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Poo Question - I Need Help

Stumpy

Stumpy

Alpha Buck
Hi Everyone :wave:

OK i have a problem with my 2 rabbits. They are eating and drinking well and seem happy enough but they keep having bad poos, seeing these me and my OH stripped the veg back to the basics and didn't give them as much. we stuck to this for a whole week but no change, as you will see below most of the poos are fine but there are a few bad ones. Is this normal or is there something wrong and i should sort out?

please help me i don't know what to do :oops:

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It might be they are getting too much carbohydrate - how much dried food do they get? Are they eating plenty of hay? Sometimes a change in the weather causes a little upset but nothing to worry about.
 
tonibun said:
It might be they are getting too much carbohydrate - how much dried food do they get? Are they eating plenty of hay? Sometimes a change in the weather causes a little upset but nothing to worry about.
Click to expand...

ok dried food they are getting about 80g so 40 each OH sorted it from the information on the packet and yes they get 2 big tubes off hay one in the runs and one in the shed
 
If you are going off the recommended amount on the packet then you are possibly giving too much. The general recommendation for a rabbit is an eggcup full so if you can weigh that amount and then you will see if you are overfeeding. I would imagine you are.
 
I have seen this before with a few of mine - and it has always been due to too much dry food or pellets (one scoffing the other's share!!:roll::roll:) As mentioned they need only 1 egg cupful of pellets or dry mix once a day with unlimited hay and water. Greens/veg should be no more than what you can fit in the palm of your hand (cupped) Mine have pellets first thing and greens/veg at tea time. It worked perfectly for mine! Good luck x
 
tonibun said:
If you are going off the recommended amount on the packet then you are possibly giving too much. The general recommendation for a rabbit is an eggcup full so if you can weigh that amount and then you will see if you are overfeeding. I would imagine you are.
Click to expand...

we don't have a egg cup how many grams is that please?
 
An eggcup is two tablespoons :) Also which pellets do you feed? Not Excel or Pets at Home by any chance?
 
How much an eggcup of pellets weighs will depend on the size of the eggcup and the size of pellets - noone can really answer that accurately.

But the RWAF recommend approx a tablespoon per kg bodyweight of the rabbit - so we are looking at 2 tablespoons (which is roughly a small eggcup) per the average rabbit. In which case you are overfeeding the pellets.

The dodgy poos you are seeing aren't actually poos - they are caecotrophs - the ones rabbits should eat straight from their bottoms. In a healthy unstressed rabbit you should not usually see them, so you are right in identifying them as a symptom of a problem. Generally, if the rabbit is leaving them, it is because their diet is too rich for them, so I'd definitely recommend reducing those pellets. It can also be caused by stress, though, so think about if they have had any changes in routine or any stressful experiences recently.

Coupled with the caecotrophs, their normal poos, although healthy, don't look very large and are differing in size quite a bit, so unless your buns are different sizes, it may be that these extra pellets are causing them to not eat as much hay as they should be eating (a pile the size of themselves each a day as a minimum) which could be contributing to the problem.
 
Elena said:
An eggcup is two tablespoons :) Also which pellets do you feed? Not Excel or Pets at Home by any chance?
Click to expand...

ok thank you and yes we feed them on excel, why do you say that?

nessar said:
How much an eggcup of pellets weighs will depend on the size of the eggcup and the size of pellets – no one can really answer that accurately.

But the RWAF recommend approx a tablespoon per kg bodyweight of the rabbit - so we are looking at 2 tablespoons (which is roughly a small eggcup) per the average rabbit. In which case you are overfeeding the pellets.

The dodgy poos you are seeing aren't actually poos - they are caecotrophs - the ones rabbits should eat straight from their bottoms. In a healthy unstressed rabbit you should not usually see them, so you are right in identifying them as a symptom of a problem. Generally, if the rabbit is leaving them, it is because their diet is too rich for them, so I'd definitely recommend reducing those pellets. It can also be caused by stress, though, so think about if they have had any changes in routine or any stressful experiences recently.

Coupled with the caecotrophs, their normal poos, although healthy, don't look very large and are differing in size quite a bit, so unless your buns are different sizes, it may be that these extra pellets are causing them to not eat as much hay as they should be eating (a pile the size of themselves each a day as a minimum) which could be contributing to the problem.
Click to expand...

Ok thank you for your help I will cut down on the pellets and see how they go. Both rabbits are happy and not stressed at all so it must be the diet is too much for them. Whisky is slightly smaller then ben but they are both eating plenty off hay, and get fresh veg in the evening.
 
Excel can cause this in some rabbits. It seems to be richer than some other pellets. If cutting down a little doesn't help you may want to consider changing pellets. If you do change then do it gradually, 75:25 one week, then 50:50 for a week, then 25:75 for a week. I use Science Selective personally, it seems quite popular on the forum, others use Allen and Page (comes in very large bags though) or Oxbow. I can get hope of SS locally so it works for me, it's available online too.
 
You can always change the food. If you want you can try this: Nature's Promise Timothy Naturals or Brown's Natural Rabbit Food.
 
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