Are your buns moulting at the moment??

[Vita]

Ada seems to be moulting slightly just now. She has a little V-shape on her forehead and I've seen a couple of other bits of loose fur. She has been ok so far. She is a Rex and I'm not sure if they moult as heavily as other buns. Also, just in case, she is on the Oxbow papaya tablets for digestion and Biolapis.

Little Beatrix was moulting massively before she died (of diarrhoea)

 

[CoffeePuffin]

My little guy has some moulting lines

 

[megansmummy]

Poppy and Daisy have been mouting for a week or so and yesterday Daisy had a stasis episode Being dutchies they are fairly short haired but the vet did mention that we could give them a small piece of pineapple once a week or so to help with the moulting... I think Daisys stasis might have been more stress related as we moved their hutch on sunday and then have had workmen in the garden for 5 days doing the base of our conservatory :?

 

[VickiP]

:wave: I have a moulting bunny atm Jingle my rex buck is moulting, he has no history of gut probs at all, I've experienced it in his lady partner Nessie however the last time he was moulting, through mutual grooming she was obviously ingesting too much of his fur and it's of a different consistency to his.

I did do a thread asking if mixed breed bunnies could be an issue as obviously there are differences in fur texture, length, density etc - my personal feeling is that it could be an issue, when he is moulting I brush him more often & space out their daily 'greens' fed wet into 5-6 tiny portions as opposed to 2 one in the morning and one at night. This is to ensure she is eating sufficient hay through the day not filling up on soft wet greens and then grooming.

I wouldn't recommend anything sweet like pineapple or papaya personally, I would stick to increasing fibre intake and hand feed the normal daily amount of greens into tiny amounts - as many portions possible through the day. If anything to encourage hay I would sprinkle a few burgess apple bits or a couple of fenugreek crunchies broken up onto hay.

I don't think there is a direct link personally, I think it's an unlucky combination of events that can occur in a moult - they are more tired, bit lazy and certainly in bunnies that aren't brushed properly or don't have nice tempting hay it doesn't take long for the fur to impact at the wall of the gut and problems occur.

It's definately something to watch and modify feeding and exercise and grooming accordingly though.:thumb:

 

[Vita]

I wouldn't recommend anything sweet like pineapple or papaya personally, I would stick to increasing fibre intake and hand feed the normal daily amount of greens into tiny amounts - as many portions possible through the day. If anything to encourage hay I would sprinkle a few burgess apple bits or a couple of fenugreek crunchies broken up onto hay.

I use the Oxbow tablets because they don't contain any simple sugars as actual fruit does. Plenty of buns seem to be ok with dried pineapple and papaya, as Ada was, but I switched to the tablets to be on the safe side.
She also loves them, probably more so than she liked the dried fruit chunks.

 

[VickiP]

I use the Oxbow tablets because they don't contain any simple sugars as actual fruit does. Plenty of buns seem to be ok with dried pineapple and papaya, as Ada was, but I switched to the tablets to be on the safe side.
She also loves them, probably more so than she liked the dried fruit chunks.

:wave: A lot of people are advised by vets even to use fresh pineapple - in my experience anything non fibrous is pointless for bunnies, I used to feed banana and dried papaya and pineapple as treats, I experienced more gut problems in my rabbits during this period of time than I have since eliminating anything that they wouldn't eat naturally in the wild. It's personal choice but in my experience if they wouldn't eat it naturally then they don't need it

 

[Elena]

As to the question as to whether mine are moulting (just realised I didn't actually answer the question ) Mini and Mischa were a few weeks ago but have finished now, Nutmeg is starting a moult, and with Smudge it's not too easy to tell as he's always a mass of fur but I don't think he is yet.

 

[nicki]

Oliver's tummy was definitely sluggish when he was moulting last week and he had quite a few droppings strung together with hair. My other bunny Alice has chronic gut problems so I tried to be vigilant. I gave him dill in small bits throughout the day, probiotic in water in a bowl, wet my hand to stroke him and remove hair - he's scared of the brush! lots of hay and leaves and a small amount of fibreplex when I was concerned about his droppings which seemed to help.

He was like a cloud of fluff and I was following him around with a dustbin and brush!

There seems to be a lot of differing views on the pineapple and papaya thing. I would appreciate any other ideas too.

Nicki

 

[sun_city_girl]

The buns usually only nibble a bit of pineapple and ignore the rest of the chunk and just stuff their faces with hay, they love hay!but i dont mind giving it to them if it does help, one of my buns is very fussy though and the other is a bun dustbin and would eat anything he could get his paws on!