new 8 weeks old rabbit with soft stool

[browniefuzzylop]

We just recently got our new pet rabbit and breeder told us that hes been eating Burgess brand pellet and timothy hay.
We bought the same brand food and hay... first couple days he had a mix of solid poop and too soft cecal. We thought that it was stress... so we waited a couple more days then it was more soft cecal than solid poop. We called the breeder and they told us to stop the pellet and only feed hay until he is stable and then re introduce pellets. We had him on hay only for 1 week and we slowly gave him pellets again starting with small amount 1 tsp working up to 1 tablespoon in the span of 2 weeks... and all of a sudden starting to get the soft cecal all over the cage again. At the moment we stopped the pellets and he is now back on Hay only and seems like the poop is solid and normal again.
My question is .. was I possibly going too fast with the increase ? or could it be possible that he is not doing well on the pellets ? Any advice on how to deal with this situation is much appreciated. TIA

 

[JBun]

If the Burgess pellets you are using are the same ones sold in Europe, I have read of other rabbit owners having problems with that brand causing mushy poop with their rabbits. Maybe try a different brand. Something like Oxbow or Science Selective if you have those available to you.

There's also the possibility that your rabbit has a sensitive digestive tract and may not be able to tolerate having a lot of pellets in his diet, regardless of the brand. I've had rabbits that could only have a very small amount of pellets(plus free fed grass hay) or they would get mushy poop. I've also had rabbits that couldn't have any pellets at all and had to be on a hay/forage/veggie/greens diet.

I would suggest trying a different brand of pellet and see if that clears up the problem. If not then I would either feed a reduced amount of pellets(with free fed grass hay), or no pellets at all if the mushy poop occurs with even a small amount, and just free feed a variety of grass hay, along with rabbit safe veggies and greens.

Your bunny is very cute!

 

[browniefuzzylop]

Thanks for your reply and suggestion!
Yes he is on the same Burgess brand from Europe. If I switch him to oxbow... I'm worried about introducing alfalfa base pellets ... would it be better if I feed him the adult timothy base pellet ? also how do you suggest I go about giving him a brand new food ? TIA

 

[browniefuzzylop]

If the Burgess pellets you are using are the same ones sold in Europe, I have read of other rabbit owners having problems with that brand causing mushy poop with their rabbits. Maybe try a different brand. Something like Oxbow or Science Selective if you have those available to you.

There's also the possibility that your rabbit has a sensitive digestive tract and may not be able to tolerate having a lot of pellets in his diet, regardless of the brand. I've had rabbits that could only have a very small amount of pellets(plus free fed grass hay) or they would get mushy poop. I've also had rabbits that couldn't have any pellets at all and had to be on a hay/forage/veggie/greens diet.

I would suggest trying a different brand of pellet and see if that clears up the problem. If not then I would either feed a reduced amount of pellets(with free fed grass hay), or no pellets at all if the mushy poop occurs with even a small amount, and just free feed a variety of grass hay, along with rabbit safe veggies and greens.

Your bunny is very cute!

one more question below thanks for your help

 

[JBun]

If he's under 6 months of age it's actually recommended to feed an alfalfa based pellet. Reason being is young rabbits have a higher nutrition need for growth, and alfalfa based pellets have a higher protein and calcium content to provide this to young rabbits.

So I would transition onto the alfalfa based pellet, Oxbow young rabbit pellet is a good choice. Since the burgess is causing issues, since you have already taken him off of them once and put him on hay only, I would either reduce the amount of burgess pellets to a very small amount, or take him off the burgess completely, then gradually transition him onto the Oxbow young rabbit pellets over 2-3 weeks time, just like you did when trying to put him back onto the burgess, starting with a small amount and gradually increasing.

Though if he is currently having mushy poop from the burgess, it's possible that he could still experience mushy poop issues even after you start switching onto the oxbow. If he continues to have mushy poop even after a week of being off the burgess and switching onto the oxbow, I would try what you previously did, and free feed hay only until the mushy poop clears up and has been gone for a week, then gradually try adding in the oxbow pellets again. Then if the mushy poop were to still come back, it may be that you either need to keep him on hay only for a longer period before adding pellets back in, or it may be his digestive system can't tolerate having too many pellets, and you may just need to feed an amount that is decreased enough that the mushy poop doesn't return. One thing is if you have a rabbit on a severely reduced pellet diet or on a hay only diet, it's advisable to offer a salt lick to them. Reason being is pellets contain the required sodium to rabbits, so a rabbit not getting enough pellets or no pellets, won't be getting the daily sodium content that their body needs, and giving them a salt lick will provide this option to them.
https://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

 

[browniefuzzylop]

If he's under 6 months of age it's actually recommended to feed an alfalfa based pellet. Reason being is young rabbits have a higher nutrition need for growth, and alfalfa based pellets have a higher protein and calcium content to provide this to young rabbits.

So I would transition onto the alfalfa based pellet, Oxbow young rabbit pellet is a good choice. Since the burgess is causing issues, since you have already taken him off of them once and put him on hay only, I would either reduce the amount of burgess pellets to a very small amount, or take him off the burgess completely, then gradually transition him onto the Oxbow young rabbit pellets over 2-3 weeks time, just like you did when trying to put him back onto the burgess, starting with a small amount and gradually increasing.

Though if he is currently having mushy poop from the burgess, it's possible that he could still experience mushy poop issues even after you start switching onto the oxbow. If he continues to have mushy poop even after a week of being off the burgess and switching onto the oxbow, I would try what you previously did, and free feed hay only until the mushy poop clears up and has been gone for a week, then gradually try adding in the oxbow pellets again. Then if the mushy poop were to still come back, it may be that you either need to keep him on hay only for a longer period before adding pellets back in, or it may be his digestive system can't tolerate having too many pellets, and you may just need to feed an amount that is decreased enough that the mushy poop doesn't return. One thing is if you have a rabbit on a severely reduced pellet diet or on a hay only diet, it's advisable to offer a salt lick to them. Reason being is pellets contain the required sodium to rabbits, so a rabbit not getting enough pellets or no pellets, won't be getting the daily sodium content that their body needs, and giving them a salt lick will provide this option to them.
https://rabbit.org/intermittent-soft-cecotropes-in-rabbits/

Thank you for your help ! I really appreciate it.