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How to tell if a bunny is too fat to clean their bum?

Boudicca

Warren Veteran
This may seem obvious BUT.. for someone who hasn't seen many pet bunnys and is fairly new to owning bunnies it's actually quite hard to know if a bunny is overweight and unable to clean themself properly?! Daisy is bigger than Dudley and always has been, she loves her food sweet and savoury Dudley isn't that fussed and doesn't have a sweet tooth! daisy always hoovers up any spare food!! Daisy also loves hay but since his dental Dudley doesn't eat as much! However both have nice big golden poos! However for the last month or so Daisy has started having a mucky bottom which smells like strong cecotrophs!! Very occassionally I will find some uneaten! I have cut down on the variety of veg the only thing that's really changed is feeding them Dust Free Hay stalky which she loves! Could it be that? Or is it simply that she has got too overweight to clean herself/take her cecotrophs properly considering she has nice big golden poos?!
 
Can you cut out her pellet feed and just give her hay and green veg/herbs ?

What is her weight ?

Can you feel her ribs easily if you stroke her sides ?

Does she have a large dewlap ?
 
How much pellets would she eat? One of mine had a mucky bum untill I reduced the pellets waaaaaaaay down - about 35 - 40 g per day - I have mini lops and since I have done that I dont see the poo they eat and no mucky bum...... any good to ya??:wave:
 
How much pellets would she eat? One of mine had a mucky bum untill I reduced the pellets waaaaaaaay down - about 35 - 40 g per day - I have mini lops and since I have done that I dont see the poo they eat and no mucky bum...... any good to ya??:wave:

Ditto here - my Trixie is not fussed on hay and had a mucky bottom. The advice was to drop the pellets right down and she's been fine ever since.

I took her to the vets to be on the safe side, but he said the advice was spot on :lol:
 
I give them about 10 pellets in the morning and then in the evening, that's between them not each, so it's not a lot! It's Science Selective as Excel gave Dudley some problems!! Yes she has started to get a dewlap! morning and evening I also feed a bowl of greens (2-3 leaves), kale and herbs and a small piece of carrot chopped! The rest of the time they have loads of different hays! Daisy was a little over 2kg last time she was officially weighed in October ( I don't have a suitable pair of scales to do it myself :oops: but the vet didn't think she was over weight?!) She definately feels more 'rotund' than Dudley I can just about feel her ribs but they are not as obvious as the Dudster!

Hmmm I think I should separate their feeding for a few weeks and see how we get on?!

I'll try and get some piccies at the weekend!
 
I think maybe Daisy is being a piggy and eating Dudley's food :no:

I doubt the messy bum is because she is too "large" more likely she is eating too many pellets and veg
 
judging from when i last saw daisy, she isnt so podgy she couldnt clean herself. i think she is just too greedy and its upsetting her tum!

she is a funny one that little daisy!
 
:lol: she is most definately a little piggy in fact I think I call her piggy more often than I call her Daisy!!! She really loves her food... which I can relate too :oops::lol: I feel bad for Dudley because he eats so much more slowly than Daisy and he likes to stop and come back to it, except Miss Piggy has stuffed it all by the time he returns!!
 
How much pellets would she eat? One of mine had a mucky bum untill I reduced the pellets waaaaaaaay down - about 35 - 40 g per day - I have mini lops and since I have done that I dont see the poo they eat and no mucky bum...... any good to ya??:wave:

we all have different ideas about pellets, dont we? mine are on about 20 a day.... and i mix adult ones with junior and dwarf, cos they are mini lops and much too big in my view, but the vet thinks they are in excellent health, so i'm hoping its ok.

their bums are so furry its difficult for them to keep perfectly clean, especially as they like to lounge in litter trays (even though they have lounging trays available, which they also use). i've invested in some hairdressing scissors and stopped trying to clean fluffy bums, i just snip off anything that looks mucky or the start of a hair matt.
 
It could be the hay, although unlikely. I had a bunny who started producing excess caecotrophs, despite the diet being very low in pellets and high in hay. It turned out to be a certain hay that she loved so much that she was eating massive quantities of it. I guess they can have too much of anything! Anyway, I stopped that hay, and the problem resolved itself.
 
It could be the hay, although unlikely. I had a bunny who started producing excess caecotrophs, despite the diet being very low in pellets and high in hay. It turned out to be a certain hay that she loved so much that she was eating massive quantities of it. I guess they can have too much of anything! Anyway, I stopped that hay, and the problem resolved itself.

Oh no Daisy loves the Dust Free Hay and this is the first time shes really produced nice big golden poos so I was very happy especially because of her stasis episodes last year!

Its actually worrying because she doesnt like being picked up and I am terrified that this will continue and she'll get fly strike! She was pongy again this morning so Im hiring another pair of hands to help me tackle her botty this evening!
 
My bun probably would have been OK with the hay if I'd removed the pellets from the diet altogether, but they were having about 10g each at the time. When I changed the hay over, she didn't eat so much hay, but still plenty enough, and there were no more excess caecotrophs. You could possibly try reducing the pellets down still more before abandoning the dust free hay.
 
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