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Rabbits and their buisness!

Charlie

Young Bun
Hi, I have a 1 year old Dwarf Lop Bunny called Dandi. I have noticed, and she has been doing this for a while now, when she has been pooing, she has been doing most of it in the same area at the side of the hutch, so it builds up and up into a sticky smelly horrible mess, which stains when it is lifted, as there is no sawdust there. Every time I see this, which is mostly everyday, I dispose of it in the bin, or chuck it on the grass, but is there anything else I can do to stop this from happening?
Also, because of this, her bottom also gets clogged up with poo every so often and i have to turn her on her back and clean it with cotton wool to clean it. She is quite big for her breed, and she has what looks like a layer of fat round her chin, sometimes it looks like it obstucts her from cleaning her behind!
Can anyone give me some tips?
 
Hi Charlie,

It's quite natural for rabbits to use only one corner of the hutch as a latrine... a fact that makes them very easy to house-train!

Usually, it's easy enough to clean out the toilet corner every day... some of my rabbits have a small cat litter tray in the corner, and it's really easy just to tip that out and refill with shavings. If I am in a hurry, I often just add a few more handfuls of shavings so that the bunny won't get her feet wet or dirty the next time she goes. The secret here is to remember to do this every day so it never builds up.

Are you using sawdust or shavings? Sawdust isn't really as good, as it tends to get wetter... in fact many people who have litter trays for their rabbits use much more absorbent litter such as paper-based pellets or wood pellets. If it is a problem with the urine, changing the type of bedding you use in the loo corner might make a big difference.

Is she producing normal "currants" or are her stools loose? Is she producing a lot of odd-looking soft droppings, clustered together, as well as normal currants?

Finally, just how much does she weigh? Many people expect a "Dwarf" Lop to be the same size as a Netherland Dwarf, but they are meant to be bigger. If you can let me know how much she weighs, I can get an idea if she is overweight for a Dwarf Lop or not.

The fold of skin and fur around her neck is normal for the females of many breeds of rabbit, and is known as a "dewlap". It would normally provide the doe with plenty of extra fur to line the nest with, if she ever had babies. It need not be a sign of a rabbit being overweight... in fact, a fat round tummy tends to get in the way a lot more!
 
As Sue has said, most bunnies will pick one corner to use as a latrine, similar to their wild cousins, and this is actually quite helpful as this just needs to be cleaned everyday, and not the whole hutch.

it sounds like maybe your bunny is producing too many soft droppings that are sticking to her fur, which will be diet related, can you detail what her diet is and how much she gets? You may also want to ensure there are not underlying dental issues that are preventing her from cleaning herself properly.

annie
 
Thanks for the tips! :wink:
As for the food, we normally give her 2 bowls. One which is filled 1/4 of the way with Super Rabbit Excel Junior and Dwarf mix and the other bowl with some carrot, brocalli and some parsley. I'm not too sure on what the weight is however!
We use shavings for the bedding, and what we normally do is put that in the litter tray and in the private area and then Dandi normally kicks most of this out so that it goes into the main part of the hutch and sometimes down into the run! :lol:
I have got both a small cat litter tray and a corner litter tray and have tryed putting both of these where she normally does her buisness. However, what she tries to do is either drag it out and chuck it in the run below, or do her buisness somewhere else, which is what she has taken to do now! So the litter tray thing hasn't really worked!
 
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