Rabbit Not Eating?

[mariethomas]

Hello, some help please.

We had a pellet change, which led to an upset. Introducing it slowly helped, but for about 3-4 days his droppings were small and poorly shaped. He left about two mushy poops a day as well.

I was expecting diarrhea, and it finally happened two days ago in the morning. I stood home to help him. It passed, but he has not gone back to eating pellets (his main diet).

He won't eat them when he isn't feeling well, but it is going to be two days.
He will eat ANYTHING but his pellets. He will still play with toys and chew on them, eat veggies and grass,etc. But no pellets.

The vet suggested I stop feeding him anything at all, for he can naturally revert to eating his food, and stop waiting for me to feed him things he wants. He only dewormed him, and his temperature was fine. It has been hours, and he still has not touched his food. He acts eager and stands up anytime he smells something he wants. He still drinks on his own. Tomorrow I'm going to buy him more hay...but I'm worried his system will damage the more time he does not eat.

I thought I heard him eating one or two pellets, and some stomach gurgles as well. He has left a few small droppings.
Should I continue to listen to my vet? It has been almost 12 hours. He told me if he really doesn't eat, he will give me something to bring his appetite back. Or should I force feed by now? He might not even like tomorrows morning hay and refuse to eat that too. Thanks in advance

 

[Azerane]

If there's no blockage, which it doesn't seem like there is, I might be syringing food just to keep him eating, 12 hours is quite a long time? Sometimes it can also help simply to hold food to their nose in your hand. If Bandit isn't feeling well, he might not go to eat food, but if I hold it out to him sometimes he takes it.

Are you still transitioning to the new pellets? It sounds like he isn't taking to them very well, and it might be worth stopping the transition and staying with the other ones you were feeding if possible.

 

[JBun]

You may have been transitioning to the new pellets too quickly and that caused the digestive upset. And he may not like the taste of the new pellets and that's why he won't eat them. Can you switch back to the other?

It's also possible the new pellets may be contaminated with micotoxins from mold, especially if he was having true watery diarrhea. Micotoxins can cause serous digestive upset and severe illness in rabbits. Especially with these being a new bag of pellets and this happening with him, and especially with it causing diarrhea, this is certainly a possibility and why he may not want to eat the pellets. And if this is the case, you should NOT feed the pellets to him.

You can try buying a new bag of pellets. Preferably from a different batch. And anytime you have to change to a new pellet, or when ingredients have changed in a pellet, your rabbit should always be gradually transitioned onto the new pellet over 2 weeks at least, starting with a small amount of the new pellet with an equally decreased amount of the old pellet, and gradually increasing new/decreasing old each day. But if you can, it might be better to change back to the old pellets that he used to get and like.

In the meantime you will need enough grass, hay, and veg to feed him. I wouldn't be withholding hay or grass. He needs to be eating something. Rabbits shouldn't be without food for too long or you risk a rabbit developing gi stasis.

 

[mariethomas]

I have offered him individual pellets and he will only chin them. I've tried mixing the pellets with some oats to get him interested, but he'll just pick those out.
He LOVES the new pellets, probably since it's a new taste. We had to transition faster than one normally would because we didn't have any more of the old pellets. I don't know what the lady has in stock at the moment. Even if I did pick out the old pellets for him, I'd doubt he'd eat them.

I waited months for today. I bought ryegrass hay, which is what our horses eat here. Is this okay? This is the only thing we had. We have 56 pounds of it...it came in a bale. If it is ok, do I introduce this slowly as well? It has a strong smell to it. If anyone could help me, I've posted some pictures of it.

 

[JBun]

Check the hay for white and black dusty or wet parts and a musty sour smell which would indicate mold. As long as it has never been wet and gotten moldy, then it should be fine. My rabbits absolutely loved rye hay when I fed it to them. You may only need to introduce it gradually if there are a lot of seed heads in it. Maybe just try out a little bit for a few days to make sure he does ok on it, then you could just give him as much as he wants. If the hay is more straw like and not as leafy and grassy, you do need to make sure he is getting enough nutrients from his pellets, grass, veg, as straw like hay is mostly good for it's roughage and doesn't contain as many nutrients as a leafy grassy hay.

If he loved these new pellets at the start but now won't eat them, I would suspect that the digestive upset they caused is what is causing him to not want to eat them now. As long as there is nothing wrong with the pellets and they aren't contaminated with mold, he may gradually start eating them again. Otherwise trying a new bag of them may be your next best option. Do you happen to have an ingredient list for these new pellets? When you smell them, do they smell sour at all?

 

[mariethomas]

He really enjoys the hay, he keeps stealing pieces. It came in good condition, and so did the new pellets we bought. The old ones also seem perfectly fine, but I got rid of them.
I'll introduce him slowly for now...he eats the pellets only out of my hand or if I put them next to where he is laying. I think he'll finally eat over night, hopefully he will.
I actually asked the lady the ingredients of the old one, and that's when she had given me new pellets all of a sudden. They always smell nice.

 

[squidpop]

It sounds like you got some really good hay, and most people believe a rabbits diet should be mostly hay- 80% of their diet, so as long as you have him eating lots of hay that should sustain him until you get the pellets sorted. When you described how he seemed to go off of the pellets and refuse them... it makes me think its because he knows they made his stomach yucky- and I would also be worried the pellets had something like myotoxins in them. I would shop around and see if you can find some different pellets. Meanwhile just keep feeding lots of hay and the veggies he normally eats. For added vitamins in his diet if you can find some Flaxseeds (I get them in health food section of the grocery store where the raw sunflower seeds are) flaxseeds have a lot of really good vitamins and minerals for rabbits in them- but are very rich so only feed 1/4 teaspoon. And also a little bit of oats like you've been doing, I think would be good too.

I don't think your vet should have said to stop feeding him-- everything I've ever read says rabbits should always have something going through their system, and that if your rabbit stops eating its a medical emergency- and they say they should always have hay available. So, your vet doesn't sound very rabbit savvy to me ( just sayin').

 

[mariethomas]

He eats the pellets now, less now because he's too excited about the hay. It completely slipped my mind that something could have been wrong with the food itself, and not Casper. There are other pellets sold around, far, but we don't want to keep changing his food and irritating him. I'll have to see if we have any flaxseeds here, thanks for the suggestion.
No not really, lol. But he has helped us a lot and always tried to understand. I have met other vets who don't seem to care