Still not eat Cecals

Hi everyone.

I have been changing Harley over to SS gradually from Excel - she is now mainly on SS with a little bit of Excel. But she is still not eating her Cecals. I feed her about 25 to 30 grams in the morning and that's it for the day. Is that too much do you think? She weighs about 1.7kgs. Seems such a small amount as it is:roll: Obviously she has all the hay she wants as well.

Sorry don't know how much it weighs, but the recommended amount is an eggcupful (for average-sized adults).

The most important part of your rabbit's diet is hay, hay and more hay (80-90%) and perhaps you could try different types to encourage more hay-eating? You can get a free sample pack from HayforPets.

Really silly question, but are you sure she's not eating them? Pudding tends to eat his er...directly from the source. We do find the odd one in his cage, but I haven't seen him eating one from the floor.

cm85 said:

Really silly question, but are you sure she's not eating them? Pudding tends to eat his er...directly from the source. We do find the odd one in his cage, but I haven't seen him eating one from the floor.

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Absolutely right - they eat them straight from the 'source' not from the ground.

Judging by the slugs I've found on the floor of her hutch - she's definitly not eating them...occasionally she does (you can tell as her fuzzy felt face has toilet litter stuck to it but most of the time not. Boris our other rabbit does eat them from the 'source' - have no problem with him - it's just my girl being silly. The are not bonded yet - so able to control the food she eats.

My rabbit never eats poop. She doesn't like the smell.

denla said:

My rabbit never eats poop. She doesn't like the smell.

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Your bunny should be eating the soft poop: the ones that are small and sticky and stuck together. If she isn't eating them, there is something wrong. It could be her diet, or it could be a health issue.

She may be eating them and you just don't notice though. It can look like they are just washing themselves down there, when actually they are eating the cecals directly from their bottom. If you are finding these soft poos left around her living area though, you could look at her diet first (make sure she is eating lots of hay and fibre), and if that doesn't fix it, a vet trip to ask what else might be causing it.

I had the same issue and I resolved it by feeding my buns One egg cup in the morning - I just weight it and that equals 12g - I feed them another at tea time and they have hay all day.

I find that splitting their feeds gave them less excess during the day and the eat directly from the source in the evening.

I also find that greens everyday or too much gives mine excess cecals. I also work to no greens if they're eating grass (not an issue now as they can go out due to temp) I have mini lops so I feed a handfull of greens eg kale between them.

HTH.

Doughnut gets one egg cup of SS a day, she's a mini lop weighing 1.1kg. When she was younger I gave her too much and had uneaten cecal everywhere. I split it into two lots, half in the morning, half in the evening. If I gave it all at once she would have uneaten cecal again.

I don't give her veg but she has dill sometimes, dandelions, bramble leaves and forage things. 20-30 grams would be too much for Doughnut. It probably seems hardly anything because you're used to giving more. Doughnut has about 10g a day. I know some people on her just feed about 8 pellets and some none so your rabbit will be perfectly OK with less. It should be a treat for them.

How old is Harley? You could always cut them out completely for a few days, give hay only and see if it clears it up. Then re-introduce a few at a time and build up.

Thanks for all the advice - I think I need to cut back quite abit. She is 6 months old now, so is not going to do much more growing. I would stop completely but feel slightly uneasy about that but will obviously do so if cutting back doesn't work.

Thanks again everyone :thumb:

Id cut to an egg cup but give in two parts. After a couple of days you'll probably notice a difference.

Fellie said:

Thanks for all the advice - I think I need to cut back quite abit. She is 6 months old now, so is not going to do much more growing. I would stop completely but feel slightly uneasy about that but will obviously do so if cutting back doesn't work.

Thanks again everyone :thumb:

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Cut back very gradually, no sudden change or you risk upsetting her digestion. I wouldn't advise cutting out pellets completely. I'm sure that if you gradually cut down on the pellets she should eat more hay.