rabbit won't eat any pellets

[juicyjuicee]

For the past few days my bun has not touched his pellets at all. He eats his veggies and hay fine and normal. He hops around the room and doesn't seemto be in any pain or anything he just will not eat his pellets.

I did buy new ones over the weekend but they were the same kind he's been eating. I figured something was up with them even though my other bun eats them fine. So i did go out and pick up 2 other kinds of pellets but nope, won't touch them.

I'm not sure what's going on since he eats everything else perfectly. Now i'm just trying to make sure I feed him enough with veggies and make sure he's getting a quality diet.



Any thoughts?

 

[FallingStar]

That's odd. :?I'm not sure why he wouldn't be eating his pellets, but eating everything else...

Maybe try mixing fruit/veggies or something in with the pellets and see if he'll eat the fruit or vegggies and maybe some pellets..



Karlee

 

[Baby Juliet]

They probably don't need pellets. You could give them vitamins in their water if it makes you feel better. I've been giving them lots of veges with hay and pellets because of the cold. In a few weeks they got pretty chubby from all the greens.

 

[aurora369]

When a rabbit stops eating only one type of food like pellets, but continues to eat everything else, it makes me suspicious of teeth problems. He may be having some molar spurs, or tooth root problems that make it uncomfortable for him to eat the pellets, but doesn't bother him when he eats hay/veggies.

Is he eating absolutly none of the pellets or just a very, very small amount? By providing a variety of hays and veggies, you can provide a bunny with a pellet free diet, it's just a lot of work.

There is some information in the library on how to provide a pellet free diet, here's a starter link for you:
http://rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=12046&forum_id=17

--Dawn

 

[juicyjuicee]

He's eating absolutely no pellets. Which is weird since he is usually a big eater. The first thing I did was check his teeth. I'm not avet but he didn't have incredibly long teeth or chips or anything.

So who knows.

Thanks everyone.

 

[Maureen Las]

My bun, Joey , has not eaten his pellets for the past 2 days but he is still eating greens and some hay. He is always very eager for his pellets. I have noticed also that his poops are smaller so this indicates to me that he is experiencing gut slowdown. I have been giving him extra water and fresh pineapple juice in addition to benebac in hopes of nipping this before it becomes a larger problem.

Make sure your bun is well hydrated and watch his poops

if a bun changes a routine in any way it could be many things but one of them is the early stages of stasis.

http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=28622&forum_id=10

 

[juicyjuicee]

So i'm bringing this up again for some more opinions.
This is starting to get quite costly for me to buy so many veges. I really wanna get him to eat pellets again. Maybe make a slurry somehow. I don't know. Any thoughts?

 

[JimD]

What brand of pellets are you buying?

 

[Maureen Las]

recently I have had 2 buns stop eating pellets as a warning of impending stasis..
I treated them with simethicone fluids and pineapple juice and papaya tablts etc and got them out of it and then they liked the pellets again
to me it's a tip off that they aren't feeling well ...particularly if the other buns are eating the same pellets

 

[juicyjuicee]

I buy Purina rabbit chow. It looks like this.

It's been going on for 2-3 weeks now. Eats everything else fine. He darts around the room and isn't lethargic or anything. It really boggles my mind and bugs me. :expressionless

 

[Maureen Las]

I used to feed that brand and pellet and my rabbits liked it a lot
but i do know that at one time Peg had issues with purina (tinysmom)

you might want to pm her

 

[JimD]

I fed all of my buns the Purina Complete for several years and never had a problem with it.

Peg and I went toe to toe on whether there were ever any real issues with the Purina, and after extensive research found most claims to be invalid.
In fact, that's what she's feeding Zeusnow....except I think she's using the blue bag.

I would first have the buns teeth checked by a vet.

If there's no problem with the teeth, you might consider a change of feed.
Kaytee Supreme is the closest thing to the Purina that I've found, and one of my buns will only eat that.
Or maybe a switch to a timothy based pellet...Oxbow or Kaytee.

How's his output as far as pooping and peeing?

Did you try the slurry?

 

[gentle giants]

I thought when there were tooth problems, don't they usually stop eating hay first, rather than pellets? The guy I had with the major tooth issues always ate his pellets, but wouldn't touch hay.

 

[juicyjuicee]

I thought i'd update. He completely stopped eating so we took him to the vet yesterday. He felt a blockage so he prescribed us some critical care along with pineapple and papaya slurry and lots of hay. So we'll see how it goes.

Thanks everyone and wish us luck!

 

[tonyshuman]

Try to get some bene-bac too. Did the vet check his teeth? There are the front teeth that are easy to see, but the back molars that get spurs you have to look at with a special tool (kind of like a speculum for bunny mouths). Make sure he's getting lots of water too. Water can really help for a GI slowdown. You can ask the vet to give him sub-q fluids if he's not drinking, and you can encourage him to drink by adding a few drops of vanilla or fruit juice (apple, cran, pineapple) to his water. Also consider offering him pedialyte to rehydrate him.

 

[dquesnel]

Hi, moved to the Infirmary where this will get attention to the new update on your rabbit.

What members aurora369 (dawn) and angieluv (maureen) said about it possibly being a dental/stasis issue when a rabbit goes off pellets is most often true.

It is important to try and find out the cause of the stasis (molar spurs, other dental problems, too many pellets in diet etc) and work on that.

Tonyshuman had good advice re: check teeth, hydrate, bene-bac probiotic and pedialyte. With the right solution rabbits can recover from stasis 100% although it often takes a while.

One of my rabbits went off pellets first for a couple weeks, then the rest of his food within days. I was a brand new rabbit owner and was suprised when I brought him to the vet they found his molars were slicing into his tongue. He had the molars filed down. Because of the molars however, it had caused him to have stasis. It it good to know how your rabbit acts when he has dental or stasis problems. All my guys stop eating pellets first, in both cases.

 

[Maureen Las]

How is he doing?

 

[naturestee]

Any updates? And yes, did the vet take a good look at his molars? When Loki has molar spur issues he usually prefers veggies and hay to pellets. It really depends on the rabbit but I think for him it hurt to eat those hard crunchy things, whereas hay and veggies are more chewy.

 

[juicyjuicee]

The vet took a look at his teeth and said they were fine. When he was palpating he did feel a blockage.

Mud (his name ) is still hanging in there. He doesn't look sick at all. He still darts around the room just won't eat anything except hay on his own. We are syringe feeding him some critical care and a papaya/pineapple puree every day. So we will see how it goes.

I wanted to purchase more critical care and get it online since the vet is about an hr away but i think that is a prescription thing so i'm not quite sure.

Thanks every for the help and your concerns.

 

[Maureen Las]

Concentrate on a lot of fluids ..like maybe mixing unflavored pedialyte with pineapple juice.. give a few cc every few hrs if you can rather than force large amounts down him

exercise and also gentle massages of his tummy

also you can syringe feed pure unseasoned pumpkin out of the can ..
maybe mix it with critical care
give benebac if you have it also

I also think that your vet could possibly fax a prescription to oxbow (if they require that ) so that you could order Critical care by phone to be shipped to you