Eating Fecal Pellets

Hello,

My rabbit has started to eat his own fecal pellets.

I had to stop feeding him all vegetables 6 months ago because he could not maintain firm cecotrophes. Cutting the veggies was the only solution that worked. On a number of occasions, I tried to reintroduce extremely small amounts (literally 1 piece from bagged mixed greens). No luck.

This morning I think he had a gas problem but it passed with simethicone. 12 hours later I noticed that he was eating his hay and pooping where he was eating. He is normally very good about using his litter box. When he was finished with his hay, he ate his fecal pellets.

Any ideas on nutrition for those rabbits on a no veggie diet?

Thanks

I bet he is eating the closest thing he can get to his own cecotropes when he was eating his poos and thats what they are supposed to do, to get added nutrition so that might have been a good thing.

About not being able to eat veggies, I don't know if this is good or not but I have heard of people feeding a healthy rabbits cecotropes to rabbits with digestive problems so they can get the proper gut flora into their system. I wonder if he just doesn't have the proper gut flora needed to digest greens?

I wonder if probiotics like Benebac might help him.

Does he get rabbit pellets?

I've heard that rabbits often eat their own pellets as they still hold nutrients. Like cows regurgitate food that they can't digest, rabbits can re-eat the 'food' to get the rest of the nutrients they didn't get 1st time round.

its a normal process and they do eat it .. nothing to worry about

Oh, I didn't get that you meant he was eating cecotropes- that's totally normal and what all rabbits are supposed to do. The cecotropes look like clusters of small poo stuck together and they are supposed to eat them, its how they get their nutrition.

http://www.sandiegorabbits.org/health/scoop-poop

The Scoop on Poop
Cecal pellets (aka cecotropes) are a special food made by bunny, just for bunny. They are partially digested foods that are passed from the bunny and then reingested. You may not see bunny do this, but when she appears to be bathing her belly and she comes up chewing, she's probably just taken up a cecal pellet. It is from these cecal pellets that a rabbit gets the majority of her nutrition, not from the first passage of food through the gut.

Click to expand...

You do mean he is eating his round fecal poop right, not his cecotropes? Rabbits will sometimes do this when they aren't getting enough fiber in their diet. If he had a bit of gas and gut slowdown, then this may be why he did it. If so, then when he is feeling better it should stop. There may be other reasons for rabbits to eat them as well.

Rabbits don't necessarily have to have veggies in their diet. Is he getting pelleted rabbit food?