advice re my rabbit

dawn_rose

Hiya I have an indoor rabbit he is has today been passing soft smaller pellets than normal, any idea what is wrong with him. I've only had him since August. He has been eating his food but not touched his hay much today plus he is drinking and seems his normal boingy self? any advice greatfully recieved. thanks

Fosterdog

He may have eaten something he shouldn't have, it may be worth cutting his normal food and leaving him with just hay for 24 hours to get his gut working again properly.

It may just be that he hasn't eaten enough hay rather than eating something he shouldn't.

What food is he fed, how much and how often?

krlyr

Rabbits have a digestive system that needs to be on the go constantly. Smaller poos can be a sign of the gut slowing down, and a beginning sign of gut stasis (the gut shutting down). A vet trip would be worthwhile to catch it in its early stages, allow them to give some medication to kickstart the gut, and they may also give some liquid food like Recovery Rabbit paste to syringe feed for some extra fibre.

dawn_rose

Thanks for your help he is back to normal yesturday and today. he was on rabbit musli and being selective so we put him on all in one nuggets. He is chomping through his hay again now (we just gave him hay to see if it would settle his tummy down).

krlyr

Pellets are much better - most of the fibre in a muesli is in the alfafa pellets. These don't seem to appeal to many rabbits (or indeed, any other small animal I've owned!) and therefore generally get left behind - meaning the rabbit doesn't get the fibre it needs. Pellets prevent selective feeding and lead to a much more balanced diet.

It's also worth bearing in mind how little of the complete food a rabbit needs. A good guide I read when I had rabbits was an eggcup full for your standard sized/middle aged/average exercised rabbit. Younger or elder rabbits may require more calories, as may a larger rabbit or that of a nervous disposition (burns more calories) or that does above average exercise, but generally a rabbit really doesn't need that much dry food a day. The majority of their diet should be hay and grass, and overfeeding on dry food can prevent a rabbit from having as much of an appetite for hay/grass as it should.

However, if he's not had pellets before, do introduce them carefully - their delicate digestive system needs time to adjust, I would just feed a very small amount of pellets for the next few days then gradually start increasing. It won't harm to just be on hay for a few days.