Upset stomach, diet and aspen bedding?

Hi, I have 2 approximately 12 week old rabbits. I feed them some pellets in the morning and night and a ton of hay throughout the day. Earlier i noticed one of my rabbits laying funny, she was stretched out and you could tell she was uncomfortable by the way she kept getting up and moving around, then plopping back down. She would sit up but had her knees up and her stomach kind of hanging down. At one point she was laying on her back which is when I really got worried!! I hadn't seen her eat, drink or poop in a while, i didnt realize this until she started acting weird, but she was peeing quite a bit (it looked like she was trying to squeeze out some poo and was peeing in the process) her pee is pretty dark but that could be from not drinking. I rubbed her belly for a while while she was laying down and gave her a tiny bit of pedialite. After that she got up and drank some water and ate a little hay and is just about back to normal now. My other bun is fine. So I guess it was just a stomach ache?

My question is I guess, am I feeding them properly? Could I be over doing the hay since they are still young? I am feeding them Timothy hay. Should it strictly be alfalfa hay since they are so young?

Also I am using non scented aspen bedding for their litter. After she drank the water (and before I coaxed her to eat the hay) she was eating the bedding. Is this okay?! I've seen my other bunny do it a few times but he's a big chewer so I figured it was just something to chew on, but she was EATING it. Maybe trying to settle her stomach? I tried to put hay over it so she would eat that instead but she threw it at me lol (she has a little bit of an attitude problem)

Also, I have mint growing in my garden and have read that this will settle their stomach, I don't plan on giving it to her not knowing what the problem actually is, but just for future reference, how safe is that?

A bunny can never have too much hay. Until they are 5 months old rabbits should be given unlimited pellets (unless they eat too much and forget the hay) and unlimited hay. Timothy hay is fine if their pellets are alfalfa-based, otherwise the nutrient levels might be too low for growing buns.

Her eating the aspen litter might have caused a blockage. Is she pooping normally now? Most of us use wood stove pellets for litter, they are cheap, great with odor control and break down into tiny wood flakes that wouldn't block a bunny's gut if they ate it.

Mint is definitely safe to feed but the vege I've heard settles bunny stomachs is cilantro/coriander.

She is pooping now, it's not diarrhea but its kind of wet and slimy on the outside? But the more she goes the more it seems to be getting back to normal. I'm definately going to have to switch to the wood pellets because she is still chewing on the bedding. I'm just going to put hay in there I guess for now. Their food is alfalfa based and I give them one yogurt drop treat each a day

Aspen bedding is perfectly safe for rabbits. Even if they want to nibble on it, it shouldn't cause any problems. When a rabbit has an upset stomach or slow gut motility, they will often crave fiber and that is probably the reason she was wanting to eat the wood bedding.

It sounds like something caused an upset stomach. It could be due to too much sugar from the treats, so best to stop giving those. Commercial rabbit treats actually aren't very good for rabbits anyways, especially those yogurt drops. Too many sugars and starches in a rabbits diet can lead to a gut slowdown which can eventually lead to a blockage if not corrected. Grass hay is the best thing for good gut motility, so definitely don't limit the hay. Alfalfa hay really isn't necessary if feeding an alfalfa based pellet. Good fluid consumption is also important. If you use water bottles, offering a water dish can also be helpful as rabbits usually will drink more from a dish.

Many things can lead to slow motility and gut stasis in rabbits. Too many sugars/starches and/or not enough fiber in the diet is most common, but other health problems and dental issues can also be a cause, so if this keep occurring and you can't point to diet as the cause, you may need a vet visit and further diagnostics to determine what is going on. If your bun stops eating/pooping for more than 12 hours, it is considered an emergency and you need to see a vet immediately. If the poop doesn't return to normal in the next day, worsens, or her condition worsens, you need to get to a vet immediately.

A good way to know if there may be a potential health issue, is by monitoring a rabbits droppings. If they start to become small, hard, dark, and even irregular shaped, it indicates slow motility. Could be from too many pellets, treats, not enough hay, or other health problem affecting the appetite. Here are some good links on gut motility issues and what to look out for.

http://rabbit.org/gastrointestinal-stasis-the-silent-killer-2/
http://rabbit.org/sluggish-motility-in-the-gastrointestinal-tract-2/
http://rabbit.org/disorders-of-the-cecum/

http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-digestive-system.asp
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-droppings.asp
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/drop/Drp_en.htm

She's back to her normal self this morning and luckily all of the poops in there look normal! It was a little darker than usual last night when she started pooping again but everything looks fine today, I just hope some of the poop is hers though! But I noticed last night when she was eating the bedding that she went for a wet spot, this morning I watched her pee and turn around start drinking it!! What the heck could that be about? It's not as dark as it was last night but looks like it could be a little cloudier than usual. I have a water bottle for them and they suck on that thing like crazy, maybe they're not getting enough out of it?

Whoa, get her a bowl or crock of water to drink from right away. I don't trust bottles, they can be tricky for some bunnies. Sounds like she's dehydrated, dark and cloudy urine isn't good at all.

She started sitting a little weird again this morning (not as bad as last night) so I gave her a tiny bit more pedialite, which seemed to have perked her up last night, and she started hopping around like a maniac so that must be the problem!! And her poops are back to normal so I guess I will be adding a dish of water. I was putting that off a little bit since they already make enough of a mess and love to poop in their food dish, but you gotta do what you gotta do lol.

They're already drinking out of it like crazy so hopefully that was the problem! 🙏

Have you called your vet to get any type of feedback on the situation? I'm always paranoid and my vet knows I'm on the phone with him
at the drop of a hat with anything happening to my buns or dogs.

Vanessa

No she's been totally fine since then so I'm thinking she either just wasn't getting enough water or was getting an upset stomach from the yogurt treats. That morning she totally refused to eat one and normally she loves them so I'm wondering if maybe that's what it was.