these for a while as well and feed only poor calcium sources. She doesn't have a salt lick or mineral stone by any chance does she?
 
I believe this pellet is based on alfalfa hay which is higher in calcium.

I use the Oxbow bunny basic T but this is for adult bunnies and have not had calcium problems (one of mine did on Science Selective).

As prettylupin mentioned, keep any veg down that is high in calcium. Plenty of fluids can help flush out excess calcium too.
 
prettylupin said:
I would just try feeding less pellets overall and see what happens for a few days. My experience is that urinary sludge often occurs with too many pellets fed. I'd also avoid any high calcium veg, this means kale, spinach, parsley, carrot tops - avoid these for a while as well and feed only poor calcium sources. She doesn't have a salt lick or mineral stone by any chance does she?
Click to expand...

She normally is not fed any veggies. We held off because she was having tummy problems previously. My partner tried her with a bit of broccoli a couple days ago (her tummy has been fine so far) but it seemed to give her a bit of an upset stomach (gone now) so we are not trying any other veggies until at least a week from then.
No, she does not have a salt lick or mineral stone. I'm not sure what those are really for, and with her tummy I haven't decided to chance it yet.
She is still drinking the same amount of water she always has, and it's freely available to her fresh all day.
Regarding the amount of pellets, we aren't giving her any more pellets than usual, we are just now giving her 1/4 Bunny Basics and 3/4 Burgess Excel. So, same amount of pellets, but wasn't having the white-ish urine before. And it's not thick or pasty, either. Just a bit white and chalky, I suppose.
 
Note:
Right now her diet is just fresh grass (just started giving it to her yesterday), pellets, unlimited water, and a variety of hay (as well as unlimited hay). We ordered a sample pack from the hay experts so we've been trying those out with her. With the exception of the teeny bit of broccoli she has not been fed anything else.
 
Last edited:
prettylupin said:
I would just try feeding less pellets overall and see what happens for a few days. My experience is that urinary sludge often occurs with too many pellets fed. I'd also avoid any high calcium veg, this means kale, spinach, parsley, carrot tops - avoid these for a while as well and feed only poor calcium sources. She doesn't have a salt lick or mineral stone by any chance does she?
Click to expand...

I stand corrected; just spoke with my partner and he said that the urine colour change DID happen right after we upped her pellet intake. I thought it was when we added the new food since the dates were pretty close together.

Thank you very much for your advice, we will start reducing her pellets!
 
How much pellets are you giving in total. Rabbits of all ages only need about an egg cup each a day, this leaves the rest of the diet as hay.

If you have a rabbit who has had gut problems it is really important to ensure that they get a diet really high in hay.

You can use the size of rabbit poos as a good indicator of gut health, the bigger the healthier the gut, an ideal size of a poo should be just smaller than a 5 p piece. If yours are a lot smaller you need to slowly reduce the amount of pellets and increase the hay intake.
 
janice-arc said:
How much pellets are you giving in total. Rabbits of all ages only need about an egg cup each a day, this leaves the rest of the diet as hay.

If you have a rabbit who has had gut problems it is really important to ensure that they get a diet really high in hay.

You can use the size of rabbit poos as a good indicator of gut health, the bigger the healthier the gut, an ideal size of a poo should be just smaller than a 5 p piece. If yours are a lot smaller you need to slowly reduce the amount of pellets and increase the hay intake.
Click to expand...

We were giving 2 tablespoons in the AM and 2 in the PM but we've lessened it somewhat.
She has unlimited access to Timothy hay from Alfalfa King.
Selene weighed 682grams a few days ago and her fecal pellets are the size of peas...?
 
Selene was given Oat,Wheat,and Barley hay last night and this morning and is now having mushy poo in spite of having normal fecals this morning and yesterday.
Looks like they were meant to cecals based on shapes but are not right colour, tight form, and are easily mushed.
Posted this new development in other thread.
 
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