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Another poorly bunny cannot be a coincidence :o(

R

ripminnie

Wise Old Thumper
I am convinced that my new big bag of burgess excel is making my bunnies poorly :( last week I opened this new bag, and a couple of days later Daisy stopped eating and was ill all weekend. I got home tonight and OH said Olly didnt want his tea. Olly has never, ever refused his meals. I went to compare food bags as I still have a bit of the last one left, and although they say they are the same thing, the new one has lots of foreign writing on whereas the old one is totally English. And the list of ingredients on the new bag includes egg shells, whereas the old one doesn't. They smell different too and are bigger. I'm convinced this is what the problem is and will be binning the new stuff. Has anyone else had similar experience? Olly seems ok again now, he's had some hay and a few of the old pellets, maybe it just upset him a little rather than a lot like Daisy, because Daisy has a lot more (being a lot bigger)? :?
 
I don't use Excel now, although when I did I noticed that sometimes the pellets of a new batch looked a bit different. Hope you can get more of the old batch for them.
 
Thanks for the heads up, forwarned is forarmed and all that. Did you contact Excel? I have always found pet food companies very cooperative in the past when being alerted to issues with their products and if no-one tells them they aren't always aware there is an issue. They will usually compensate for the food too, Vitapet sent me my money back and about £50 worth of treats when I had rat food with indian meal moth infestation and Supreme (for the same problem) sent me 10 kg od Reggie Rat which was sadly for our 2 year old rat who had already gone off that and preferred the P-at H own brand, the RSPCA were grateful though. Hope the buns are ok.

PS: get the batch number off the bag if you've thrown it already, they will need that to look into it.
 
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RedFraggle said:
Thanks for the heads up, forwarned is forarmed and all that. Did you contact Excel? I have always found pet food companies very cooperative in the past when being alerted to issues with their products and if no-one tells them they aren't always aware there is an issue. They will usually compensate for the food too, Vitapet sent me my money back and about £50 worth of treats when I had rat food with indian meal moth infestation and Supreme (for the same problem) sent me 10 kg od Reggie Rat which was sadly for our 2 year old rat who had already gone off that and preferred the P-at H own brand, the RSPCA were grateful though. Hope the buns are ok.

PS: get the batch number off the bag if you've thrown it already, they will need that to look into it.
Click to expand...

I am definitely going to contact them, I've only noticed it today. Thanks for your input :wave: rabbit food should not have animal products in it though!! And if they changed the ingredients they should state that on the bag! I'm so annoyed :censored:
 
Greenleaf Animal Rescue said:
Have you considered the possibility of Mycotoxins?

If you google mycotoxins and rabbits you will get quite a few useful results.
Click to expand...

Oh my god. Thank you for that. I've never heard of it, but just had a look and was horrified :shock: it does sound very familiar and I'm very worried now. I don't know if it could be the food or the hay? That's terrifying. :(
 
Just looked at the ingredients of my £16 bag. Eggshells? What's up with that? Is that normal?
Both of mine have not been eating as much of it but I put it down to Smoo's teeth issues. :?
 
I'm going to ring them tomorrow if I get time while they're open, otherwise I will be sending them a letter/email. Does this sound good?

Hi,

I recently purchased a 10kg bag of the adult rabbit pellets to cover me over Christmas from Pets at Home. I usually only buy the 2kg bags. I've just read the ingredients and they are different from the usual small bags I buy. It can be very dangerous to change a rabbit's food suddenly with no crossover from one to the other, but it is not marked on the package that the ingredients have changed. One of my rabbits is currently receiving veterinary treatment for a jaw abscess so it is vitally important that she eats well and this could have seriously upset her stomach. Secondly I noticed that the ingredients now contain egg shells. Why are you using an animal product in a food for rabbits? They are herbivores and cannot eat animal products. I am very worried about both of these issues and concerned for my pets. I spent £16 something on this big bag of food and now I cannot afford to buy smaller bags as well.

I think it's irresponsible of such a well respected company to not notify consumers on the package of changes like these.
Click to expand...
 
How are all your bunnies this morning RIPMinnie?

I'm sorry I didn't reply to your PM, I accidently deleted it :oops::roll: and couldn't remember what it said. Sorry :(
 
Just to say, we've coincided all of Ginger's GI issues with a changeover of SS pellets to a 'tub' of SS pellets, rather than a big bag, as it worked out better for cost.

Since then, Ginger's had 3 episodes of stasis, 2 GI slowdowns and has not been nowhere near as bright as usual.

I stopped feeding pellets completely for a few days and she is back to normal (for her). Notedly, Biscuit, mr stomach of steel has not suffered any issues since changing to the tub.

I've confirmed the ingredients are no different to the bags.

I've discarded the whole tub :( It wasn't cheap, but in the long run would have saved me money - i won't be making that mistake again.

That said, do you think there's an issue this year with the storage of compressed pelleted food, maybe due to the weather conditions?

Just throwing that idea out there.

Hope everybun is okay ripminnie.
 
There are quite strict limits on mycotoxin content, see here:
http://www.food.gov.uk/safereating/chemsafe/mycotoxins/animalfeed/
and they do have to test their supplies. I used to work at a lab where this type of testing was done.
Our bag of Excel is okay and doesn't list eggshells. I'm going to check the stock in P-at-H today, if it's got the eggshells in I can use what's left of the Excel I've got to gradually mix off with something different and swap her over. So annoying, Burgess is an expensive premium brand that I pay the extra for in the belief that I'm giving a better diet. Hope your buns are ok today.
 
Sky-O said:
How are all your bunnies this morning RIPMinnie?

I'm sorry I didn't reply to your PM, I accidently deleted it :oops::roll: and couldn't remember what it said. Sorry :(
Click to expand...

:wave: don't worry about it, it wasn't anything that needed a reply :)

The buns are ok, thanks for asking :) Olly and Honey have had breakfast (old bag) but Daisy and Digby still aren't as keen as they used to be, I don't know why :( I hope they aren't poisoned my mycotoxins :(
 
Hiya, thanks for that info, that's interesting... I'm really worrying and don't know what to do. If it's the food then that's easy to change, but what if it's not? I hope it isn't the hay. It all looks and smells nice to me and doesn't feel damp or anything, although it is stored in the shed (covered up) which isn't watertight. :(



GrahamL said:
Just to say, we've coincided all of Ginger's GI issues with a changeover of SS pellets to a 'tub' of SS pellets, rather than a big bag, as it worked out better for cost.

Since then, Ginger's had 3 episodes of stasis, 2 GI slowdowns and has not been nowhere near as bright as usual.

I stopped feeding pellets completely for a few days and she is back to normal (for her). Notedly, Biscuit, mr stomach of steel has not suffered any issues since changing to the tub.

I've confirmed the ingredients are no different to the bags.

I've discarded the whole tub :( It wasn't cheap, but in the long run would have saved me money - i won't be making that mistake again.

That said, do you think there's an issue this year with the storage of compressed pelleted food, maybe due to the weather conditions?

Just throwing that idea out there.

Hope everybun is okay ripminnie.
Click to expand...
 
Hmm.. Leo was poorly last week. He's never refused his food before and he was sitting all hunched up :( It's the first time I've ever had a bun experience tummy issues. I also feed excel, but was at the very end of a bag. Funnily enough the only thing he completely refused for a day and a half was pellets, which never usually happens. He was happy to eat some veg and grass but not the pellets. Thankfully he was fine within a couple of days and didn't need any vet treatment. I just found it very odd how he would eat everything but pellets, which are usually a favourite? Eventually he ate the old pellets but it took him a few days to eat a breakfast sized portion. However, my other rabbit showed no problems.
We've since opened a new bag (this one has added mint for digestion?) and all is fine.
It may just be a usual tummy problem, but he's almost 3 and has had no problems with his tum before then. It's probably just a coincidence, but the part about him eating anything other than pellets is a little confusing?
 
Amy. said:
Hmm.. Leo was poorly last week. He's never refused his food before and he was sitting all hunched up :( It's the first time I've ever had a bun experience tummy issues. I also feed excel, but was at the very end of a bag. Funnily enough the only thing he completely refused for a day and a half was pellets, which never usually happens. He was happy to eat some veg and grass but not the pellets. Thankfully he was fine within a couple of days and didn't need any vet treatment. I just found it very odd how he would eat everything but pellets, which are usually a favourite? Eventually he ate the old pellets but it took him a few days to eat a breakfast sized portion. However, my other rabbit showed no problems.
We've since opened a new bag (this one has added mint for digestion?) and all is fine.
It may just be a usual tummy problem, but he's almost 3 and has had no problems with his tum before then. It's probably just a coincidence, but the part about him eating anything other than pellets is a little confusing?
Click to expand...

That does sound similar! Daisy still ate hay but wouldn't eat pellets or greens. It's all very weird and worrying :? My new bag says added mint on it, but it was also listed in the ingredients on the old bag so don't think it's that. I think it's either the eggshell in it or there's something wrong with it completely :(
 
All the new stock in P@H York (Foss Islands) has eggshells in. Found a bag at the back of the old recipe which I'll use to swap her over to something else.
 
Apparently, eggshell is added to animal feeds as a source of calcium so I guess that means anyone feeding this to rabbits prone to bladder stones should also be aware they are upping the rabbit's calcium intake.
 
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