Orange urine?

Shop deals on ebay
Love your rabbit
shop deals on amazon
Advertise with us
Rabbits Online Forum

Help Support Rabbits Online Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
wishingstar

wishingstar

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 4, 2015
Messages
50
Reaction score
8
Location
Kansas, U.S.A.
I'm not 100% sure why it hasn't concerned me until now, but Astro's urine seems to be a dark orange color, and I'm not sure at all if that's normal. I started noticing the color when I made him a bedroom in my closet -- it's a wide, open closet with no door -- and he started peeing everywhere in the room but where he used to pee, on the bedding inside his cage. He's now peeing mostly in his toilet, and every day when I clean it, the newspapers are soaked that dark orange. A friend of mine, who has an adorable Holland Lop, told me that it's normal for their urine to take on the color of the wooden blocks you can buy them as chew toys, but I've never seen Astro bother with them. Excluding my stuffed animals, he doesn't seem to care at all about any of his toys. Should I be concerned that his urine is this color?

He doesn't seem to be acting strangely. However, as he hasn't been living with me for more than a week and a half, there's still a lot left for me to learn about his personality, and about what's "normal" for him. He eats A LOT of hay, and I try to feed him no more than 1/4 cup of pellets day, even though he can be quite persuasive when he takes to begging. 😅 As for veggies, I feed him maybe a cup or so altogether a day. His favorites so far seem to be carrots, kale, and lettuce, but I only give him the carrots and the kale every once in awhile, as I read that they can be detrimental to his health if he's given them regularly. I'm trying to encourage him to give the spinach another try, but he doesn't seem to like it at all, and refuses to eat it. He doesn't drink nearly as much water as my friend's Lop, but he does drink it, and I change it out at least three times a day. Is this a good diet for a rabbit?
 
Normal rabbit urine can vary in color from yellow, to orangish, to reddish orange. This is due to plant pigments in the urine from the food that they eat, as well as oxidation when exposed to air. Urine changes that will be a sign of a health problem, are streaks of red in the urine, pinkish or bright red urine, sometimes brownish colored urine, or thick sludgy urine. Or if you are seeing other symptoms such as straining to pee, lack of appetite, urine soaked or stained fur, dribbling urine, loss of litter habits, and/or signs of pain, these can also be a sign of a health problem.
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/Uro_gen_diseases/generalities/Sludge.htm

The diet will depend somewhat on his age as well as his weight, and if he is maintaining a good healthy weight or is overweight or underweight? Also what type of hay does he get and is his fecal poop normal, not mushy or small and hard?
http://www.medirabbit.com/EN/GI_diseases/drop/Drp_en.htm
 
Last edited:
I was told that he's about five months old, and he was sort of skinny when I brought him home, but he seems to have filled out a little bit since then. I'm not sure exactly how much he weighs. Maybe, two or so pounds? I feed him Hartz Timothy hay, and I'm transitioning him from a pellet mix with seeds and dried fruits -- it's what he was fed by the family before me-- to a pellet for juvenile rabbits from Kaytee. His feces are a golden color, and about the size of an M&M with the firmness of a pea, but dry...? 😅 He's still a little timid, and he's easily frightened, but his behavior seems normal. He had a check-up earlier this week, and even though being handled by the doctor seemed to terrify the poor thing, he left with a clean bill of health.
 
It's hard to tell what weight he should be without a breed standard to judge by, but you should be able to feel his bones under a small layer of flesh - if the bones feel sharp and the skin tight over them, he's too thin, if they're too cushioned by fat to feel, he's too fat, etc. His poos should be dry but not rock solid, you should be able to break and crumble them with some pressure.
 
Thank you, everyone, for the help! This morning I noticed that his poop was a darker color than it has been for the past couple of days, and it was mixed with droppings that were quite a bit smaller than the others, and harder, too. He's still eating hay, and I gave him some lettuce soaked in water. Also, I gave him some fresh pineapple juice, which he quickly drank on his own. I'm going to stay with him for the day to make sure he continues to poop. Otherwise, I'm taking him to the vet.
 
I was able to feel his ribs, but they didn't feel bony or anything to my touch. Also, his droppings seem to have already returned to their normal color, size, and firmness. I'm still going to keep an eye on him, though!
 
Is the urine a regular consistency? Or is it sludgy? As people have already said, rabbit color does change color, but if there's a different consistency, it might be best to get to a vet! That was the end for my Skippy. :(
 
Astro's urine seems to have the consistency of water, but is a light to dark orange in color... I'm so sorry about Skippy. 😔
 
From the pictures he doesn't look like he is too skinny, but usually for body condition, you mostly have to go off feel. When feeling along the ribs, back, and hips, you want everything to feel rounded and not sharp. You want flesh on each side of the backbone and the spine shouldn't be sharp and protruding. When you look at your bun, you don't want anything to be looking sharp or angular. If you have a postal or food scale, it's good to get in the habit of weighing your bun every week or so if no health issues, or several times a week or even every day if there are health problems where you need to closely monitor the weight. It can be a good tool to alert you to a potential health problem if you start seeing unwanted weight loss.
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-weight.asp

If he is regularly producing many smaller and harder fecal poop, than his normal droppings each day, and you are certain he is eating his hay well, it may be he is getting too many pellets and not enough hay to keep his digestion moving along well. So you could decrease his pellets just a little so he will eat more hay. Typically you want a rabbit eating a pile of hay the size of their body, each day. You want to make sure to monitor the hay amount. I will usually give my rabbits a pile of hay that is slightly more than they would eat in a day, so that if they go off hay at all, I will be able to tell right away that their usual amount of hay isn't being eaten. Then monitor your buns body condition to ensure he stays at a healthy weight.

It's also a possibility the carrot is causing the smaller poops, as carrots are sugary and could lead to a digestive slow down if you are feeding very much. So maybe try cutting the carrot out first to see if it makes a difference.

Having a good understanding of how a rabbits digestive system works, will help you find the right balance in your rabbits diet. These links will give you a good basic explanation of how it all works.
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-digestive-system.asp
http://www.therabbithouse.com/diet/rabbit-droppings.asp

Do you happen to know what breed he is?
 
Last edited:
Ok, I reread your other posts and realized you are switching him off of a seed fruit mix. This is probably the cause of the smaller poops. So as you get him switched off of this, his poops will likely improve. You can also just pick out some of the fruit and seeds so he isn't getting so much, until you get him switched off of it.

So you may not need to reduce his pellets any, if you are able to get him off of the seed mix and transitioned onto a plain pellet.
 
Thank you so much for the references! I think that I may be feeding him too many pellets, so I'm going to start measuring his daily portions to a 1/8 cup a day to see if it encourages him to eat more hay. Normally, he eats quite a bit of hay, and I have to refill his bowl several times throughout the day. Today, though, he hasn't been eating as much hay, and seems to be picky about it, preferring the heads over the stalks. He's more than happy, though, to eat any veggies I offer him, and his pellets still seem to be his #1 favorite. I haven't fed him any carrots in the past couple of days. I'm going to start keeping track of how much hay he eats, too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top