Excess caecels?

I've noticed that Smudge hasn't been eating his caecels. It started a couple of weeks ago, when he would leave the odd one or too. I wasn't too concerned as he is otherwise fit and healthy. But the for the last 3 days I've noticed that is is leaving bunches of them. Yesterday there were 3 bunches in total within a few hours. Today there is one bunch just sat in the litter tray. But I've just seen him leave them again. Could it be that he is producing too many to consume? I know that it's unusual to produce them during the day?

Smudge and his brother Benjamin are 16 weeks now. They have unlimited amounts of farm hay, a small amount of timothy hay, unlimited water, a small amount of Burgess Excel Dwarf Pellets (just enough to cover the bottom of their food bowl) once per day, a tablespoon full of dried dandelion and oat grass, 2 fibrefirst sticks a day and a fenugreek crunchie a day. Is there anything gleamingly obvious from the diet that would cause this? Both boys are fit and well, they have unlimited exercise (they are house buns) daily.

Their diet sounds great

A few people have reported individual bunnies being sensitive to excel and that causing similar issues, so if it continues you could try swapping to a different brand like Supreme Science. The other thing to try would be to cut out the excel for a week or so and increase the fibrefirst. That would tell you if it was the excel and then you could consider introducing a different brand of pellet if you wanted to.

The time they produce them depends on when they eat so there isn't a set time with pet bunnies which tend to keep different hours to wild bunnies

I had this discussion with my vet this morning. My bunny, on an excellent diet, STILL produces more caecals than he eats. Even when I cut out pellets completely it still happens. I have tried everything

My vet says she has come across some rabbits and they just have this issue, and there's no real way to solve it. It's the first time in my rabbit keeping (extending to hundreds of buns over many years in rescue) that I haven't been able to knock this issue on the head.

I am going to stop worrying about it now, and just clean them up for him :lol:

MightyMax said:

I had this discussion with my vet this morning. My bunny, on an excellent diet, STILL produces more caecals than he eats. Even when I cut out pellets completely it still happens. I have tried everything

My vet says she has come across some rabbits and they just have this issue, and there's no real way to solve it. It's the first time in my rabbit keeping (extending to hundreds of buns over many years in rescue) that I haven't been able to knock this issue on the head.

I am going to stop worrying about it now, and just clean them up for him :lol:

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Rolo is like this too - I've changed his pellets, cut out certain things to try and eliminate it but nothing has worked. I'm sure he'd be better if he ate more hay (he has unlimited amounts of every hay known to man but nothing really floats his boat!!!).

Roly Poly said:

Rolo is like this too - I've changed his pellets, cut out certain things to try and eliminate it but nothing has worked. I'm sure he'd be better if he ate more hay (he has unlimited amounts of every hay known to man but nothing really floats his boat!!!).

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...Oh but just look at that CUTE face!!!

Hello :wave:

My dad and I have been battling excess caecals with Sweep for years now. It started right after he lost his first bonded partner, Misty in 2010, and has got gradually worse. I spent months back and forth with a exotic specialist trying to work out what was causing the problem, and unfortunately a diagnosis was never reached.

From my discussion with the vet, the main thing that can cause it is diet, so firstly we put Sweep on a strictly hay only diet for a month (also Panacured). We then tried Metacam (pain relief) incase it was arthritis which was causing him to not eat his caecals. Then tried pro-biotics, which does seem to help him a little but not cure completely. Eventually we kind of ran out of ideas, and resigned ourselves to the fact that it's something we are going to have to manage.

These days, he is on and off - throughout winter he is fine, absolutely no caecals left. The moment the weather heats up they flare up, so we have probiotics on hand to cope with the bad episodes. The rest of the summer then is just being careful what we feed him (we have excluded various foods from his diet after testing him with them and him having a reaction), and of course cleaning up after him. Interestingly it's never stuck to him, merely just left on the floor. I did catch him doing it, and it's not that he just poos them out and leaves them, he eats them from his behind and then drops them out of his mouth.

Strangely, I think you'll find a high proportion of bunnies who have an ongoing caecal problem that cannot be diganosed are mini lops....:?

What I would do in your case is restrict the diet back and cut out some or all of the pellets. They are old enough to not need so many pellets now so I'd be tempted to completely remove the excel and leave the Fibafirst the same to see if it's the Excel that is making him worse. Unfortunately it is a case of trial and error with finding out which foods exacerbate the problem and which ones are ok. Is he getting any veggies at all? We find veg makes Sweep a lot worse, so he just has hay and pellets.

Roly Poly said:

Rolo is like this too - I've changed his pellets, cut out certain things to try and eliminate it but nothing has worked. I'm sure he'd be better if he ate more hay (he has unlimited amounts of every hay known to man but nothing really floats his boat!!!).

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Just a suggestion, but have you tried fresh grass? Most people think grass = bad because it's fresh greens, but it can work really well for some bunnies if they don't like hay (or even if they do). Obviously introduce it slowly but if he likes it and it works for his tummy it can replace hay completely.

Tamsin said:

Just a suggestion, but have you tried fresh grass? Most people think grass = bad because it's fresh greens, but it can work really well for some bunnies if they don't like hay (or even if they do). Obviously introduce it slowly but if he likes it and it works for his tummy it can replace hay completely.

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He's not overly keen on real grass but he always used to eat readigrass but a couple of times, I had bags which were a bit more stalky which he didn't like and since then, he doesn't eat it. I actually bought a new bag a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely and green but he just turned his nose up at it - he is one fussy bunny!!!

Thumper had excess caecals too, i switched him to supreme science pellets (he was on burgess excel) and no more excess caecals! you can get a free sample if you email supreme petfoods too :thumb:

Thank you all so much for your replies. Sorry im a bit late getting back to you, I've just returned from my first zumba class (and found a new hell!:evil

If I were toremove the pellets all in one go, would it cause any gut problems? Or do I reduce slowly? Also if I were to remove the pellets totally and replace with fibre first, would I need to give more than one or 2 a day?

Occasionally they have coriander, but thats it :wave:

furbabies said:

Thumper had excess caecals too, i switched him to supreme science pellets (he was on burgess excel) and no more excess caecals! you can get a free sample if you email supreme petfoods too :thumb:

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Thank you for this, its good to know :wave:

Mary (Dutch doe) also had excess which was sticking to her fur. I cut back on her food till she slimmed down enough to clean herself and the problem stopped. Betty, her hutch mate, has never had that problem.