Hi folks,
Most of you know the problems we've had recently with a couple of does.
We've been wracking our brains to get to the bottom of this and I think the answer might be blindingly obvious. (Now)
Excess calcium ?
OK they were 8 months old and had unfettered access to Timothy hay (low calcium) but also Suparabbit Excel and a mineral wheel (one of the brown ones) They also had a small handfull of veg every morning and evening, they'd settled on a few French beans and a small carrot between them. A little research indicates that the veg, wheel (obviously) and pellets were all high calcium.
Hindsight is 20:20 as they say, but I now remember that cleaning their litter trays was always an issue, as there was a build up of crystals in them where they'd peed. I had to use vinegar to dissolve it, that means it was almost certainly a carbonate of some sort. Calcium carbonate ?
They always had access to fresh water, both bowl and bottle, but do you think this diet was too rich ? They were never really fat but until now I had no idea that calcium was an issue in their metabolism.
I recently learnt rabbits don't regulate it like we do, their blood calcium levels go up and down with the content of their diet. Excessive calcium apparently can cause renal problems as it can crystalise in their kidneys or bladder when there's too much.
So, does anyone know of any software or system to record and analyse the likely mineral content of food being given to pets ? If not I'll have to try and knock one up...
Rob.
Most of you know the problems we've had recently with a couple of does.
We've been wracking our brains to get to the bottom of this and I think the answer might be blindingly obvious. (Now)
Excess calcium ?
OK they were 8 months old and had unfettered access to Timothy hay (low calcium) but also Suparabbit Excel and a mineral wheel (one of the brown ones) They also had a small handfull of veg every morning and evening, they'd settled on a few French beans and a small carrot between them. A little research indicates that the veg, wheel (obviously) and pellets were all high calcium.
Hindsight is 20:20 as they say, but I now remember that cleaning their litter trays was always an issue, as there was a build up of crystals in them where they'd peed. I had to use vinegar to dissolve it, that means it was almost certainly a carbonate of some sort. Calcium carbonate ?
They always had access to fresh water, both bowl and bottle, but do you think this diet was too rich ? They were never really fat but until now I had no idea that calcium was an issue in their metabolism.
I recently learnt rabbits don't regulate it like we do, their blood calcium levels go up and down with the content of their diet. Excessive calcium apparently can cause renal problems as it can crystalise in their kidneys or bladder when there's too much.
So, does anyone know of any software or system to record and analyse the likely mineral content of food being given to pets ? If not I'll have to try and knock one up...
Rob.