Poo on feet...cleaning advice

Hi

My house bunny likes to sit on the top of her plastic sleeping room in her hutch to sleep, this is fine apart from times when she does the wetter poos and then sleeps in them and her back legs get dirty with poo and bits of hay/saw dust.

This doesn't happen very often, but it can't be good for her... [or my carpet ] I can usually clean most of it off, but does anyone have any good tips on cleaning her legs?

Also, I've just removed her plastic sleeping room [she never goes in it] and her hutch is now just saw dust and hay. Is that ok to do? Does she really need a house in her hutch?

thanks all

I'd use non fragranced baby wipes to clean her up with. I'm not sure which you mean by wetter poos :? if you mean her caecotrophs, and shes's not eating them, I'd investigate why not, but it sounds like you may need reduce to her pellets & or veg and increase her hay intake. I'd also try to avoid using sawdust if possible as it can cause resperatory problems.

And as for her little house, if she loves to climb on it, I'd leave it, sometimes they like to be higher up so they can see what's going on around them. Maybe she might like a cardboard box or few toys to amuse herself with too.

Hope that helps!

You may find the poo easy enough to brush off when its dry but I would wonder why she is having wet poo - rabbit droppings should be big, round, dry and golden really perhaps they are the special poo's she should be eating? Maybe take a look at her diet, it should be 90% hay and just 10% high fibre pellets and veg (if she's used to it).

I too would leave the house if she likes to sit on it - they are usually rather small that's why rabbits don't use them. You could replace it with a cardboard box with a nice opening cut in to it so she can go in or sit on the top or destroy it as she chooses. How big is her cage and does she have lots of free range time?

Saw dust/woodshavings are not recommended for rabbits as it can cause respiratory problems, perhaps investigate Megazorb or a paper bedding or just hay as an alternative.

Hi

Thanks so much for your reply. Yes, they are the 'special' poos she's eating, they aren't very runny, it's just she seems to sit in them every now and then and getting messy. Thinking about it it could be because she ate a rather large cabbage leaf. [She's used to veg, but this leaf was pretty big!] Thanks for the advice about 90% hay / 10% dry feed. I think I might have been giving her too much of the dry food - I'm going to adjust that going forward. She always has lots of hay in her hutch to munch on too.

And good idea re the cardboard box, I'll try that.

Her hutch is one of the big cages and she gets a minimum of 5 hours out each day, with lots of paper, cardboard, toys to play with. And all day on teh weekends.

thanks again

Ah that's good to hear that she has lots of free time - so many indoor cages really aren't big enough for rabbits (even though they are sold as such) and some really don't get enough free range time

I'm sure she'll love the box - mine do!