Hello. We have four siblings in one hutch together. Two of them Roxxy and Fuzzy are eating the pellets as normal. The other two, Buffy and Harmony are eating the pellets normally at night but in the morning they are being more picky. They vary with how long they stay to eat the pellets and then run off to eat hay instead. Harmony had her teeth checked last week due to falling out of the raised hutch and the vet said they were fine. I don't think it is a teeth issue as they are still eating it is just in the morning they prefer to go off and eat hay instead of the pellets. Should i be concerned?
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Rabbits eating pattern slightly changed. What's going on?
- Thread starter Scrufox86
- Start date
happysaz133
Wise Old Thumper
As long as they have loads of hay, I wouldn't worry :wave: 2 of mine aren't big pellet eaters, but have no teeth problems due to plenty hay 
As long as they have loads of hay, I wouldn't worry :wave: 2 of mine aren't big pellet eaters, but have no teeth problems due to plenty hay
Yeah this is the thing. They are both eating plenty of hay it is almost as though they are telling me "no we do not want the pellets we want more hay" in the mornings but at night they are eating the pellets as if they've been starved for two weeks. Something else i have thought of though is the other two appear to be producing excess cecotrophs (sorry about the spelling) and i am wondering should i reduce the pellets a little or not? I know that excel pellets can cause this issue and as they are eating a bigger share in the mornings recently i am thinking it is the extra amount.
When Harmony fell out of the hutch i thought her going off the pellets was because of the fall and maybe she'd damaged her teeth but the vets told us it was probably bruising (and no sign of teeth issues especially as she drank and ate lots of hay) so gave us some metacam. She never stopped eating completely though if anything she started eating MORE hay than normal. I am wondering if the quick weather change leading up to winter could be a reason for this?
They are eating veg. They have some carrot and celery a few times a week. But on advice from the vets we are trying to have the diet as mostly hay with little veg and pellets. Oh the rabbits are aged between 4.5 - 5.5ish.
I have noticed that Buffy and Harmony tend to eat the pellets at night but in the morning they tend to leave after a few nibbles and go to the hay instead. They ate the veg they were given today fine but tonight Harmony didn't go near the pellets. I checked her and found that she has had a little bit of a thick wee. This happened around this time last year and we were told it was a calcium issue and she'd consumed too much. The thing this time is with her not eating as much pellets as normal and her eating more hay is it the hay that caused it? We got told by the vet that increasing hay eating and reduction of pellets/veg would soon solve the issue (and it did). I'm just confused because she was in the run earlier before she was checked and she was munching away on the hay we put in the box they have so i don't understand how she could have too much calcium in her diet.
:wave: Hi I'm with you now. Rock bottom, Harmony has a problem of a tendancy to "bladder sludge" or excess calcium in her wee. (I call it chalk cos that's exactly what it is, Calcium carbonate = limescale in a hard water area.)
There are 2 sides to the equation.
a) Rabbits keep absorbing calcium from their diet even when their body has enough, so they have to excrete the excess in their urine. This is why your vet advised you to limit veg & pellets & increase hay.
b) Rabbits have very alkaline urine, which dissolves chalk poorly. So they need to drink well or the chalk crystalises out as "sludge".
European wild rabbits (same as our pets) get all their fluids from fresh grass/wild plants & dew & don't get sludge.
So when we give our rabbits dry grass =hay they need to drink more. Most people in this situation give their buns low calcium fresh veg & herbs, to increase the fluid intake. I don't advise much fresh fruit cos the high sugar content upsets their digestive system.(Exception being a few cranberries which are great for bladder probs)
I suspect that your current problem is that she isn't drinking enough. NOT easy is it?
Second thought. It's possible that if the urine had chalk crystals in it it would be painful to pass. (humans with crystals in their urine say it feels like weeing sandpaper!) Any PAIN can cause a rabbit's gut to slow down. The rabbit will then try to eat more fibre =hay to keep the gut moving, but tend to cut back on water. This of course makes the sludge worse!!! This might account for the change in diet.
I'll make 2 suggestions.
If you can get some unsweetened cranberry juice, try adding a small amount to the water to encourage drinking.
To encourage improved gut function, small packs of strawberry, raspberry & bramble leaves can be bought. If you can find fresh bramble leaves locally (they grow every where) or fresh strawberry leaves even better & cheaper. Also if you can get some thin apple twigs for them to eat that helps alot. If your buns go bananas for them it's just what they need to speed up their gut.
The fluid side ain't so easy.
Does that give you something to start on? Please ask me if I haven't explained properly.
I think it would be helpful if you put up a thread asking members with "sludge bunnies" to advise you which fresh foods they give to increase fluid intake without causing sludge. It's not quite as simple as "low calcium foods".
Hope that helps a bit. :wave:
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:wave: Hi I'm with you now. Rock bottom, Harmony has a problem of a tendancy to "bladder sludge" or excess calcium in her wee. (I call it chalk cos that's exactly what it is, Calcium carbonate = limescale in a hard water area.)
There are 2 sides to the equation.
a) Rabbits keep absorbing calcium from their diet even when their body has enough, so they have to excrete the excess in their urine. This is why your vet advised you to limit veg & pellets & increase hay.
b) Rabbits have very alkaline urine, which dissolves chalk poorly. So they need to drink well or the chalk crystalises out as "sludge".
European wild rabbits (same as our pets) get all their fluids from fresh grass/wild plants & dew & don't get sludge.
So when we give our rabbits dry grass =hay they need to drink more. Most people in this situation give their buns low calcium fresh veg & herbs, to increase the fluid intake. I don't advise much fresh fruit cos the high sugar content upsets their digestive system.(Exception being a few cranberries which are great for bladder probs)
I suspect that your current problem is that she isn't drinking enough. NOT easy is it?
Second thought. It's possible that if the urine had chalk crystals in it it would be painful to pass. (humans with crystals in their urine say it feels like weeing sandpaper!) Any PAIN can cause a rabbit's gut to slow down. The rabbit will then try to eat more fibre =hay to keep the gut moving, but tend to cut back on water. This of course makes the sludge worse!!! This might account for the change in diet.
I'll make 2 suggestions.
If you can get some unsweetened cranberry juice, try adding a small amount to the water to encourage drinking.
To encourage improved gut function, small packs of strawberry, raspberry & bramble leaves can be bought. If you can find fresh bramble leaves locally (they grow every where) or fresh strawberry leaves even better & cheaper. Also if you can get some thin apple twigs for them to eat that helps alot. If your buns go bananas for them it's just what they need to speed up their gut.
The fluid side ain't so easy.
Does that give you something to start on? Please ask me if I haven't explained properly.
I think it would be helpful if you put up a thread asking members with "sludge bunnies" to advise you which fresh foods they give to increase fluid intake without causing sludge. It's not quite as simple as "low calcium foods".
Hope that helps a bit. :wave:
Yeah i understand most of it. Now you mention it i didn't see Harmony drink but the other three i did see drinking yesterday. The thing with having four rabbits in the same hutch (with three drinking bottles) is that you don't always see them drinking or know how much each one has drunk individually. Yeah the vet advised us before about picking low calcium veg etc but it is difficult to find out so we thought just to stick to small amounts of carrot and celery with occasional parsley. We did syringe a little bit of water into Harmony last night when i found the thick wee on her fur and this morning she did go to the pellets and eat a little bit of them. She then went to eat lots of hay. I've never heard about Cranberry juice, is it really alright for them to have?
Another thing is grass, i read somewhere that grass can cause the "sludge" issue and with it being raining for the last few days i haven't picked any grass for the rabbits to have. I've only given them hay (and of course the veg yesterday) and thier daily pellets. So would wet grass be alright to give them then? Should this help Harmony?
:wave: Yes I understand about the problems with multiple rabbits.:lol:
It's important to really really water down any sugar free cranberry juice, or the natural sugar will give digestive probs. It's just to encourage drinking. They've an amazing sense of taste.
It only helps the sludge by increasing drinking, but together with fresh/dried cranberries it helps to reduce the risks of bladder infection.
Another way to get more fluid in is to moisten the pellets but they still have to be "pickable upable" for some buns, like mine. He'd just chase any mush round the bowl & get it up his nose.:roll:
Fresh natural grass is just fine, & the best staple diet for them - always acclimatise them to a new food slowly. The sludge issues can sometimes be caused with the dried "Readygrass". I think they use calcium salts in the drying process.
I'm not as experienced as many RUers with sludge problems. I'm more into tummy probs & foraging for buns with tummy probs. For us, when they get sludge, it's simply improving the gut motility so they've more "room" to drink properly.
For a true sludge bunny, like Harmony, you need to look at diet in a different way too.
I knew of folk on here who feed a lot of fresh foods, & feed them wet, to their sludge buns to help to increase fluid intake.
The big problem with the list of high & low calcium foods is that the calcium levels are all done on DRY weight. There are many foods which may be high in calcium but are so juicy that the increase in fluid gives a high overall benefit. FRESH dandelions is one such food.
I'll hang on in here with support. The wonderful thing about RU is the way we all need each other's experience to really help. If you ask for help with diet & tips from the "sludge bunny mummies" I'm sure you'll get a wealth of practical experience.
Yeah i tried some wet greens last night. We brought her inside briefly to syringe some water as well. I got some celery leaves and some aprsley and put water on them but she refused them. When we put her back though in the hutch she snatched them as if we'd been stealing from her. She has been alright today except just now when i checked on her it looked like a tiny bit of "sludgey wee" this time more beigey coloured than orangey is present. She didn't eat many pellets this morning, she did nibble a little before running for the hay. We have felt under her belly and it isn't solid or any hard lumps in there. I am going to go syringe some water into her in a little while. And give some more wet veg. When this happened before (after the time we took her to the vet) all we had to do was syringe water for a few days and give wet veg and then she was back to her normal self. I don't want to stress her out with an unneeded vet trip as she is the most nervous of our rabbits but if she does continue not eating the pellets at all then obviously another vet trip will be needed to find out what is going on. Hopefully the water and wet veg will help.
Hello everyone. I have not been able to find unsweetened cranberry juice. It may have been sold out in tesco though so i will try to find some tomorrow. For now though we are syringing water and we bought some greens from tesco. At the moment Harmony (and her siblings) are in the indoor run and she is acting normal. We did give them some greens. Harmony had one that was wet to get fluid into her. When i checked her underneath there was no sign of the calcium thick wee either. She has seemed her normal self today, she even nibbled some pellets this morning before going to the hay. I am going to continue givng the water by syringe and keep an eye on her for a few more days.
Can anyone else help with the calcium issue? What diet are your rabbits on? (i mean apart from hay and pellets, what veg/herbs do you give?) I am trying to work out what the best veggies are to give them for the winter but i don't want the calcium issue occurring.
Can anyone else help with the calcium issue? What diet are your rabbits on? (i mean apart from hay and pellets, what veg/herbs do you give?) I am trying to work out what the best veggies are to give them for the winter but i don't want the calcium issue occurring.
:wave: Hi Scrufox I'm glad things are improving a bit for you both.
The way we tend to work on here is to look at the thread title, & only open it if we think we can help.
I thought Harmony had a straight diet/tummy issue at 1st. hence my reply.
To get those with sludge experience to reply, you'll need to start a new thread in diet - specifically asking for help with a diet for sludge prone bunnies + experience of others.
It would be great if you post a link to your new thread on here, so I can learn a bit more.
The way we tend to work on here is to look at the thread title, & only open it if we think we can help.
I thought Harmony had a straight diet/tummy issue at 1st. hence my reply.
To get those with sludge experience to reply, you'll need to start a new thread in diet - specifically asking for help with a diet for sludge prone bunnies + experience of others.
It would be great if you post a link to your new thread on here, so I can learn a bit more.
