Cecotrophes

[sibelabmom]

I have a Holland lop who is 16 weeks old now. He's a healthy, happy baby, but I am concerned about one thing: he rarely, if ever, eats his cecotrophes. Is this something I should be worried about, as he is otherwise perfectly healthy? And if so, what can I do about it? I feed Kaytee 1st cut timothy hay (will be switching to 2nd cut) and Oxbow Essentials timothy pellets. I don't use alfalfa at all, and they get a tiny bit of Rosewood Naturals as a treat every day.

 

[Preitler]

Most times you wont see them eating their cecos, imo they rather do it privatly because they are pretty vulnurable in that moment.

If you find cecos laying around most times the reason is that he produces more than he needs, which often is caused by a too rich diet.

How much pellets do you feed?

 

[sibelabmom]

Most times you wont see them eating their cecos, imo they rather do it privatly because they are pretty vulnurable in that moment.

If you find cecos laying around most times the reason is that he produces more than he needs, which often is caused by a too rich diet.

How much pellets do you feed?

Since he's tiny, he gets about 1/4 cup per day.

 

[Clyde42483]

I have a Holland lop who is 16 weeks old now. He's a healthy, happy baby, but I am concerned about one thing: he rarely, if ever, eats his cecotrophes. Is this something I should be worried about, as he is otherwise perfectly healthy? And if so, what can I do about it? I feed Kaytee 1st cut timothy hay (will be switching to 2nd cut) and Oxbow Essentials timothy pellets. I don't use alfalfa at all, and they get a tiny bit of Rosewood Naturals as a treat every day.

I've read in several rabbit care books that babies need alfalfa hay till they are about 6 months old for proper growth and development. I'm a relative novice at keeping pet rabbits though and I'd welcome people with more expertise weighing in on this. Meanwhile, I hope your bun is ok.

 

[Preitler]

I've read in several rabbit care books that babies need alfalfa hay till they are about 6 months old for proper growth and development. I'm a relative novice at keeping pet rabbits though and I'd welcome people with more expertise weighing in on this. Meanwhile, I hope your bun is ok.

My 2 cents: They don't need it, but hey can indeed grow faster that way, which often actually is the goal when raising rabbits.

Since he's tiny, he gets about 1/4 cup per day.

Hm, those american measurements , that would be 60ml, ca. 45g of pellets, doesn't sound so much. I feed less, about 3g per lbs of rabbit (mine are around 9-10 lbs), more or less at treat level, but apart from hay I feed other stuff in winter too like pumkin, topinambur and apples.

Anyway, if he doesn't grow out of it and this keeps to be an issue you can reduce the amount for some time to see if excess cecotropes get fewer or disappear at all, no harm in that.

 

[Jocee]

yea i agree with trying even fewer or no pellets for a while and seeing if that helps, My Bun had a few days of not eating her cecotropes, and i reduced her pellets, but she still didn't eat them, I then stopped giving her pellets and she began eating them again, I didn't give her pellets for about 4 days, and then I gradually gave them back to her. She was back to eating her cecotropes as normal, and i just give her less pellets then I did before.