Leaving Caecotrophs?

I've changed my bun's diet as when I recently adopted him he was eating Mayfield Fruity & leaving lots of caecotrophs.

My vet said he wasn't getting enouh fibre in his diet & recommended I switch to Burgess Excel pellets so I've changed his food gradually to this & he loves the pellets but I still have the problem of him leaving his caecotrophs.
I also received lots of helpful advice here regarding his diet

His diet consists of about 15g of Excel morning & night (9am & 10pm) with a small bowl of veg for tea (4pm) - and unlimited hay in his litter tray & readigrass in his manger.
He is eating at least his bodysize in hay & grass a day, if not more.

Otherwise he seems well & happy. He's a house bunny & loves having the run of my lounge, although I can only let him out supervised for a few hours a day as I don't yet fully trust my kittens not to hurt him when they're playing.

I'm not sure if this is related to his previous condition as he's a rescue bunny that was in forced GI stasis last October because he was abandoned without food or water.

Is there anything else I could do to change his diet to encourage him to eat his caecotrophs? & should I take him back to the vet?
I'm not sure if this is something of concern or if I'm worrying needlessly.

One of my bunnies produced excess caecotrophs on Excel and I found out on here that a few other bunnies have had the same problem too. Too much redigrass may also cause the same problem. Our buns only receive a small amount of redigrass a day as a treat - I tend to use more expensive hay in hay racks (Timothy hay) and farm hay in litter trays.

You may want to try Science Selective pellets with your bun - I can't think of many buns who have problems with excess caecotrophs whilst eating SS. However they didn't suit my problem bun hence I have ended up using Oxbow Bunny Basics which cause no tummy problems - just a hole in the purse due to the cost :roll:

I've found excel can be quite rich. He may also not be liking a specific veg. I'd cut out the veg for a couple of days then slowly reintroduce each type bit by bit. Same with the readigrass.

I think lots of vets recommend excel as it is a pelleted food that is readily available in petshops.
I don't know of any bun eating excel that doesn't leave excess caecotrophs.

Two good pellet foods that dont seem to cause this problem (that I think the majority of peps on here use) are Science Selective, which can be expensive if you've more than a couple of buns, or Allen and Page which can be bought from a good feed merchant, or online

Thanks for all the advice, I've only had him about 3 weeks so it's been a learning curve for me & changing his diet just after I got him was interesting too, but he doesn't seem to mind.
He's had this problem since I got him - although it did settle a bit when I was switching him to Excel it's now flared up again.
I've also noticed his poos are a lot bigger over the last few days than they were before but I guess they're gonna change from time to time anyway.


I'll try the SS & see if he's any better on that & also cut out the readigrass & veg for a couple of days and then re-introduce slowly as suggested.
I don't have any timothy hay but I assume meadow hay will suffice?
& re-introduce readigrass as a treat instead of unlimited.

A rabbit's diet should be 90% hay with a small portion of veggies. Pellets should be regarded as a treat, and only a small handful given per day.
Over production of caecotrophs is a symptom of too rich a diet.
Mine eat excel and I never see a caecotroph. Pellets are brilliant for rattling in a container to get your buns to come wherever you want them!

Mine are both on Vitakraft sensitive for dwarf rabbits although they do other versions such as beauty for long haired bunnies and they have i would say a good ratio of poo's going on.

It is more expensive but they seem to like it particilarly the red hearts and yellow stars

They also have Timothy hay and veg although i find there poo's can go really really soft verging on diahorrea when they have a good portion of veg

Thanks for the advice everyone, you've given me lots to think about

I still have loads of Excel so I might try cutting down on that & stopping the grass & veg for a couple of days, see how he is on just hay & a few pellets then re-introduce grass/veg one at a time.

If he's still having the same prob on hay & pellets then I'll try changing the pellet brand. I can always give the excess pellet food to my local rescue

I've also got a spare bag of Excel that I was gonna take to the pet shop & exchange for SS but the lil rascal bit through the bag last night :lol::lol:

you could also leave out the evening dose of pellets and see if that helps, i have to say mine are doing very on SS.

Oo good idea, I'll try that too, thanks

Unfortunately I didn't get much advice on feeding when I adopted him apart from them telling me he eats (at the time) Mayfield Fruity & carrots/sprouts/broccoli etc & I incorrectly assumed it would be fairly easy to feed him.

They also told me he doesn't like pellet food & refused to eat it which is why they put him on Fruity.. but he loves pellets :roll:

I'm still learning, but it's all good

My Benj was awful for selective feeding but did not like the other pellets so i was relieved to find the Vitakraft which he did actually eat.