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Hmm, Kitten has excess caecotrophs

J

Jocelyn

Mama Doe
I've been poo-watching (yum!) and it seems that Kitten is producing a fair amount of excess caecotrophs. She's also producing plenty of normal poo.. As she's so young I want to do the right thing by her diet - rabbit.org recommends unlimited pellets [I feed Excel pellets] and unlimited hay, which is what she has. She didn't come from a very good background [woman was over run and I picked Kitten out] and I know I've taken a risk taking her on. She's absolutely fine in herself - could this be something serious or should I alter her diet [as she's only around 11-12 weeks I'm not sure what to do..]. She eats a lot of hay, has as many pellets as she wants but she doesn't actually eat that many!

Anyone recommend anything?
 
Is that gonna be ok? rabbit.org seems to think younguns should have unlimited pellets.. plus she barely eats them anyway :-/
 
Do you feed veg, mine had the same problem when i fed veg so i had to cut it out. Also could be the excel pellets all mine had to many caecotrophs on that stuff so i switched to SS and they've been fine ever sinceand had n probs when i re-introduced there veg. It does say to feed unlimited pellets till 6 monts but i didn't cut them down till they where 5 month old cos they didn't eat them all anyway.
 
No, I haven't introduced her to veggies yet as she's so young..

I used to feed SS to my first rabbit and that gave her the same problems so I've been a bit dubious of it since!
 
ooh sorry didn't notice the 11-12 weeks thing. Could you try switching to the junior make they do? I would still cut down the pellets a bit if she's not eating them all anyway. Maybe try giving her smaller amounts and not giving her more till she's eaten the ones already there and it might encourage her to eat more hay. Everywhere I've looked says the cause is a too rich diet.

Although every baby bun i've encountered has produced a few excess 'trophs as I think they just aren't as good at eating them.
 
Deelove said:
ooh sorry didn't notice the 11-12 weeks thing. Could you try switching to the junior make they do? I would still cut down the pellets a bit if she's not eating them all anyway. Maybe try giving her smaller amounts and not giving her more till she's eaten the ones already there and it might encourage her to eat more hay. Everywhere I've looked says the cause is a too rich diet.

Although every baby bun i've encountered has produced a few excess 'trophs as I think they just aren't as good at eating them.
Click to expand...

I thought about switching but the junior stuff has more protein in it [IIRC] which I thought would make it worse. So confused :(
 
i'd really suggest cutting down on the pellets. if she's hungry, she has plenty of hay to be gettin on with. it's important bunnies don't get overweight or they can have real trouble eating their night poos. by 2 buns r young french lops but already big and they seem fine with limited pellets
 
alexbishop said:
i'd really suggest cutting down on the pellets. if she's hungry, she has plenty of hay to be gettin on with. it's important bunnies don't get overweight or they can have real trouble eating their night poos. by 2 buns r young french lops but already big and they seem fine with limited pellets
Click to expand...

She's definitely not overweight :)
 
Jocelyn said:
I thought about switching but the junior stuff has more protein in it [IIRC] which I thought would make it worse. So confused :(
Click to expand...

It probably would make it worse.

I have this same problem too at the moment. I have a foster bun who is 10 weeks old now and I have been hand rearing her since 2wks old. I was feeding her the Excel Junior, and she had lots of sticky unformed poo. I was advised to change her over to Excel Lite as it is has less protein, and higher fibre content. This has cured the sticky bum, but she still does not eat her ceacotrophes. She gets 8 - 10g a day (maybe this is still too much?) plus unlimited hay, which she eats loads of and produces lovely golden poos.

Maybe (as Deelove said) some youngsters just take a while to work out what they are supposed to do? I don't know - I would assume it would be a natural instinct.
 
Well, I guess I'll reduce the pellets and see how that affects her. If she starts losing weight I'll give them back to her because she's tiny :-/
 
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