Please help, does this urine look normal?

I went to let Gizmo out of his cage this morning, and noticed a very dark urine spot on his cage floor. First, it's unusual for him not to go in his box, second, I've never seen urine so dark.


At first I was worried there might be blood in it, but after getting it up on a paper towel (see both pictures) it just looks like dark urine to me, if I'm correct?


I've attached a couple of pictures. He seems healthy, diet hasn't changed. He's about 2 years old, male neutered Holland lop.


http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll80/lily2521/20150902_064813_1.jpg


http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll80/lily2521/20150902_064639_2.jpg

I should add, the only thing we've fed him differently is carrot tops, which we started adding to his diet about 4 days ago. When we adopted him we didn't know what greens he was getting so we're introducing 1 at a time, that's the new one.

Hey lily don't be worried.... My rabbit had the same thing and the fist time I saw it I thought I would have to take my rabbit to the vet.... Usually this happens around fall and it can happen while your rabbit is
-On antibiotics
At the first cold snap in the fall
After eating fir leaves
After eating carrots, spinach or other veggies containing beta carotene

Eventually it will get lighter but just make sure you give him plenty if water... Hope this helps

Janine16rouge said:

Hey lily don't be worried.... My rabbit had the same thing and the fist time I saw it I thought I would have to take my rabbit to the vet.... Usually this happens around fall and it can happen while your rabbit is
-On antibiotics
At the first cold snap in the fall
After eating fir leaves
After eating carrots, spinach or other veggies containing beta carotene

Eventually it will get lighter but just make sure you give him plenty if water... Hope this helps

Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply, I was so worried!

Yes, that's normal. Rabbit's urine can be red for a lot of reasons. Dandelions colour it too (and it tends to make them pee a lot, so it's very impressive). Weirdly colored urine can also be marking (that tends to be rust colored and it's also pretty strange to look at - the first time my rabbits did that, it was on a white pillow and I was like "AAAHHHH, BLOOD!" but no, they just liked the pillow and wanted to own it...).
There's a good article about it :
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-1/red-urine.html

This is good to know.

Looks like most of ours. The real cause for worry is if it's higher in calcium and leaves a white colored sludge--can cause stones and bladder problems.

Hi lily--yes, normal urine varies in color. I feed beetroot tops and those leaves always make the urine red. Beets affect me the same way, which saved me a heart attack the first time I saw the color in my bunnies's urine!