Improving an Already Healthy Bunny Diet / GI stasis Case

Hi All,

Now this is a bit of a lengthy post, but if you can bear it, I'd love to hear you bunny lovers' thoughts afterwards.

First of all, one of my two bunnies has had GI stasis a few times in the past and of course it's very distressing...

They are both very healthy otherwise, eat a healthy diet (hay, veg, water) etc.

However, after having found an interesting article about GI stasis at http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html, I realised that perhaps there could be a few things I could change in their diets, and see whether it would improve the bunny's gut.

First thing: pellets.

I've been giving the Burgess Excel Adult Rabbit pellets to my two bunnies, but as I read the ingredients list carefully, I was very surprised:

"Grass Meal, Wheat Feed, Oat Feed, Soy Bean Hulls, Yeast, Lucerne, Mint, Molasses, Limestone, Soya Oil, Ligno-cellulose, Egg Shells, Short Chain Fructooligosaccharides (0.25%), Salt, Minerals"

I was so disappointed to see that all these carbs and sugars are included.

And unfortunately, lots of the brands out there seem to have similar ingredients.

I'd love to find a more healthy option to this. Does anyone have any experience? Bake your own pellets?

Secondly, after having read the above article, I've also given some thought to the quality of the hay I give the bunnies.

The author of the article, Dana Krempels says:

"Provide plenty of fresh grass hay, such as timothy. Even if the rabbit won't eat timothy, oat, brome or other grass hays, it is probably best to avoid offering alfalfa hay. Alfalfa is too high in protein and calcium to be a healthy part of the rabbit diet. It also is more likely to cause bloat, and more likely to harbor the parasitic fungi that produce potentially deadly mycotoxins than grass hays. For these reasons, we never feed alfalfa hay, even to healthy rabbits."

At the moment I order "Pure Pastures Meadow Hay" from an online shop - but it doesn't state which kind of hay it includes.

Does anyone have a recommendation about a hay brand that doesn't have alfalfa?

Thanks for reading and bunny hugs to all!

I look forward to hearing your thoughts!

How many pellets are you feeding? I'm sure you know that they should only form a tiny part of a rabbit's diet, with about 80% being made up of hay. Each of mine has an eggcupful once a day, a mixture of Burges Excel & Excel Light.

HayforPets do a sample pack of their different hays, free, you just pay the postage. Timothyhay is another good on-line supplier.

As far as I am aware, Pure Pastures is meadow hay and doesn't include alfalfa.

How old are your rabbits? (Very young rabbits need more pellets)

What veg are you feeding?

Excel pellets can cause some buns problems.

If it's the Alfalfa which is causing the bloat (as in your post) then Oxbow do a pellet which is based on Timothy hay. Most of the foods seem to have Alfalfa (Lucerne) in them, even Fibafirst, got a box right here and it says Timothy hay, alfalfa stalks, alfalfa protein etc. Might be high in fibre but if alfalfa is causing bloat then it's not that good. There is a list of all the rabbit foods with their ingredients on the Forum, possibly in Diet and Digestion.

Thank you so much for all your comments! Really helpful!

The bunnies are foundlings, so not sure of their exact age, but they're about 5 and 4 now. It's the younger one that has had the GI stasis a few times.

I give them an eggcup of pellets every day. I also give them two portions of veg each day, one in the morning one in the evening. One meal portion for one rabbit usually includes: two leaves of spring greens, handful of kale, half of a cucumber block (about 5 cm long), a celery stick chopped in small pieces, and when available, a handful of fresh herb (like mint, parsley or dill). The bunny who gets the stasis does eat hay as well as vegetables normally on a day to day basis. But could these vegetables cause bloating? I thought about sharing this video with you which I took after she had eaten, because sometimes she goes into this position after a meal:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ngevljj4wvfvsyd/pavis.MOV


Do you think this is completely normal? To me she somehow looks like she in a "digesting" position, and a bit uncomfortable? She spent about 10 minutes in this position. My other bunny just goes on about her normal life after eating. But apart from that, the one who has problems is generally a happy bunny, she's active and likes playing games etc.

Thanks tonibun about the recommendation about the Oxbow pellets, I'll try them next. I'll also try to find that list of bunny foods somewhere in the midst of this forum! Thanks! Also, I just checked with the shop about the Pure Pastures Meadow Hay and it doesn't include alfalfa.

If you have any other ideas please keep them coming, would love to try different things to try to help my bunny...

I am not sure if I have got the video to work - is she just in a sitting position? Cucumber can upset some bunnies. I found the link very interesting, it's a fascinating subject and in the link it stated hat the No 1 cause of GI stasis is Stress. We still have a lot to learn I think about our bunnies' diet. I don't give mine too much veg, they had Spring Greens today so tomorrow they will just have Muesli and hay.

I would cut out the kale, as it can cause problems for some buns.

Do you have access to raspberry leaves, or rose or apple leaves? They are good at keeping tums happy.

I'm no expert but I'm not sure about the cucumber. I do know that willow (leaves and branches of all types) is excellent for healthy happy tummies.

One of my rabbits, fern, had a few episodes of stasis when I first adopted her and the only thing that seemed to stop it was cutting out veg completely as it just doesn't agree with her. Now she just has herbs and natural forage with her hay and a few pellets

Meadow hay is fine, mine actually prefer it as it has natural plants from the meadow in it aswell as the grass hay - its actually fairly difficult and expensive to get alfalfa (legume) hay in the uk.

If you aren't feeding many pellets it probably wont make a huge difference, but Oxbow Bunny Basics Adult is the only traditional pellet made with timothy hay. You can also get fibre first which are more like long sticks than a pellet.

I agree they may do better on less veg and more natural plants/forage.

Thanks to everyone who replied!

I will experiment by changing the diet slightly to see what could make a difference...

I'll also get some more chewy branches for them.

Thanks again for all your ideas!