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my rabbit is not eating her CECOTROPES

J

jfraryj

New Kit
hi all i was wondering if any one can tell me why my rabbit is not eating her
CECOTROPES.i found a few of them today and i have found them before but i dont have any i dea of why she aint eating them . also i noticed that they smell really bad .i also found a long kinda soft looking poop it really smelled . any one have any advice oir idea of whats going on . thanks
 
Hiya,

This is usually linked to diet. Can you tell us what you're feeding her and we can make some suggestions for you :)

Tamsin
 
Sometimes rabbits will leave them if they are disturbed too much by noise or being chased about, but usually they make too many to eat if they have too much dry mix all day. My rabbits eat pellets, science selective (available online) - just a handful morning and evening - The rest of the day you must give them a big bundle of fresh hay to eat, so they don't get hungry.

If your rabbit eats dry mix rather than pellets he may pick out the bits he likes, which will probably be the less healthy bits, which is why pellets are better for them as they are balanced diet. If you feed excel pellets, some rabbits do make too many caecal poops eating that too, so I would recommend you try 2 small meals of science selective and lots of hay.

If you change your rabbits diet though, do it slowly, bit by bit of the new food mixed with the old food, taking about 2 weeks to change over completely - they can get a stomach upset otherwise.
 
I thought I had the same problem with my dwarf lop. I've read that CECOTROPES are mostly produced and eaten at night and that if you frequently find uneaten cecotropes it is a sign of overfeeding.

Instead of just filling up her bowl ever day, I started feeding 25g per kilo of rabbit as per the feeding guide on my food. It seemed to do the trick. I rarely find uneaten cecotropes any more.
 
I've had the same problem - reducing my girlies pellets [meaning she will eat a lot more hay] fixed it over night :)
 
her diet

hi thanks for the responses .i feed her a bundle of parsley in the am and i giver her a hay mix with diffrent types of hay in it i used to give her alfalfa but not any more she wont eat timothy hay so i found a mix with diffrent types of hay she pickes through it .she dont eat pellets refuses to eat them i feed her kale in the evenings trying to cut back on that cause i have read that over time it becomes toxic so im trying diffrent things one new thing a day but i cant find any thing she likes .she eats a lot of grass normally shes a out door rabbit but i have her in the garage right now she has been recovering from flystrike .i am going to set her free in a while shes been recovering for 3 weeks now and is all better except for i keep finding her ceocotropes one or 2 a day and they stink . i dont want her to get flystrike again so i have been working on changing her diet while shes been in the garage but its time to let her go and im so scared that one of her ceocotropes will get stuck to her butt and the flys will get her again . any advice .i ordered fly guard its suposed to last 3 months it will be here soon i hope . thanks
 
Maybe its too much veg? I'm no expert but i've had prob with Cecotropes since adpotping Charlotte just over a month ago.

Vet suggested cutting down on veg and switching to Burgess pellets. (She was having mix with previous owner).

I cut down on veg immediately. (Was spoiling her i think before) and gradually weaned her onto pellets. This seem to have worked.

As you bunny doesn't like pellets maybe try just cutting back a bit on veg. :)
 
There are a couple of common reasons why rabbits don't eat their caecotrophs. One possibility is dental problems , another could be arthritis or pain which means the rabbit cannot reach around and the other is if the rabbit is overweight it cannot reach around to eat it's caecotrophs.
If your bun doesn't start eating her caecotrophs again then you should probably just get her checked over by your vet - just to be on the safe side.
 
If your rabbit's already had flystrike and has a problem, you should get her Rearguard from the vets - it's about £15 I think - It's better than other fly repellants as it actually stops the maggots from developing - kills the eggs.

If you are giving her new types of veg every day, this will upset her tum - any new food should only be given a small piece on day one, then wait a day to see if it affect the stomach, then another small piece (about 4cm square) and slowly build up the amount over 2 weeks. During this time other new types of veg should not be given, or you can't keep track of what upsets her.

I would guess alfalfa hay is too rich in protein so it's good you've stopped that - it's generally too much protein that causes it. You don't say what dry food she eats though - a mix probably has too much protein and not enough fibre - If you try science selective she will love it I'm sure - rabbits go mad for it even if they don't like other pellets, and it has a probiotic in which is good for their stomach.

Hope she's OK soon - I would definitely get her Rearguarded at the vets ASAP :)
 
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