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What can we do to stop our bunny's bottom getting covered in poop?

Alfie1010

Alfie1010

Young Bun
Hi everyone, have not been on here much recently and only joined last year sometime. I wanted to ask what causes a rabbit to get poop all over his bottom. Yesterday and today, I had to pull off a chunck of it that was stuck to his bottom and just hanging. Then as its soft, it gets caked to his fur!! I clear his litter tray 2-3 times a week to keep him clean, and we have also washed his bottom carefully with bunny shampoo. Once we have washed him, its not long until he has poop stuck to his bottom again! This siutuation has has only happened recently over the past couple of weeks or so.

He is a rex rabbit, called Alfie, and he is roughly 1 1/2 yrs old. I say roughly as he was a rescue rabbit, and we were told when we got him on Oct 2010 that he about 4 months at the time.

Help!
 
MichG said:
What is his diet like?
Sometimes it can be down to diet.
Click to expand...

:thumb: sounds like a too rich diet, what rabbit food and how much of it do you feed? How much hay does he eat? What else does he get? As it's relatively recent has their been any changes to his diet?

Sorry for all the questions, there are a few common mistakes when first having rabbits (I know, I made most of them!) and some of them could be causing the problem :)
 
When Doughnut was a baby I gave her a bowl full of pellets a day. Far too much as poop everywhere but I was told to feed her lots as she was growing. She had poop stuck to her bum a lot as couldn't be avoided. Once I cut the pellets down and changed from excel to SS it cleared up as eating more hay too. She was always a clean rabbit but it was my fault not hers!
 
Elena said:
:thumb: sounds like a too rich diet, what rabbit food and how much of it do you feed? How much hay does he eat? What else does he get? As it's relatively recent has their been any changes to his diet?

Sorry for all the questions, there are a few common mistakes when first having rabbits (I know, I made most of them!) and some of them could be causing the problem :)
Click to expand...


Hello :)
Thank you for your reply. His diet is mainly made up of rabbit food, and hay. The rabbit food is Pets at Home brand Adult Rabbit Nuggets. The amount we give him is 35g twice a day (morning & evening). He weighs 3.6kg. He also has a hay rack attached to the inside of his cage which is like to sit at and munch on some Timothy hay. He also gets 1 or 2 carrots a week, and occasionally some spring greens. He takes about a week to get through his hay in his rack. I sometimes give him a little dish of hay outside of his cage too.

Hope this answers your questions? Thank you for your help :)
 
It sounds like there's not enough fibre in his diet which they would mainly get from the hay. Hay should be 10% of a rabbit's diet with the rest made up of food and greens.

It might be wise to start reducing the amount of pellets he gets and see if he eats more hay. Pellets fill them up and they love them but it stops them eating hay which they need for their digestive system. Instead of carrots which are quite high in sugar you could try herbs and if you can get hold of plantain and brambles they are really high in fibre.
 
Cut down on the nuggets and up the hay. They should only receive a small amount of pellets a day. 80-90% of their diet should be hay.
 
Unfortunately carrot is one of the things that always sets this off in Mini. :( it's just too sugary for their tummies to process properly. I'm not sure how much 35g is but it sounds like it might be a little too much. My vet recommends around two tablespoons of pellets. It's good he's on pellets, muesli mix often has sugary things in which can upset it more.

Personally i've never found mine eat much out of a rack. It does sound like he's not eating enough, he should be eating roughly the same volume in hay as his body size a day. I find giving them a pile of hay to dig in, forage in and find the 'best bits' and then refilling it twice a day encourages lots of hay eating. I also sometimes sprinkle in some dried forage from the Burns range and this encourages more foraging and eating. :D
 
Do you use a litter tray? One thing that Smoo love to do is sit in her big litter tray and eat and poo. :lol:
Get one as big as you can and I just use newspaper with hay on top. Plus it saves on cleaning. ;)
 
Elena said:
Unfortunately carrot is one of the things that always sets this off in Mini. :( it's just too sugary for their tummies to process properly. I'm not sure how much 35g is but it sounds like it might be a little too much. My vet recommends around two tablespoons of pellets. It's good he's on pellets, muesli mix often has sugary things in which can upset it more.

Personally i've never found mine eat much out of a rack. It does sound like he's not eating enough, he should be eating roughly the same volume in hay as his body size a day. I find giving them a pile of hay to dig in, forage in and find the 'best bits' and then refilling it twice a day encourages lots of hay eating. I also sometimes sprinkle in some dried forage from the Burns range and this encourages more foraging and eating. :D
Click to expand...


Excellent! I have had a few responses to my original question, and it seems, more hay, less pellets is the answer from all who responded. Will definitely be giving this a go, starting from now. The 35g refers to the amount stated on the bag of rabbit nuggets. It says that for a bunny up to 3.5kg, you give them 70-90g of food. So we only give him 70g spread out over 2 meals of 35g. Will also not give him any carrots to see if this clears the problem too.

Thank you...:D
 
Alfie1010 said:
Excellent! I have had a few responses to my original question, and it seems, more hay, less pellets is the answer from all who responded. Will definitely be giving this a go, starting from now. The 35g refers to the amount stated on the bag of rabbit nuggets. It says that for a bunny up to 3.5kg, you give them 70-90g of food. So we only give him 70g spread out over 2 meals of 35g. Will also not give him any carrots to see if this clears the problem too.

Thank you...:D
Click to expand...

Often the manufacturers state an amount higher than really needed as they want you to get through the pack quicker. We have rabbits on the forum that thrive on no pellets! Do any changes to that gradually though as sudden changes can upset the gut.
 
Jenova said:
Do you use a litter tray? One thing that Smoo love to do is sit in her big litter tray and eat and poo. :lol:
Get one as big as you can and I just use newspaper with hay on top. Plus it saves on cleaning. ;)
Click to expand...

Hi ya, yup definitely use a litter tray. Its a corner one so it fits nicely into the corner of his cage. Here is a picture of it :lol:

26451.jpg


Thanks for your reply..
 
Doughnut eats a lot of hay and bramble leaves as she only gets an egg cup of pellets.

I often put the bag of hay down and she goes in to eat and seems to enjoy that more. That's when I've let her out her hutch but she enjoys it and it encourages more hay eating if she's having fun. She then turns round and goes to sleep in it!
 
We found that those corner litter pans didn't hold much hay. Mine always managed to move them out and tip them too. :roll: We've had success with underbid storage trays in big ares and washing up bowls in others. It may sound like they'd bee too high for bunny to jump into but they manage fine! And the high edges prevent any wee going over the sides (mine were terrors for this, even with cat litter trays!).
 
I agree that putting hay in the litter tray might help him eat more. They like to nibble while on the loo! Good luck and I hope Alfie feels better soon.
 
I have two bunnies who are both over 3kg and they get one tablespoon of pellets between both of them once per day. I've just weighed them and it comes to 10g. That's a heck of a lot less than you're giving one 3.5kg bunny so as others have said, you need to cut down the pellets and up the hay! Try sprinkling his daily pellet ration into a pile of hay - it'll provide exercise and stimulation whilst he hunts them out and he'll also probably eat some hay at the same time. Mine have hay and fresh grass as the bulk of their diet plus around 2 mugs full of fresh greens/veg per day between the two of them. I only ever feed carrot as a treat and then no more than about an inch of it.
 
Doughnut used to pull that litter tray out of her hutch every time I opened it, as if to say she didn't want it in there. She also used to sling it against the hutching making a right noise, I could hear her upstairs. I've since bought her a silcone cake dish which she likes and so quiet. I always put hay in it for her to sit in and eat.
 
Hi everyone,

Just wanted to say that I have taken on board a lot of the advice you have all given me - especially about reducing the pellets and upping the hay, and so far the situation with the excess poo, seems to have cleared up. So far, so good :D I give Alfie, far less pellets than I used to and give him lots of hay in his bowl and in his hay wrack.

I just wondered if you could recommend a good brand of hay that you know bunnys love? I give him some from Pets at Home called 'Woodlands Timothy Feeding Hay.' It has tiny pieces of dried apple in it. He seems to like it, and I have always used it in the past 1 1/2yrs we have had him. Only thing is 1 or 2 of you have said that your bunnies eat large amounts of hay per day?? Alfie does not seem to eat large amounts; he does eat it as have seem him on many an occasion, nibbling away on it. But, just wondered if there was a particular brand that all/most of you use that might be better than the brand I currently use?

Looking forward to hearing from you again..:wave:
 
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