Small and some irregular poops, disinterest in pellets and buscut treats, but eating lots of hay and gobbling up greens like she's super hungry

[BusterBun]

My medium sized bun is has fairly small poops with a noticeable number of tiny ones in the mix. Dark brown. Very firm. Avoids her pellets and has no interest in biscuit type treats. Eats timothy hay consistently all day all the time- if there's a piece of hay near her face, it gets eaten. Tackles a cup and a half of fresh greens every night with the gusto of a VERY hungry bunny- would eat more if possible. Her spine is bony and has very little meat around her middle.

** Note: The pellets are not the problem. She won't eat anything other than hay and greens. She's losing weight.

Otherwise, glossy coat, lots of energy, curious, friendly, and happily bonding with a new friend. New friend is 100% healthy.

Background: recent foster for me. completely unsocialized and distrusts humans to point of not possibly adoptable. Found in an urban forested area and tracked for over a year before anyone could trap her. After 9 months of hating all humans in our shelter. Developed a slight head tilt that she was treated for.

I took her home 10 days ago. Within that time, she's not only come out of her shell, but is behaving like she's always been a house bunny. I've never seen anything like it.

Thinking maybe slow onset of gi stasis due to the stress of a new environment? But her behavior says she more relaxed than ever.

Also noticed one of her eyes was a bit crusty this morning and it sounded like she sniffled/grunted twice today. So maybe suffles (also brought on by stress)?

She was so difficult to get near at the shelter, aside from scooting her into her hidy box to transfer between her indoor pen to outdoor pens, don't think she had much close attention after her initial vet workup last June 2021.

I'm posting this because my research has yielded nothing but other rabbit owners with the same query and no special answers. Any thoughts, suggestions, similar experiences would be greatly appreciated.

I'm taking her to the vet tomorrow and will report back. Hopefully this thread will be helpful to others experiencing similar problems.

 

[Blue eyes]

Hopefully our health moderator will see this and have some insights. My first thought was the possibility of an intestinal parasite. Hopefully the vet will consider that and check for that.

Has she always refused the pellets? If it's a new thing to avoid pellets, perhaps there's a dental issue. A rabbit that suddenly stops eating a particular type of food may be avoiding it if it causes pain to eat it. Eating pellets uses different teeth than eating hay. If she's always refused pellets, then that may be because they are foreign to her, having been out on her own.

 

[John Wick]

Rapid weight loss definitely merits exploration into intestinal parasites. If pellets are novel for her and she is a default-more-wary rabbit, it may simply be something that needs time. One of my rabbits has very much become comfortable with humans, however, she is still a more-anxious rabbit at her core so even starting a new bag of romaine lettuce triggers her to ignore the plate until it has been out/presented several times. She often rejects new "treats" and foods, but is a complete, hay-eating monster.

In case it happens to align with this scenario, if you are providing pellets of larger size (like Science Selective pellets), they may literally be too big/bulky that the rabbit is unwilling to try it. My other rabbit didn't take to SS pellets for a very long time, and then I realized it was because of their size -- once I crushed them, he took to eating them.

Yes, the smaller poops can be a result of stress from a number of things (physical ailments, new environment)... the fact that she is producing a good number of them is positive though, as she is still pooping (especially paired with consistent high hay appetite). Is she fairly active and have a lot of exercise? My rabbit (the crushed SS pellet one; also has a complicated paw fracture situation) tends to have small poops on days of restriction, but the days when he is permitted more free-roam/exercise time, his poops are larger.

 

[PeanutsPlace]

The exact same thing has happened to me, But i didn’t post anytime in fear for being labeled as a bad rabbit mom. Not the eye part but the poop. I have two bunnies so im
not sure which one produces the small poops, but they are dark brown, dry small and flat. Then the next day the poops will be back to a normal size. I suspected it was there pellets as I introduced new pellets but they are from sherrwood so i was surprised. They always get fresh water, and lots and lots of hay in piles. They always are eating, big appetite for hay! So I’m in solidarity with you and I hope you figure it out (btw they get 1/8 veggies each and 1/8 pellets each on a foraging mat, they also recently went to the vet in february and they had no parasites)