Bun eating less but is active

[hitocorn]

Hello! I'm new to this forum stuff so I hope this thread gets posted lol.
So, two days ago, I came back from a trip for five days and got my 10 month old bun from my friend's house.
Since we came back, he hasn't eaten his pellets at all. He drinks less water and poops a lot less (his recent poops look like the ones in the picture). He still gets excited and munches on hay though. I should probably say that he's shedding because of the season. He's still very active and runs around, does binkies and cuddles on the bed.
He also got to some glossy paper from his litter box but he normally eats some of it and nothing happens but I think he ate a little more than usual. Tomorrow is Sunday and our ONLY competent vet won't open.
My suspicions are: blockage due to stress (since he's a free roaming bunny and closing him off in a playpen was surely stressful), the magazine paper or due to the hair he's shedding.
Could someone tell me if they had a similar problem and maybe tell me how I could help my bun at home?

 

[JBun]

What kind of hay do you feed and is it good quality(no mold, no weeds, low dust)? Do you free feed the hay(never runs out) and is he eating at least a pile the size of his body per day? When did he stop eating pellets(while at your friends or after you brought him home)? Was he eating and behaving normally while staying with your friend or did being away from you affect his eating and behavior?

 

[hitocorn]

I feed him polish hay and he loves it, we can't find Timothy hay since we're in a small country but his pellets are Timothy based. The hay is the best choice out of many I've tried (the thinnest and the least dusty, he also eats out of it the most). He always has hay in his litter box and when it starts to run out I refill it. He doesn't normally eat the whole thing, I put enough hay so it's the size of his body but he spreads half of it on the bottom and eats the bits he likes (he's very picky, refuses to eat any vegetables except for parsley but likes fruits which obviously aren't good for him in big quantity).
They told me he started eating less pellets but not completely refusing them when at their house but he was drinking and eating hay normally and he sometimes does that when he is stressed so I told them to make sure he at least munches on hay.

 

[hitocorn]

Forgot to add that they let him out for a couple of hours every day to run around but he was too scared.

 

[hitocorn]

Update: I reached out to the vet (surprisingly) and he said it's probably because of the change of habitat for such a long time. He said to brush him and make him feel at home as much as possible and if it continues or he starts to act lethargic in some way to bring him in tomorrow.

 

[JBun]

As long as he's eating enough hay, that's always a good sign. Sometimes when a rabbits digestion slows down, whether from stress or fur ingestion, they will favor their hay over pellets, for the fiber to help increase their gut movement again. That could be what's going on here. But if his hay eating goes down a lot, and/or he continues to not want to eat pellets, then yeah, bring him to your vet. And I would make sure they check his teeth, just to rule that out.

Also might be a good idea to double check the pellets to make sure they don't smell sour or musty, and haven't gone bad.

 

[hitocorn]

Thank you so much! He ate around five or six pellets last night and pooped a little so I'm less worried. He ate almost all of his hay so I'll refill it and hope for the best!

 

[hitocorn]

Update: We opened a new packet of pellets to see and it worked! He started eating right away! I guess the other ones went bad.

 

[Diane R]

Update: We opened a new packet of pellets to see and it worked! He started eating right away! I guess the other ones went bad.
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He's adorable. Don't give him too many pellets. Around 1 tbsp a day is plenty. They need to eat hay for several hours a day.