I keep finding cecals in her cage

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

I sometimes find a few (1-2) cecals in Sabrina's cage. Usually they are in her litter box so I figured that she accidentally didn't eat them. However, today I found 3 "bunches of grapes" just lying in her cage before I went to night class. Thinking that they maybe had just happened (they looked very fresh) so I left them for her to eat. It seems as though she ate one of them but not the other two. I am worried that she isn't getting enough of the nutrients that she needs, or that something is wrong with her and she is producing too many cecals.

Sabrina is an almost 5 month old Holland Lop. She isn't spayed (but will be December 3). Her fecals and urinary output are normal. She had some fecals while I was at school and they were normal. She is acting perfectly normal and has not been outdoors or had access to anything poisonous. Nothing seemed to be chewed/destructed/out of place in her room when I got home from school.

Her diet is unlimited timothy hay and 1/2c. of pellets (protein content 14%). I know that babies are supposed to have alfalfa but her breeder had her on timothy so I wanted to keep it consistent with what she was receiving. She also gets 1 1/2 -2 c. of fresh veggies daily.

Today she had a 1 spoonful of pumpkin (she is shedding), 2 baby carrots, 2 slices of cucumber and the rest of her veggie allocation was dandelion. She had this at about 4 pm and ate it on and off until about 6 pm (which is normal for her)

I am sorry that this post is so long I just wanted to make sure that covered all of my bases. I would appreciate any advice at all! Hopefully there is nothing wrong with her and I am just being an over protective mother!

Thanks so much, Lauren.

 

[Maureen Las]

I can tell that you are very conscientious..; this is probably not a serious issue but it' is good that you noticed it.

She may be producing more cecals than she needs usually due to excess protein inthe diet.
Her diet, however sounds excellent.
I would try , however, to maybe give awider variety of greens , starting out very slow ...giving one new veggie at a time in a small amount and I would eliminate the carrots entirely and see if this helps at all. Always remeber that it is more important to give her a lot of hay than a lot of veggies so make sure that she has plenty of fresh green hay.

carrots are actually high insugar

you could also try to give her a dose of benebac (probiotic )

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

Thanks for all of your advice angieluv! She usually also gets parsley and/or cilantro but I ran out yesterday =( I never thought that it could be the reason why. I will be sure to get some more in the morning and to pick a few new greens to start her on, slowly of course! I will cut out the carrots and will also go and get some Benebac. Do they sell it at petsmart? Are there dosing instructions on the label?

Thanks so much...I feel 10000 times better now!

 

[Orchid]

Hi! I saw your post but did not respond because I did not have any good advice for you! Glad you are getting help and just wanted to say hi..

I see you are in canada and I am not sure of places you could get it but from my limited knowledge:
Try horse stores, pet stores and a rabbit savy vet should have the Bene though I found that the horse store was a much much better deal than the vet and prices....
All else failing I would suggest checking online...

I will have you in my thoughts!

 

[Maureen Las]

You can buy small mammal benebac in small indivdual tubesbut I only find that at petco here. ; maybe at petsmart where you are
At petsmart they have benebac powder for dogs and cats which is fine ( same thing as for small mammals) and more economical than the tubes except that you have to sprinkle it in something to get it in the rabbit

you can also buy a tube of probiotic for horses n farm supply stores..here we have one called probios..you are looking particularly for one with lactobacillus casei in it; it would be one for horses

it sounds like the veggies that you are feeding are fine and there is no need to change those butI would (as an experiment ) cut the carrots out entirely
You can sort of play around with different combination of her food to see what could be causing it
if she was olderI would just say cut back on the pellets but she is still young

Does she get an alfalfa pellet?.. 14% is actually a lower protein pellet :?

is she overweight at all?

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

There is a farm supply store not to far from here. I can stop there after school today. She is not overweight. Her pellets are timothy because like the hay that is what she was receiving when I got her. I worry about switching her because this is all that she has ever know and would be switched over to an adult pellet in 2 months anyways...I could be wrong though because I am new to rabbits.

Thanks again!

 

[tonyshuman]

It's probably fine to have her on a Timothy pellet as long as she is normal weight for her age and doesn't seem to have weak bones. Younger bunnies frequently leave cecals, and if they don't eat it as it's coming out, most bunnies won't eat it later. Sometimes if I surprise a bunny while they're snacking, they'll leave the cecal and not come back to it. Is it possible that you're walking in while she's eating and startling her so she gets distracted and forgets? Other than that, and a dose of BeneBac, I don't think you should worry.

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

Thanks tonyshuman. I never thought about it, but when she passed those cecals she was being very hyper and running around all over the place. She probably forgot all about them! She seems to be on the right track for her weight. I am estimating that she is about 2.5 lbs right now, I will know for sure when she goes to the vet next week for her spay. Her breeder said that I should expect her to be about 3 lbs. based on past kits.

I didn't see any excess cecals today and she will get her bebebac this evening!

Thanks everyone sooooo much! I guess I am just a bit of a paranoid new bun mom.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Don't think you really have any worries. My little fur babies produce more than they consume of cecals. They aren't in the wild having to fend for themselves, so they get more than enough of everything in their regular diet. Some eat them and some don't, but, all our bunnies are healthy and happy. A small amount of carrot won't hurt, but you do need to limit sugary treats for sure. Also with a young rabbit, you need to make sure that they get calcium for optimum bone development which is why alfalfa is good. There are vegetable that are high in calcium also. The real key is to cut down the calcium once they are older to avoid bladder sludge and stones--one of our rescues came to us with a stone in her bladder that was so large that our vet thought she'd had a failed pregnancy and we didn't know it was a stone til they went in to neuter her--suprise, she's was already neutered but she was the mother of a quarter sized stone.

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

Good News! I just playing with Sabrina and she ran over to one side of the room and ate some cecals! I also haven't seen any in her cage since Tuesday night. Thanks everyone so much for the advice.

Lauren

 

[Maureen Las]

~*sAbRiNa*~ wrote:

Good News! I just playing with Sabrina and she ran over to one side of the room and ate some cecals! I also haven't seen any in her cage since Tuesday night. Thanks everyone so much for the advice.

Lauren

Nothing like a big bowl of cecals on Thanksgiving ( if you are a rabbit that is !!)

 

[~*sAbRiNa*~]

Ohhh angieluv that made for some very interesting mental images!

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

~*sAbRiNa*~ wrote:

I sometimes find a few (1-2) cecals in Sabrina's cage. Usually they are in her litter box so I figured that she accidentally didn't eat them. However, today I found 3 "bunches of grapes" just lying in her cage before I went to night class. Thinking that they maybe had just happened (they looked very fresh) so I left them for her to eat. It seems as though she ate one of them but not the other two. I am worried that she isn't getting enough of the nutrients that she needs, or that something is wrong with her and she is producing too many cecals.

Sabrina is an almost 5 month old Holland Lop. She isn't spayed (but will be December 3). Her fecals and urinary output are normal. She had some fecals while I was at school and they were normal. She is acting perfectly normal and has not been outdoors or had access to anything poisonous. Nothing seemed to be chewed/destructed/out of place in her room when I got home from school.

Her diet is unlimited timothy hay and 1/2c. of pellets (protein content 14%). I know that babies are supposed to have alfalfa but her breeder had her on timothy so I wanted to keep it consistent with what she was receiving. She also gets 1 1/2 -2 c. of fresh veggies daily.

Today she had a 1 spoonful of pumpkin (she is shedding), 2 baby carrots, 2 slices of cucumber and the rest of her veggie allocation was dandelion. She had this at about 4 pm and ate it on and off until about 6 pm (which is normal for her)

I am sorry that this post is so long I just wanted to make sure that covered all of my bases. I would appreciate any advice at all! Hopefully there is nothing wrong with her and I am just being an over protective mother!

Thanks so much, Lauren.

diet issue,-requires slight modification,..the unlimited timothy hay is very good--,,for teeth and gi tract,//,try perhaps 1/4 cup puria rabbit chow-for-vitamins and mineral-(2.5#bun)-daily...the only thing bad about timothy pellet, itis-soft andit fills up the belly too soon-resulting in no chewing--overtime this will be an issue--(teeth are constantly growing and gi tract-needs-to be moving.)..i use fruit tree branches/twigs for knawing on,,other things you feed are ok unless the output(poops)-are gewy,etc.--during molting nondigestible-fiber-timothy/orchard hay-should keep the gitract moving--oh yea-lots of water,,prey animals will not show weakness to a predator--their behavior is the only thing we can go by--you can google house of rabbit society or adopt a rabbit for a comprehensive list of edible,non edible plants,,,sincerely james waller:wave:

 

[jamesedwardwaller]

~*sAbRiNa*~ wrote:

I sometimes find a few (1-2) cecals in Sabrina's cage. Usually they are in her litter box so I figured that she accidentally didn't eat them. However, today I found 3 "bunches of grapes" just lying in her cage before I went to night class. Thinking that they maybe had just happened (they looked very fresh) so I left them for her to eat. It seems as though she ate one of them but not the other two. I am worried that she isn't getting enough of the nutrients that she needs, or that something is wrong with her and she is producing too many cecals.

Sabrina is an almost 5 month old Holland Lop. She isn't spayed (but will be December 3). Her fecals and urinary output are normal. She had some fecals while I was at school and they were normal. She is acting perfectly normal and has not been outdoors or had access to anything poisonous. Nothing seemed to be chewed/destructed/out of place in her room when I got home from school.

Her diet is unlimited timothy hay and 1/2c. of pellets (protein content 14%). I know that babies are supposed to have alfalfa but her breeder had her on timothy so I wanted to keep it consistent with what she was receiving. She also gets 1 1/2 -2 c. of fresh veggies daily.

Today she had a 1 spoonful of pumpkin (she is shedding), 2 baby carrots, 2 slices of cucumber and the rest of her veggie allocation was dandelion. She had this at about 4 pm and ate it on and off until about 6 pm (which is normal for her)

I am sorry that this post is so long I just wanted to make sure that covered all of my bases. I would appreciate any advice at all! Hopefully there is nothing wrong with her and I am just being an over protective mother!

Thanks so much, Lauren.

sorry if i got off track,...the gi tract (flora-bacteria) is a delicate balance,,the reason for eating night poops is to reinforce the good bacteria(flora)-....lets look at this issue in reverse//sometimes a slight amount of day poops are eaten,,this is to increase the balance of bacteria-(flora),,it is possible not eating the cepotropes(night poops)-is for the same reason---but this should not be an ongoing thing--i am sorta of a poop con-nois-seur,, reading the poops,,,sincerely james waller:wave: