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Buttons keeps sitting on her cecals

Alison Marie

Wise Old Thumper
And they're getting stuck to her feet :? What's the best way of getting her feet clean, bearing in mind she does not like being handled at all? She's always produced loads of cecals and never seems to eat them, in fact while she was indoors she enjoyed sitting on them and smooshing them into the carpet :oops: I normally wait for them to dry on the carpet and then peel them off ...

Is it even normal for a bun to not eat cecals? I've taken it as the 'norm' with Buttons 'cos I've always seen lots of hers, but not many of Nibbles'.
 
Rabbits who are fed a higher protein diet than they need will often lead to excessive caecal production. The best way to deal with it is to look at what you are feeding and then try and up the fibre and reduce the protein.

Normally it is one of two things which are the problem:
  • Feeding a higher protein mix or pellet which is lower in fibre - managment would be to reduce the quantity of food fed to around an egg cup per rabbit a day, or slowly changing over the dry food to one which is high in fibre such as oxbow or science selective.
  • Feeding lots of readigrass which is higher in protein than hay or grass - managment would be to slowly wean down the volume of readigrass and increase the amount of normal hay which is fed.
 
Really? Once in a blue moon I'll find an uneaten cecal, I've never thought it was something to worry about as it's never very often.

I wouldn't worry about the odd one, but yes they are supposed to eat them, it's an essential part of their digestive process and they don't get all the nutrients out first time around. I wouldn't worry about the odd one but the norm should be for them to be eaten rather than not as the OP describes.
 
I don't know what pellets you feed but if it's Burgess Excel they often cause bunnies to have excess caecals and switching to something like Science Selective can cure the problem! Also too many pellets can be the problem they only need an egg cup full a day!
 
I don't know what pellets you feed but if it's Burgess Excel they often cause bunnies to have excess caecals and switching to something like Science Selective can cure the problem! Also too many pellets can be the problem they only need an egg cup full a day!

Hi all, thanks for the responses! Yep, she has the Burgess Excel pellets and I've tried moving her onto Science Selective (which are the only pellets Nibbles will eat) but she won't eat them, but I guess it's worth another try. I'm gradually reducing the number of pellets she has though :)
 
I wouldn't worry about the odd one, but yes they are supposed to eat them, it's an essential part of their digestive process and they don't get all the nutrients out first time around. I wouldn't worry about the odd one but the norm should be for them to be eaten rather than not as the OP describes.

Yeah, I mean I don't know how many she produces but they're normally on the floor of the hutch, smooshed in the litter tray or stuck to her feet so I doubt she's eating many at all - but she never has done. I'm currently trying to reduce the number of pellets she has but she still produces a lot.
 
Rabbits who are fed a higher protein diet than they need will often lead to excessive caecal production. The best way to deal with it is to look at what you are feeding and then try and up the fibre and reduce the protein.

Normally it is one of two things which are the problem:
  • Feeding a higher protein mix or pellet which is lower in fibre - managment would be to reduce the quantity of food fed to around an egg cup per rabbit a day, or slowly changing over the dry food to one which is high in fibre such as oxbow or science selective.
  • Feeding lots of readigrass which is higher in protein than hay or grass - managment would be to slowly wean down the volume of readigrass and increase the amount of normal hay which is fed.

I've tried her with SS before but she doesn't seem to like it. Currently feeding two buns two different types of pellets (Nibbles has SS, it's the only ones he'll eat and Buttons has BE) but Nibbles never had the excess cecals problem when he was on the BE pellets, so I was a bit baffled.

I'm going to give it another go with SS though, see if she'll try it.
 
Poppy does this but her caecals are just one big sloppy shape :mrgreen: it's got 'worse' since she started eating more pellets (SS mature). But I clean her bum for her, cut bits off that may have dried and give her good wipe with pet friendly wet wipes. If its on her feet then I'll try and cut off bits but she usually gets those off :)
 
Poppy does this but her caecals are just one big sloppy shape :mrgreen: it's got 'worse' since she started eating more pellets (SS mature). But I clean her bum for her, cut bits off that may have dried and give her good wipe with pet friendly wet wipes. If its on her feet then I'll try and cut off bits but she usually gets those off :)

I might try the wet wipes, she doesn't mind you touching her when she's eating, funnily enough... Lol.

Just given her a few SS pellets and she looked disgusted!
 
How old is our bun? It is possible she might have a problem with her back, maybe arthritis of some sort. Thsi would mean that bending over to collect the cealas from her bum would hurt so she doesn't! I have this with Fifi who is 6 or so. She's on permanent metacam (and small amounts of pellets) which solves the issue. I took her off metacam for a bit to check if it was really necessary - it is - caetatrophes everywhere!
 
How old is our bun? It is possible she might have a problem with her back, maybe arthritis of some sort. Thsi would mean that bending over to collect the cealas from her bum would hurt so she doesn't! I have this with Fifi who is 6 or so. She's on permanent metacam (and small amounts of pellets) which solves the issue. I took her off metacam for a bit to check if it was really necessary - it is - caetatrophes everywhere!

She's only 6 months old, so I hope it isn't arthirits just yet :(

Good news - we put a few SS pellets in with the BE ones last night and they were gone this morning... so... either she's hidden them very well or she's eaten them :thumb: I've just cleaned her out too and there are a efw cecals squished in her litterbox but we'll see how we go.
 
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