Help with poo! I know you love a poo chat!!

I picked up my 2 new foster buns yesterday and one of them has quite small dark poos. I am not sure exactly what this means.

They have come from rescue and their feeding regime is Burgess junior pellets in the morning and evening with some veg mid morning. They have hay and ready grass and a few herbs too.

One of the buns has dental issues and I'm not sure yet of his ability to eat hay and the other has come from very neglected conditions so everyone was just glad to get her to eat some pellets.

They are both dwarf lops, what would you recommend as a suitable feeding regime for them and how slowly should this be introduced?

Thanks, it's my first time fostering and I really want to get it right!!

How much pellets do they get between them?

I was told yesterday that they have a handful morning and night. Looked like a generous handful to me.

If you are going to keep on with morning and night pellets, slowly reduce the amount of pellets they are getting down to an egg cup between them in the morning and then another at night, whilst continueing the veg.

If they are on Burgess you may want to consider changing them over to a higher fibre pellet once they have settled in, something like SS or A&P or oxbow.

Ideally you want poos which are bigger and golden which crumble in your hands. Some rabbits who are eat a lot of grass do tend to have darker and slightly less crumbly poos than those who mainly eat hay.

Is there are reason why they are on Junior pellets and not adult pellets? Junior pellets are more likely to produce darker, less fibrous poos because of their make up - more protein for growing bunnies that isn't necessary in anybun other than the really young.

I'd also go for a slow reduction in pellets, however, not drop down too quickly to an egg cup because if they aren't good hay eaters, you want them to keep eating something. Reduce over a period of time and you'll soon see a difference.

I also would ween off Excel - rabbits like Excel because of the alfalfa content and given those to eat, a rabbit would choose to fill up on them rather than anything else - bit like offering a kid cereal or pizza. I understand that this might be difficult if the rescue you are fostering for uses Excel. In which case just the reduction in quantity would help.

I'd just take things slowly but ultimately the balance will need to be heavily in favour of hay and an egg cup of pellets each only during the day.

I only feed pellets once a day with my own. Veg and pile of new hay in the morning, then they are free range to eat grass etc and a ss pellets in the evening and they all have big golden poos.

At what speed would you make any changes?

alio71 said:

I only feed pellets once a day with my own. Veg and pile of new hay in the morning, then they are free range to eat grass etc and a ss pellets in the evening and they all have big golden poos.

At what speed would you make any changes?

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Now that's a tricky one as each bunny is different. One of our early fosters never had much hay and it took us 6 months to get him to love it. In the in between time, we gave him more pellet that we would with any other rabbit as he just wouldn't eat anything else so it was important to keep them eating.

However, as a rule, I'd normally suggest removing any uneaten pellets once fed - in other words if they leave any when you feed, remove the excess amount and cut down by that the next feed. So in theory it could be only a matter of a week or so. Ony you will know but watching the output. The issue will be if they are not used to using their teeth for grinding hay, it will take time for them to learn to do this and there is always a possibility that it won't be easy for them if the molars are ridged etc as it can make grinding harder than for a rabbit with good flat molar surfaces.

I'd just watch each day and adjust (either up or down) over a period of a few weeks if possible. If the poos stop coming as much when you cut down the pellet, just make sure it's not too drastic and if it is, then add a bit more until they learn to love their hay - which they will I am sure.

The Duchess said:

Is there are reason why they are on Junior pellets and not adult pellets? Junior pellets are more likely to produce darker, less fibrous poos because of their make up - more protein for growing bunnies that isn't necessary in anybun other than the really young.

I'd also go for a slow reduction in pellets, however, not drop down too quickly to an egg cup because if they aren't good hay eaters, you want them to keep eating something. Reduce over a period of time and you'll soon see a difference.

I also would ween off Excel - rabbits like Excel because of the alfalfa content and given those to eat, a rabbit would choose to fill up on them rather than anything else - bit like offering a kid cereal or pizza. I understand that this might be difficult if the rescue you are fostering for uses Excel. In which case just the reduction in quantity would help.

I'd just take things slowly but ultimately the balance will need to be heavily in favour of hay and an egg cup of pellets each only during the day.

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I believe they were on the junior because the one had a jaw abcess and they were glad he was eating and the other they have only just managed to get to eat any pellets. They have asked me to start changing them over to adult pellets which I have started to mix in this morning.

Would the bun with dental issues have any problem eating the hay? He has had a front and lower molar removed. I think the other has just never had hay.

I will keep an eye on them today and see what they do actually eat as when they arrived they had a shallow bowl of pellets that they didn't eat until overnight anyway. So they weren't hungry for them. :?

I am hoping the lovely fresh hay I have will be a hit

We've had several rabbits in that have had their incisors removed and don't have a problem processing hay. I used to think that chopping it finely was a good idea to help them get it in their mouths but on reflection I think that they manage just fine with longer stalks. We only had to adapt chopping veg very finely but apart from that they eat normally.

Never had a bun with a molar that was removed but have some here of my own that don't have good molars due age (not much tooth there) but still eat hay and poo for England.

I'd say that you'll get there just given a little time. What bunny can resist lovely fresh hay?

(Readigrass is a good way to encourage them to eat hay type foods too - but I expect you already know that).

Hope you see some quick results.