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mucky bum/diet advice

Hugbut

Mama Doe
I am at my wits end with my Husbands bunny, Henry. He always has a wet bum from sitting in his wee (he gets cleaned out everyday but still manages it) and his poops are a bit loose so as you can imagine his bum is a mess :( I am pretty sure it's his diet that's to blame. He is on museli which he picks through, we have tried on several occasions to get him onto excel nuggets but he just refuses to eat it. He also doesn't eat much hay, despite us buying all different varieties to try and tempt him. We are currently trying to get him to eat the new p@h food and forage stuff (it's like nuggets with hay in it) with limited success. He is such a lovely rabbit but he smells bad, we are always washing him, and as i said before, he is cleaned out everyday, so I'm not sure what else to do :( We are desperate to get him neutered but there's no way I'm letting him go to be done in that state. He's had his teeth checked but they are fine. Anyone got advice on how to improve his diet/is that what the problem is likely to be? Any advice greatfully recieved :wave:

ETA: Would it be worth trying him on a prebiotic?
 
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yep you could put him on a probiotic, have you tried him on science selective? the problem with slowing introducing the pellets is that he may still ignore them and pick through the musili instead cos he already knows where all the tasty bits. give it a go first and if still ignores the pellets just give him pellets alone, i had to do this with petal. sorry he doesn't eat much hay, have you tried just plain hay? i buy mine a huge big bail for £8 and they love it the best, sometimes the simpler the better. i hope this helps.
 
yep you could put him on a probiotic, have you tried him on science selective? the problem with slowing introducing the pellets is that he may still ignore them and pick through the musili instead cos he already knows where all the tasty bits. give it a go first and if still ignores the pellets just give him pellets alone, i had to do this with petal. sorry he doesn't eat much hay, have you tried just plain hay? i buy mine a huge big bail for £8 and they love it the best, sometimes the simpler the better. i hope this helps.


Can you reccomend a prebiotic? There's one on THE but it's out of stock :?

:wave:
 
How much dry food does he get? If you only feed an eggcup full of pellets then he will be hungry and eat hay. He will also eat the pellets if he is hungry enough. Giving bunnies too much dry food then expecting them to eat hay is a bit like giving kids lots of sweets before dinner then expecting them to eat their veggies.

Eating more hay and giving him a probiiotic as Ted an Petal suggested should sort out his bum.

You say that he is covered in wee, does his litter tray feel wet when you cahnge it? What are you lining it with? Mune have an underbed storage box with newspaper liner the topped with a deep layer of hay so is anout 4 inches thick, that keeps them out of the pee.
 
How much dry food does he get? If you only feed an eggcup full of pellets then he will be hungry and eat hay. He will also eat the pellets if he is hungry enough. Giving bunnies too much dry food then expecting them to eat hay is a bit like giving kids lots of sweets before dinner then expecting them to eat their veggies.

Eating more hay and giving him a probiiotic as Ted an Petal suggested should sort out his bum.

You say that he is covered in wee, does his litter tray feel wet when you cahnge it? What are you lining it with? Mune have an underbed storage box with newspaper liner the topped with a deep layer of hay so is anout 4 inches thick, that keeps them out of the pee.

:wave:
I try to give him as little dry mix as I can, but I worry about him losing weight if he still won't eat hay. His litter tray is lined with a layer of newspaper and then hay on top...we used to use megazorb aswell for him b ut he jus used to dig it all out & leave it in heap :?
 
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He will eat most veg but I limit what he has - I thought veg would only make loose poops worse...have I been doing the wrong thing? :(

:wave:

It's possible to have a perfectly healthy bunny with just feeding hay and veg so he should be fine with veg (especially herbs) if you increase the amount you offer gradually.

You asked about a probiotic, your vet should be able to give you one called Protexin which is a powder to sprinkle onto his dry food.
 
:wave:
I try to give him as little dry mix as I can, but I worry about him losing weight if he still won't eat hay. His litter tray is lined with a layer of newspaper and then hay on top...we used to use megazorb aswell for him b ut he jus used to dig it all out & leave it in heap :?

He won't lose weight, he will just start to eat more hay. Have you tried Excel forgage hay? Or Burns meadow/green oat hay? All 3 of those tend to go down well with most.
 
One of mine won't eat hay. I give them Oxbow Bunny Basics T which is timothy hay based and high in fibre. It is expensive but made a big difference.

Recently he has been getting a bit of a sticky bum again and I amy trying Pro-Fibre which has pre and pro biotics in. Just a sprinkle over their food and they go mad for it.
 
He will eat most veg but I limit what he has - I thought veg would only make loose poops worse...have I been doing the wrong thing? :(

:wave:

I was thinking that if he will eat a variety of veg, I would take him off the mix altogether. If you cut the veg up and mix it in with his hay, he has to forage a bit for it and it could get him eating more hay. I wouldn't give him any sugary veg though. No carrots or fruits, just herbs(parsley is a favorite here) and dark leafy greens. When you get his bottom cleared up, add in a pellet if you wish. I would suggest Science Selective, my buns think it's a treat:) Plus, it has good fibre content. I would also toss his pellets in with his hay to encourage hay eating. The above is what has worked for my bun Smokey. She is prone to having a mucky bottom and I have controlled it successfully for months now. She is also a bit porky:lol: which doesn't help, but we are working on it.
BTW, Bio-Lapis is a good pre/pro biotic. It is what my holistic vet recommended and I trust him very much.
 
Thank you for your advice everyone, you have been fantastic :wave:
We got Henry some dandelion and green oat hay yesterday which he is reluctantly nibbling occasionally, we also got him some SS today (don't know why I didn't think to try him on that before :roll:) I tried hand feeding him single pellets so they were more like treats, which seems to have worked :D We are a long way off normal poops, but they are a bit rounder today :lol: I will keep you all updated - thank you again for all your advice :wave:
 
He will eat most veg but I limit what he has - I thought veg would only make loose poops worse...have I been doing the wrong thing? :(

:wave:

Of course, it might not be the same with your rabbit, but this was the situ with my buns:

They were on Bunny Brunch when I bought them, so I kept them on that for about a year. Then the pet shop stopped selling it so I switched them to Russel Rabbit. They'd had upset stomachs throughout their lives, so as soon as I realised this wasn't normal (they're my first buns and I though it was just their ceacotrophs) I switched to Supa Rabbit Excel in case it was selective feeding that might be causing it. That didn't work either. After about 2 and a half years of loose droppings, and looking back, pain, I tried a diet I'd come across in a book called 'Dr Susan Brown's hay and vegetable diet'. It was an absolute miracle. The boys tums righted themselves and they had 3 fantastic years of it. It is VERY expensive but worth it for healthy buns. At least consider it if all else fails with yours.
 
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