caecotrophs

My new bun Hazel is not eating her caecotrophs today, and there are loads of them:shock:

I got her on Sunday, previously she had a bad diet, although when the vet checked her, her teeth seem fine. He put her on oral Baytril, for a nasal infection though:?

She now has constant access to hay & readi-grass. Her and Buster get a small amount of pellets in the morning which she doesn't seem interested in(even tried a mix to see if she would eat it). She also shows no interest in grass, dandelion leaves, carrot or herbs

It might sound stupid but I never see her eat, she doesn't trust me and always runs and hides. Giving her her Baytril and Panacur just seems to re-enforce that I'm a bad woman. Her guts aren't gurgling, belly isn't hard or bloated. I try and watch to see if see eats but she just hides, and Buster is such a muncher, well if you aren't fast.......

I have seen her take a nibble, and I mean a nibble of spring green, but she seemed to take ages to eat what she did, Buster ate about 3 times as much in the same space of time. Obviously you can only see her front teeth, I take it she would need GA to let her back teeth be checked. But would her front ones not indicate that her back ones are ok? No?

I'm waiting on my rabbit vet calling me, trouble is he's soo busy, he's going on holiday tonight.

Sorry for going on, just worried about my bun

The vet can look at her back teeth without a GA. I would get her checked over again.

I would imagine she's mega stressed - you've only had her 4 days and she's already seen a vet, which is also stressful, moving house, changing diet - she may have lived outside before in which case being indoors will frighten her, the dogs and cats etc. etc. This will stop her eating her poops as she'll be constantly on edge and leaving them every time something startles her.

I would not advise you give her any veg till she is settled - if she's not had any before (includes grass) she must only have one bite of one type of veg - the amount of this one type of veg can be slowly increased over 2 weeks, if her poops are normal - then after 2 weeks on one veg, you can try another, otherwise you risk seriously upset tummy.

Is she eating hay? If so she doesn't need pellets for now. I have also heard that redi-grass can cause too many poops as it's higher in protein, so try cutting that and the veg out, and hopefully she'll settle down in a couple of weeks, when she realises she's not on tonight's menu

Elve, sorry she was/is an outside bun, she is in a hutch/run combo, with Buster. She seems to be really relaxed when it's just them, snoozing away in the litter tray.

Thats why she's had access to readi-grass/veg. I was that worried about her not eating, and having had a poor diet, I wonder if I've over did it. If I cut out the readi-grass, and hand feed Buster his veg will she stop producing excess caecotrophs:?

icklep360 said:

If I cut out the readi-grass, and hand feed Buster his veg will she stop producing excess caecotrophs:?

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that's probably a good idea.

I've noticed my group of girls sometimes leave caecal poops just because they are disturbing each other when they do them - they are very nosey with each other, so maybe Buster is distracting her, or maybe it's just the new environment, sounds, road noise or whatever - it will be a while before she's used to it, about 2 weeks or so.

If there's fresh hay twice a day, does she seem interested in that? My bunnies lose interest in their hay unless it's fresh. What pellets do you use? Mine all go mad for science selective, available online. I've heard excel can cause excess caecal poops too.

I would try feeding her a handful of pellets in the evening maybe? Can you take Buster out for 10mins and see if she'll eat them? She's maybe shy of sharing them too. I'm just trying to imagine how she feels and it's confused - hopefully she'll settle soon

When I first got Tia she barely ate a thing she was so stressed. The rescue said she'd hardly eaten a thing in the month or so they'd had her too. It took her a good few days to relax enough to eat pellets, which I feed a small handful each morning and evening. She did pick at her hay though, so don't worry if she's eating hay.

She's definately picking at her hay, she wasn't to start off with, her other poo's are really tiny and dark. I actually tried feeding them separate this morning but they seemed anxious and looked for each other. So I stopped that don't want to add to the stress:?

Buster inhales his food so hand feeding him his veg def wont be a problem.

Guess I'll just have to see how she settles

Awww - I'm glad they're so well bonded

When I rescued my girls they were doing poos the size of apple pips - literally :shock: Hay is the thing that sorts them out, so at least she's eating that - they don't really need pellets in summer, just hay, so she'll be fine in a couple of weeks I bet

Cheers, she's so lovely, hopefully she'll be less stressed once I stop having to give her the Baytril, she def objects to it

The caecotrophs have stopped at the mo too, she really was producing loads this morning