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Cecal question - bit worried

L

lja401

Warren Scout
Hello,

We have a lovely little rabit called Noel (got him at Christmas time, hence the name). He's 22 weeks old and is a Dwarf Lop. He is a house rabbit and is litter trained already it seems - only had him since 27th December. He's such a good boy! What I'm a bit concerned about though is every day around 1.30pm he'll lie down on the carpet and do one of his cecals - he doesn't go in the litter tray for this which is very unusual. I know he is supposed to eat it but he always leaves it. We have found that he leaves a couple from the night before as well. Should we scoop up the cecal and put it in his litter tray or should we leave it for him to eat from the carpet? How many of these do they do a day? Is it normal for him to leave a few each day?

Thank you.

L, x
 
What are you feeding him and in what quantities ?

If he is getting too many pellets and is consequently not eating enough hay he may not eat all his caecotrophs.
 
Thanks so much for replying. He has hay all day and we give him 3 quarters of a cup full of dried food in the morning and in the evening. The problem is though - he's leaving all the pellets. He won't eat them. Any tips? Could we give him grass?
 
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lja401 said:
Thanks so much for replying. He has hay all day and we give him 3 quarters of a cup full of dried food in the morning and in the evening. The problem is though - he's leaving all the pellets. He won't eat them. Any tips? Could we give him grass?
Click to expand...


When you say 'leaving all the pellets' do you mean you feed a Muesli type mix and he picks out the bits he likes (ie selective feeds) or do you mean you feed a fully pelleted concentrate and he leaves all of it ?
 
Thank you for replying again. We find him a muesli type mix and he picks out all the bits he likes. I've tried feeding him the pellets by hand but he won't touch them. Basically as you said 'selective feeding'. Any ideas?
 
Hiya, you can buy 'complete' foods. Lots to choose from, but you want one that's high in fibre.
Mine have Allen and Page natural pellets, but there are others. Bunny basics T, Science Selective, Excel.
Remember if you are changing over his food, that you will need to introduce it slowly so as not to upset his tummy.
 
As HS says a completely Pelleted feed prevents selective feeding.

I would advise you to gradually change him over to one of them. Here are two of the most popular brands:

http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/shop/rabbit.html

http://www.supremepetfoods.com/products/science/

Whilst you are gradually changing the food over do not top up his dish until its all gone. A Rabbits diet should be 80-90% hay/grass and any concentrate feed should be fed in minimal amounts.

Here is some info about Rabbit Nutrition:

http://www.rabbitwelfare.co.uk/resources/content/leaflet_pdfs/Feeding130807.pdf
 
Thank you so mcuh for your replies. You are all so helpful on here.

I will change him over to one of those foods. Hopefully then he'll stop his selective feeding. Also, one more thing, he leavesthe odd caecatroph on the carpet, should we put it in his litter tray or leave it in the hope that he may eat it? x
 
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I would just throw it away - it sounds as if he's not eating them because his diet is too rich (because he's eating all the yummy bits out of his mix!) so I don't think leaving them will help, and will more than likely just result in bits of squished caecatroph in your carpet!

Personally I would suggest you try science selective rather than excel, as some people find that excel also causes excess caecatrophs. As it seems that your bunny is prone to this anyway, I think you would be better off going to science selective which doesn't seem to cause so much of an issue. It can be a bit harder to find in shops though - although it's freely available online :)
 
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