Another Poop Question

[Harbor Bunny]

OK ~ I know guinea pig poop, cat poop, dog poop, chicken poop. I thought I knew bunny poop ~ little dry berries. But Baby Cuddles is putting out some very different looking poops and I want to make sure it is normal. Basically the poops look like a grape cluster of dark little poops. They are all together as one, and not the dry sort of poops that I thought rabbits had. They are not mushy, and are well formed. I just wasn't expecting to see them appear as a collection!

Any thoughts on this are most appreciated!

~ Mary Ellen (who didn't really picture herself discuss the fine points of bunny poops...........)

 

[Baby Juliet]

They usually eat that kind of night poop. If you see them they might have too rich a diet that cause that type of poop.

 

[aurora369]

Rabbits produce two types of output, fecal pellets and cecal pellets.

The fecals are small, round and dark. Should be firm and when broken open are greenish coloured.

Cecals are formed in the cecum and are full of nutrients and B vitamins. The bunnies normally eat them directly from the anus. Excess cecals are sometimes formed, which don't get eaten, and are normally due to diet.

What are you feeding bunny? What kind of pellets, hay, veggies and treats? Also, how old is the bunny?

--Dawn

 

[Harbor Bunny]

Baby Cuddles is 9-1/2 weeks old (born February 12) and has been in my house a little less than 24 hours. She is on the pellets that she had at the breeder, with a tiny bit of pellets from the feed store mixed in, as that is what I have to use for thetime being (pet stores being 1/2 hour and 1 -1/4 hours away from me). She has been eating well and drinking water. The breeder had not been giving her anything but pellets and hay(a couple of times a week). I have been reading lots on the web site but there seems to bea lotof contradictory information as to what is the right diet for a bunny. For the time being I have been trying to keep things as close to what she is used to as possible, but she is eating like a little pig and will go through the small bag of food the breeder gave me very quickly, which is why I have begun to mix it with what I have here a little bit at a time. I will be able to get some hay tomorrow. Should I let her have free choice on hay at this stage?

Thanks for all input.

~ Mary Ellen

 

[Pet_Bunny]

It is normal for us to discuss poops on this forum. When a bunny is not pooping, then there is something wrong.

For a healthy rabbit, you hardly see their cecals as they are eaten up as they are passed out. When our rabbits does that, we say, "There's Pebbles having her vitamins again."

 

[aurora369]

I would definitly give her free choice of hay at the moment. Try to get a grass hay like Timothy if you can. I buy mine by the bale, but a feed store may be able to sell you a bag or a couple of flakes cheaper than a petstore.

Pellets from the feed store are fine, that's what I feed mine. Often times they are better than what you can get at a petstore.

I would get her on the hay, and if that doesn't help with the excess cecals I would slowly start decreasing her pellets until they stop. Excess cecals are often caused by too much protein or carbs. Shifting her pellets to a different brand might help as well. Keep doing the gradual transition until she's on the new feed.

--Dawn

 

[Pet_Bunny]

Our bunnies have access to hay all the time. For your growing bunny, you can still feed them alfalfa hay and alfalfa products. Eventually you would switch to Timothy hay products. Would you be able to get the same pellets as the breeders pellets?

 

[Harbor Bunny]

The breeder said I should give her free choice on the pellets for a while still ~ now I am blanking as to whether she said 3 months? She doesn't seem to be too chubby, as I can feel her shoulder blades and hip bones but not her spine. I expect that evenjust the act ofmoving (even though she has nicer "digs" now) can be stressful. The only thing that I am having a hard time getting used to is the silence! My cats purr when they are happy, even my guinea pigs make happy sounds. Bunnies are awfully quiet! She seems to like being "cuddled" and stroked. I am assuming if she didn't, she would try to escape that activity. She certainly seems powerful enough and independent enough at times, that she would object if she didn't like the cuddling. Sometimes she snuggles up under my chin, other times she explores my lap and shoulders. As I have said, she seems content enough, but it sure would help if she purred!

Thanks for all the advice!

~ Mary Ellen

 

[Harbor Bunny]

I will have to get in touch with the breeder and find out exactly what it is she has been feeding them. I know it is a Blue Seal Product, but it is not exactly the same as what I purchased asthey are shaped differently. She probably buys pellets by the truckload for all her bunnies. I need to get a smaller quanitity with just my one baby.

~ Mary Ellen

 

[juliew19673]

I completely understand the "how do you tell if they like what your doing - non-purring thing?".. My bun was a rescue from a friends yard and I had NO idea what bunnies do other than they don't bark and they don't yell at you like my cat does..

That being said- you will quicly find outwhen you watch them day - to day, they tell you what they are feeling by aflip of their ears a certain way, flip you off with their feet when they run away from you, or the best is when they "kiss" you or do a dead bunny flop ( and You will think they had a heartache) etc... on this site you can find a pdf of bunny behaivor and its as good as anything out there on the web)..

Your bunny is talking to you - your just a "stupid human" who is notunderstanding what their trying to say - LOL..

Just wait - give it3 weeks and you'll understand bunny speak.. Keep letting me us know how it goes - as it is very entertaining..

 

[MsBinky]

Actually, bunnies purr in their own special way: a gentle grinding on the teeth. hihi. It's pretty adorable actually. Some bunnies are actually pretty vocal as well :?They will make grunting noises, oinking sounds, etc. My rabbit (now passed on) started making noise when I got my guinea pig. Lol.

 

[Becca]

This is what Dippy and Fluffballs poops look like sometimes thats what i was trying to explain on the dripping waterbottle thread!
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=35139&forum_id=1

Harbor Bunny wrote:

Basically the poops look like a grape cluster of dark little poops.

 

[Jenk]

Pet_Bunny wrote:

For a healthy rabbit, you hardly see their cecals as they are eaten up as they are passed out. When our rabbits does that, we say, "There's Pebbles having her vitamins again."

I laughed at your choice of wording; mine's different but means the same thing. Of course, there's a fun story behind it....

I once heard a guyuse the term "bear in the cave" or "bear coming out of the cave," referring to someone having a visible booger near the nostril's entrance. So when my husband said that cecals (coming out of a bunny's backside) are like a "bear coming out of the cave," I replied, "True. But they're more like gummy bears." And the phrase stuck. So now whenever Emma and Zoe eat their cecals, we humans say, "Oh,So-And-So iseating gummies again" (or"...is having a gummy snack-attack"). :biggrin2:

Word ofadvice: I don't recommendkeeping your face near a bunny's when s/he is having a gummy snack; gummy (cecal) breath is, um, fragrant--and not in a good sense. :shock: Of course, my girls (Zoe expecially) always seem to crave gummies the momentI get up close to sweet-talk to them. Go figure.