Cecals (sp)?

Ok so I have been looking at photos of rabbit poo :lol: and realised that Fudge is doing cecals and doesnt appear to be eating them like he should, are they meant to eat all of them or just some? Thankyou

my own 2 usually eat them all - unless something spooks them mid-munch.

what foodstuffs does fudge have?

Often caused by too many rich foods or pellets etc.

What pellets is he fed on and how many, not Excel by any chance is it?

I have probably offended 'her' now as I keep calling her a boy Anyway, they have only been with us since sunday evening, Fudge is 8 weeks old and Snowball is 10 weeks. They came with rabbit royale food ( I have some science selective to change too) I have been giving them a tiny handful morning and night with 2 or 3 science selective pellets in it too. They had a bit of cabbage and carrot on sunday evening which they have been eating since they were weaned and the rest of the time they have been munching grass, hay and herbs (Parsley, Basil and Corriander).

Personally, i'd cut out all the herbs and limit their grass intake if possible and introduce things slowly. Their guts are still very young and new foods/changes should be introduced very slowly.

Get back to basics, pellets + hay.

Then introduce one thing at a time and see how they react in 72 hours, if no change, give the same, and if no change again, give something different. If you notice a change (excess cecals) then stop the last item you gave them.

SOme buns are intollerant to certain things, so its important to do it very slowly.

Thankyou, I am wondering if it could be the grass as I dont know how much access they had to grass before, the run is on the grass and attached to the shed and they have been having access to it from 7am -8pm, unless I lock them in the shed I cant really stop them from eating it but I will stop with the herbs and and see if this helps.

may I join in with this. I have a similar question, my bunny is coming up for 13 weeks and has pellets (mix of wagg and excel from breeder, but changing onto just excel) hay, and the odd treaty bit (dried food rather than fresh) Yday there were quite a few caecals left and today was one, but he then did one on the carpet and only ate a bit of it, and the same a bit later.

Advice is limit pellets and give more hay, but I wondered what the best thing with babies is as I am also told they need unlimited pellets as babies.

Can anyone help? this advice would also be useful to the OP too

I havnt heard about unlimited pellets for babies, just thought they would eat more hay or grass if they ran out and were hungry! They havnt completely emptied there bowl yet though! I am a bit worried about all the cecals though, I havnt seen her eat any yet? was about to post about not seeing any all morning but went and had a look and she has done more which have been left!

minilops79 said:

I havnt heard about unlimited pellets for babies, just thought they would eat more hay or grass if they ran out and were hungry! They havnt completely emptied there bowl yet though! I am a bit worried about all the cecals though, I havnt seen her eat any yet? was about to post about not seeing any all morning but went and had a look and she has done more which have been left!

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claire** said:

may I join in with this. I have a similar question, my bunny is coming up for 13 weeks and has pellets (mix of wagg and excel from breeder, but changing onto just excel) hay, and the odd treaty bit (dried food rather than fresh) Yday there were quite a few caecals left and today was one, but he then did one on the carpet and only ate a bit of it, and the same a bit later.

Advice is limit pellets and give more hay, but I wondered what the best thing with babies is as I am also told they need unlimited pellets as babies.

Can anyone help? this advice would also be useful to the OP too

Click to expand...

Some people advise about giving young buns unlimited pellets...however unlmited hay is much more beneficial as far as Im concerned....they need to eat hay from a young age to have good digestive sytems and good teeth.
Excel has been know to cause some messy bums in buns before...Ive had this with one of my buns whilst the other one was fine and so I changed to Science Selective and that helped. I also changed another bun from muesli mix that he was on to SS. He took a while to change but now goes mad in circles for them.
I also use Oxbow Bunny Basics/T whichis very good as high in fibre.

Buns will fill up on pellets and not eat enough hay if sometimes given the option...the pellets are made to be tasty and moreish for them so its like eating sweets! Remember that Hay is the buns main course and pellets is dessert. The only reason we need to feed pellets is to make sure we are giving our buns the extra nutrients that perhaps we are not providing them which they would get in the wild.
Fresh herbs and plants and wild forage plants etc are a great additive to their diets...its ever so easy to forage too...alot to be found in the garden and just about when walking. Have a look at the foraging 2011 thread.

If buns leave their uneaten cecals it can attract flies...this can be a huge problem as the buns can get fly strike. To make sure the buns eat all their cecals you need to cut back on pellets first and possibly also fresh herbs....often by cutting back the pellets they will eat more hay and then eat their cecals for the extra nutrients. This is very important in a buns health.

I think some people give an egg cup a day for buns? Though Id prob. give a little more for a younger on...though again...if there are extra cecals I would give hay and cut the pellets right back
hope this helped - sorry abit long!:roll::lol:

I too would cut out the greens for now. I'd also try and get them off the Rabbit Royale which is a mix food if I remember rightly! Mixes tend to have things like sweetcorn and peas in which are very sweet and sweet veg ALWAYS gives my Minibun excess cecals. Baby corn, peas, mange tout, carrot, fruit are all things she can only have in very small quantities. Hence why we stick with herbs and foraged food which is much closer to their natural diet but again best to not give anything other than hay and pellets (or mix if that is what they are on, don't suddenly change over) until their tummies are older and more settled.

chelle said:

Some people advise about giving young buns unlimited pellets...however unlmited hay is much more beneficial as far as Im concerned....they need to eat hay from a young age to have good digestive sytems and good teeth.
Excel has been know to cause some messy bums in buns before...Ive had this with one of my buns whilst the other one was fine and so I changed to Science Selective and that helped. I also changed another bun from muesli mix that he was on to SS. He took a while to change but now goes mad in circles for them.
I also use Oxbow Bunny Basics/T whichis very good as high in fibre.

Buns will fill up on pellets and not eat enough hay if sometimes given the option...the pellets are made to be tasty and moreish for them so its like eating sweets! Remember that Hay is the buns main course and pellets is dessert. The only reason we need to feed pellets is to make sure we are giving our buns the extra nutrients that perhaps we are not providing them which they would get in the wild.
Fresh herbs and plants and wild forage plants etc are a great additive to their diets...its ever so easy to forage too...alot to be found in the garden and just about when walking. Have a look at the foraging 2011 thread.

If buns leave their uneaten cecals it can attract flies...this can be a huge problem as the buns can get fly strike. To make sure the buns eat all their cecals you need to cut back on pellets first and possibly also fresh herbs....often by cutting back the pellets they will eat more hay and then eat their cecals for the extra nutrients. This is very important in a buns health.

I think some people give an egg cup a day for buns? Though Id prob. give a little more for a younger on...though again...if there are extra cecals I would give hay and cut the pellets right back
hope this helped - sorry abit long!:roll::lol:

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Thankyou I think she has eaten more today as there doesnt seem as much as usual. (either that or she isnt doing as much)

Schuette said:

I too would cut out the greens for now. I'd also try and get them off the Rabbit Royale which is a mix food if I remember rightly! Mixes tend to have things like sweetcorn and peas in which are very sweet and sweet veg ALWAYS gives my Minibun excess cecals. Baby corn, peas, mange tout, carrot, fruit are all things she can only have in very small quantities. Hence why we stick with herbs and foraged food which is much closer to their natural diet but again best to not give anything other than hay and pellets (or mix if that is what they are on, don't suddenly change over) until their tummies are older and more settled.

Click to expand...

Thankyou I have got some science selective to change them on too, just been adding a couple of these pellets to it for now!

Should I be really worried that there is still quite a few cecals that are being left still or is it not too much of a problem if they are eating and drinking normally and seem fine? I Clean out morning and night and dont remove till then, by which time though they are squished and stuck to the floor!