Bun stopped eating veggies

[kirbyultra]

Hi everyone,

My Kirby has slowly stopped touching his veggies over the last few days. He was eating fine before that. He got 2 plates of veggies daily, 1/8 cup of pellets twicea day and a lot of hay daily. He used to jump for joy when it was veggie time and he'd dive at the pellets... but now he only eats a few mouthfuls of pellets and leaves the rest for later. He'll only eat a few pieces of lettuce and leave the plate for later. At first he'd finish his veggies eventually before the next feeding but now he just totally leaves them there untouched (except for the pieces of parsley which he picks out and munches on). He doesn't like to drink water much so I feed him 1 tablespoon of canned pumpkin daily also for some moisture.

The only significant change I can think of is his hay. I started to feed him a new box of Oxbow timothy and he loves it. It's greener and softer than his old hay which was starting to really turn yellow. He dives into it and finishes the usual amount in a fraction of the time. I replace his hay ball with more twice a day to keep up and I had to add another basket rack to hold additional hay so he would eat more.

I know rabbits should eat a lot of hay, but this much? And he's eating so much of it that the fresh greens stopped looking yummy? It's so odd because he used to eat his veggies and pellets like crack!

I looked in his litter box and everything looks good except for a few poops that looked like a string of poop pearls. There were a few like that and the string was 2 to 3 poops long. Looked like fur :nerves1I guess it's a good thing he's eating all that hay, huh?

Do you think it's ok that he's eating a lot less fresh greens now that he's become a hay loving little monster? Do I need to be worried about anything else, you think?

 

[Maureen Las]

I've worried about this same type of behavior.

When I first started to read the post I was thinking that your buns were in the very very early stages of stasis (which is still possible) but when you talked about the extra hay intake it made me uncertain.

Usually if my buns are leaving pellets and veggies they are starting to have a problem,

Usually i will start to hydrate them (either a little juice in their water bowls) or per syringe (pedialyte). Oftentimes I will give gas meds and possibly even benebac. I sometimes also give fresh pineapple juice.

For my buns this is usually the very beginning of gut slowdown and if I hydrate them (as described) I can get them back to normal before they are even into the problem.
Your buns are eating a lot of hay which is good but I still think that it is unusual for a bun to leave pellets. The hay intake usually increase the water intake so if that isn't happening maybe they are not getting the amount of hydration that they got from the veggies

if they are pooping 'string of pearl poops" then at least the hair ir is coming out . I'm not sure if they are having an issue or not but i would keep a close eye on them and attempt to get extra fluids in them, also brush them to get rid of some of the hair they are ingesting.

What ever is going on you will most likey be able to nip it in the bud

 

[Pipp]

Maybe he knows what he needs and it's hay? This is a chicken or the egg thing and I don't know enough to figure out what comes first. Is the hair appearing because he's molting and he's eating hay to work that through, of is the hair the same amount as usual and it's not moving through as well as usual.

Pipp's poops are tiny and hairy right now but it's because her molar spurs are acting up and I guess she's not chewing her food as well (or something) and she's eating less than usual. They seemed to be hairy before her current light(ish) molt.

I agree with spiking the water with a little juice, that sure works for Pipp.

And canned pumpkin. That really works.

Could it be a molt? His teeth?

sas

 

[Mrs. PBJ]

As pipp said and I have only briefly read that a change in diet could very well be teeth.

I have sen a few times where a member ask abuot there rabbits diet change and it turns out ot be there teeth. I am by no means a expert but the first thing I would do in this situation is have his teeth checked if there fine then you know it could be other things.

I have heard so many times rabbits go down hill fast so if it is his teeth. Better to catch it now rather then after two weeks of trying other things and then he get sick.

Just my personal a opion I am very new at this.

 

[kirbyultra]

How quickly can teeth issues spring up? Kirby went to the vet at the end of January and the vet found his teeth in perfect condition and there were no alignment issues. He has always been a good hay eater and now he is eating even more hay. I thought dental issues would cause buns to eat less hay?

I hate to admit it but maybe angie is right that it's a slowdown :cry2I will try my best to hydrate him. Kirby has never been a fan of water. Maybe I can put some juice in there to make it tastier for him. I will keep feeding him the pumpkin.

Overnight his poop was somewhat smaller. No pearls this time. Kirby just got over (or at least I thought) a molt that's been ongoing since mid-Jan. He stopped the bigtime stuff around the end of February. The last couple of weeks has not nearly been so fluffy as during most of his molting. That could be where the extra hair is coming from.

He ate most of his veggies this morning and ate most of the pellets too. But he's still not eating it all like he used to in one sitting...

 

[kirbyultra]

I gave him a smaller plate of greens and he ate that over a course of a few hours. He still has some pellets I gave him about 2 hours ago.

He finished his morning plate of greens and pellets by the time I got home today from work. He didn't eat much hay all day, but he did poop and pee at least once during the day. After I got home he ate a whole bunch of hay and pooped normal looking poops.

I've been trying to get him to take in more water. I poured some pineapple juice with some water (like maybe 1 part pineapple, 3-4 parts water). Kirby has never had pineapple before so he doesn't know what it is and hasn't touched it yet. He kept sniffing it though. I hope he takes a lick and likes it... I don't know what to do anymore to help.

 

[kirbyultra]

Ate his pellets, but still hasn't touched the juicy water.

I grabbed him up (he doesn't like to be picked up...) and massaged his tummy for a while. I set him back down and he immediately went to poop. He pooped out some more fur stringy poops. Just a few. He peed too. It's not as dark and brown as it looks, that's just the paper underneath. Scared me too.

I think he's sorta working the fur out slowly. He's still eating his hay. But he's been lying down like this a lot. I started noticing this a long time ago when I first posted my "lots of floppage" thread in the nutrition/behavior section. That was a few weeks ago. He kind of sits like this without a full flop mostly these days. He does it a few times a night.

 

[Maureen Las]

Those poops look good to me but you know what his big poops look like :biggrin2:

You can add a little apple juice to water if he won't drink pineapple.

I would try your best to get more fluids in him and brush a lot.
he's a cutie

 

[kirbyultra]

Thanks

I'm taking him to the vet just for my peace of mind.. he seems to be getting along, but I just don't want him to take a turn for the worst in the middle of the night or something. I can't do anything but worry about him. He pooped some more stringy poops this morning. Just how much of his fur did he eat?! and how didI miss it? I'm not as attentive as I thought... :cry1:

 

[Maureen Las]

If he is pooping strings of poop with fur that is normal lwhen buns are molting.
If they stop pooping them out then that is the problem or if the poops are really dried out

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

bunnies are consumate groomers/clean critters,(KIRBY,S).teeth were found to be in good order,.string of pearls is a good reason for more timothy/orchard grass(70%)-in diet,,plus,.one ounce of pellets x body weight per day,ie 6# rabbit=6ounces pellets daily,..are the ears cool??-poops look good in dust pan,..you do know about day / night poops,? briefly night poops/cepatopes,are consumed directly from the exit area,..these are very necessary for a well maintained gut,sometimes bunnies eat a few day time poop too/to compensate--its all about the gut(intestinal tract),-don,t worry too much about vegy,s they are actually a treat,you can try offering wet vegy,s (-no iceberg lettuce)-house of rabbit has a no-no list--my cottontail likes unsweetened frozen/prepared-apple juice,..rabbits need things to chew on like fruit tree twigs/ branches,(no -pine or ceadar trees),..sincerely james waller

 

[kirbyultra]

The whole reason I've been freaking out is his drastic change in attitude towards his food. For as long as I've had him, Kirby has loved his pellets and his greens. You can actually see him smiling when he eats it all in one sitting. In the last 1-2 weeks he's acting like "eh, whatever" when he sees food. He would actively sniff it, know what it is, and leave it alone. He'd eat a little bit throughout the day.

The vet didn't find anything wrong with him. She found Kirby's molars a little pointy, but not to the point where they look like he's hurting himself in any way. He needs to eat more hay. His gut sounds good, nothing else looked wrong. She agreed that as long as he keeps pooping out the hair and pooping regularly he'd be ok. I will continue to watch him carefully. I gotta brush him more.

If he eats even less, then we're going to have to take him in to get his teeth sorta ground down :shock:

 

[tonyshuman]

It would be strange that he would go off veggies with molar spurs, since it's usually pellets that are the first thing to be eliminated from the diet with tooth issues (they're hardest).

Maybe he is self-regulating his hay intake because he ate some fur. Just as you know when your GI is slowed and may eat some bran muffins to compensate, Kirby may know he needs that extra fiber because he isn't feeling normal. :shrug

 

[Pipp]

tonyshuman wrote:

It would be strange that he would go off veggies with molar spurs, since it's usually pellets that are the first thing to be eliminated from the diet with tooth issues (they're hardest).

No, this is normal. The pellets are rarely the first thing to go, they're easy to eat with spurs, they just disintegrate with not much pressue.

But everybun is different as to what they figure is worth the discomfort.

And even the slightest hint of a molar spur is enough to send Pipp off her veggies. (She won't eat hay to begin with).


sas :bunnydance:

 

[tonyshuman]

Oh, ok. I hadn't heard of that before. Good to know!

 

[Bethi7]

It might be that he is tired of pellets for the food problem, but try your best to keep him healthy.

 

[kirbyultra]

Bethi7 wrote:

It might be that he is tired of pellets for the food problem, but try your best to keep him healthy.

I really doubt that. Kirby loved his pellets more than his treats. When I used to pour in his pellets into his dish, that boy wouldbe opening his mouth to dive inbefore the first one hit his dish. He's definitely not in the mood. The vet also said that some buns don't want to eat as much when they molt. But Kirby just got over a molt. I don't know. Maybe Kirby is just reacting to something in his body, or reacting to the weather changing... I just have to keep watching him I guess.

 

[kirbyultra]

tonyshuman wrote:

Maybe he is self-regulating his hay intake because he ate some fur. Just as you know when your GI is slowed and may eat some bran muffins to compensate, Kirby may know he needs that extra fiber because he isn't feeling normal. :shrug

I sure hope that's the case.

I started to wonder, maybe because for a few days he ate hay like a monster that he was filling up on it and didn't feel like eating anything else. But the last couple of days his hay intake has stabilized back to normal and he's still not eating the way he used to.

 

[kirbyultra]

Update:
Kirby has been doing better the last few days. I closed his play area back up instead of giving him the run of the entire room. I think he appreciates the private space. He has been coming out to play more and we even saw some binkies! I think a calm, stress-free environment is helping him cope and stabilize. He is eating faster than he was the last week.

He's been eating his hay very well and pooping out good size poops. They look normal, with the occasional stringy one. I've been religiously tugging at his loose fur (which annoys him!) and hand-vacuuming all the little fuzzies in his condo. I've been encouraging more hay eating. He likes being fed pieces of hay one-by-one so I spend some time playing with him that way.

I also bought him a brand new busy bunny willow tent. He loves that thing. He's already been attacking it by eating the pieces on the side and climbing up on top of it. I haven't thrown out the old one that is literally standing up on 1 piece of willow, so he doesn't feel alarmed that I'm changing his environment again. I also got him a little ball that you can stuff hay into. He's taken a bit of interest in that. Kirby usually doesn't cake any interest in the little toys I buy him.

This is really good! I am so glad to see him showing more signs of mental and physical interest. He seems way more happy today than he has in 2 weeks. I can finally breathe a sigh of relief! Thanks everyone for their help!

 

[wabbitmom12]

Good news about Kirby! Buns can be such a mystery at times.