Dirty Baby Bunnies

[MiniLopMad]

Hey everyone!

I have 4 baby bunnies who all love their hay and pellets. They are very happy little buns and love to binky and run around.

They love sitting in there mothers litter box and when I check on them, they have poop stuck to their fur.

I have to clean the poop off them everyday and its getting frustrating. I'm even cleaning the litter as often as possible.

Is there any way I can stop this? I don't want them getting sick.

Thanks

View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1437865716.544793.jpg

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Give them an alternate area to hang out--ours like covered boxes.

 

[Azerane]

Is it their own poop getting stuck to their bottoms, or their mother's poop? If their mum's poop is so mushy that it's getting stuck to the babies bottoms, you need to look into her diet and adjust what she's being fed, as it will correct mushy poops.

That being said, if it's the babies' poop that's mushy, this is also a concern.

What are you feeding them and in what amounts daily?

 

[MiniLopMad]

I believe it is the mothers poop. They all have unlimited access to oaten hay and share 1/2 cup of pellets at night. The babies are not fed greens yet, but the mother gets a few romaine lettuce leaves, a little bit of parsley and fresh grass from my yard.

Her poops are round, hard and look normal to me. The babies poos also look normal.

Mothers poop:
View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1437875950.641600.jpg

Babies poop:
View attachment ImageUploadedByRabbit Forum1437876033.699622.jpg

 

[MiniLopMad]

Is it possible that mother bunny's cecotrophes are not being eaten and sticking onto the babies? Thanks

 

[JBun]

It's likely their cecotropes might be a bit mushy from transitioning onto solid food. It' s common for pellets to cause a gut imbalance. When this happened with my babies, I tried to reduce the amount of pellets they were getting, got them eating more grass hay, and tried to more gradually increase their pellet amount to give their digestive tracts time to more gradually adjust to the pellets in their diet. If the oat hay you are feeding, has a lot of seed heads, that could be the problem too. Too many carbohydrates are usually what causes the problem. If so, try and pick out most of the seed heads and loose grain.

Continue to check them several times a day to make sure no poop dries over the opening and blocks things up.

If it is the mothers cecotropes, that still needs to be addressed as she should be eating them.

 

[MiniLopMad]

Now that you mention it, I'm pretty sure it's their cecotropes. Mother is perfectly clean. I'll stop giving the bubs pellets and just give them to mother bun with her greens. I'll slowly build up the pellet amount over time.

Yes, the oaten hay is quite grainy
I'll try taking out as much of the grain as I can.

Thanks for the help It's greatly appreciated!

 

[MiniLopMad]

Update:

After just a few days of removing pellets completely from the babies diets, they are all good Nice and clean.

I tried removing the grainy bits from the hay but it was taking too much time so I have stopped.

Only mother bun is getting pellets now and all babies and her are healthy

The babies had their first go in the grassy outdoor playpen yesterday and loved it They nibbled on the grass and there hasn't been any issues.

I am going to slowly start bringing back pellets after a few more days.

Thanks again for the help

 

[Azerane]

That's fantastic, great to hear that you solved the issue

 

[MiniLopMad]

Thanks, Azerane!

 

[Thumperina]

I was feeding Sherwood forest baby pellets and we didn't have this problem.
I thought Alfalfa hay is the best for the babies - ?

 

[MiniLopMad]

It's very hard to come across pellets in Australia that aren't Lucerne/ Alfafa based There is 2kg bags of Oxbow available, but with 8 rabbits, I run out in a week.

Because of this I buy Jack Rabbit pellets in large 20kg bags. It's Alfalfa based

It's easier for me to give them Oaten hay. It saves me having to transition them from Alfafa to Oaten when they reach 6 months I also read that babies can have any type of hay? If the oaten hay isn't good for them, I can swap them to Alfafa.

 

[majorv]

If they're getting alfalfa based pellets they don't really need alfalfa hay too.

 

[MiniLopMad]

Ok, thanks