Can pellets cause severe health risk?

[Kirstin27]

I'm not typing this to try to scare anyone. This is a genuine question.

My dad recently lost one of his rabbits rather suddenly. She had fallen ill, and whilst he was on the phone with the vet, she passed away.
The vet explained that he has seen a lot of rabbits having gastric problems due being fed pellets, which somehow caused a life-threatening gut issue.

I'm not sure too sure what the details are. This is just from what my dad told me. But, I told him I'd reach out on this forum. I've always read that a rabbit's diet should mainly consist of good hay, but also complimented with pellets and veggies. Does feeding pellets long-term pose a genuine risk? I tend to give my rabbit a small handful of pellets a day. Should I be cutting back, or is there a particular brand or type of pellet I should stick too?

Has anyone else heard of pellets causing health risks?

Thanks in advance.

 

[Shimmer]

Pellets can cause choking or be inhaled instead of swallowed, which causes inhalation pneumonia - but it is very, very rare.
Rabbits should be fed mainly grass / hay, with some veggies / forage and maybe a small quantity of pellets. So the advice you have on that is good.

I suspect the comment on pellets causing gastric issues is for those rabbits that are fed predominantly just pellets, particularly if they don't have proper access to water (dry pellets will swell in the gut). Some owners still just leave an unlimited supply down all the time and maybe no hay. Pellets don't provide a complete diet. Hay / grass provides the long fibres that rabbts need to keep their teeth worn down (as they grow all the time) and to keep their guts healthy. Pellets don't give the same chewing action for the teeth, so teeth can develop issues which makes it difficult / painful for the rabbit to eat normally, and may result in gut stasis when they stop eating as much. They can also encourage a rabbit to become overweight, which causes other issues.

Stick to the brand of pellets your rabbits are used to. You don't have to feed any pellets at all, but most people feed some. As they form such a small part of the diet, it isn't going to have a huge impact, whichever brand you choose. I find it useful as a bribe to get them back in on an evening. I don't like the very small pellets - they tend to get left by mine - and anything with added sugars (like apple juice). I use a mix of Supreme Science Selective and Burgess (or similar - the one I used to use is no longer available).

I don't know how the vet managed to diagnose without seeing the rabbit and a doing full examination ......
Rabbits are quite fragile creatures and hide symptoms of illness until they are very sick, so it's important to get veterinary advice if you think there's something wrong. So sorry that your dad's rabbit didn't make it. RIP bunny.