Softer, darker, larger poops

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pani

pani

Bunny servant Lotte
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One (or possibly both) of my bunnies appear to be healthy - normal eating, drinking and playing habits, however over the last few days I've been a bit concerned about their droppings. They were both leaving a few excess cecals around, so I only fed them a basic diet for a few days and restricted greens, mostly just hay and a little bit leftover from Clementine's food while switching from breeder food to my food.

Tonight there were some darker, softer and larger poops - again, unsure if from one or both buns. Their behaviour was normal apart from this and they were pooping regularly, and some of them were completely normal, only some were this new strange shape.

They've both picked up a terrible habit of chewing and ingesting the wood of their hutch recently which is enough of a problem in itself and I'm probably going to be moving them to plastic cages at night to curb this problem. Could this be a side effect of ingesting too much of this wood? It's untreated, but I'm not sure what kind of wood it's made of. :(
 
It's worth mentioning too that I did feed Felix some greens again tonight (basil leaves); he's had basil before mixed in with kale and had no problems with it. Clementine didn't have any since I haven't introduced greens to her diet yet.
 
Could you post a photo?

Greens do make poop look darker. I don't think chewing and ingesting wood is a big problem, as long as it's untreated wood. It could be a sign that they need more fibre in their diet though.
 
If you can discover which bun, that will help. It could have to do with diet. If it's Felix, it might be one of the veggies. If it's Clementine, it could be her pellet change.

Chewing untreated wood shouldn't be a problem, unless it's a toxic wood. Here in the US, pine is usually used and is ok. Maybe email the manufacturer to find out what type of wood is used. Also you can usually get some sort of corner protectors from home improvement stores, that you can put on the hutch wood edges that the buns are chewing.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Trimaco-...uard-Commercial-01184G/100118843?N=5yc1vZbc0p
 
Great... it looks like the softer darker ones are from Clementine, and now Felix is leaving excess cecals too. :( I just don't understand! This happens even if they're on a relatively mild diet, with just hay and pellets. Even if they don't get pellets the day before, sometimes it still happens. They both seem 100% healthy apart from this. Is it possible that Clem just does softer poos sometimes, and that Felix just overproduces cecals? It's happened on and off with him before.
 
Soft poop is never normal, unless it is a fully formed cecotrope that has gotten squished. But if you are seeing regular excess cecals, and some unformed mushy cecals, then there is a reason for this happening, that you want to try to figure out, so that it doesn't get worse.

As long as plenty of hay is being eaten and something isn't causing a reduction in hay eating(eg. dental problems), then you could try reducing pellets some, to see if that helps. You most likely won't see an improvement with only one day without them. It usually takes a few days or more. You could start with just reducing the amount of pellets(as long as the mushy poop is only the occasional one and not severe), and just make sure they are eating more hay to replace the reduced pellets. After a few days if there is still mushy poop, reduce a little bit more. Or you could just cut out pellets for a few days to see if there is improvement, then gradually reintroduce the pellets once the mushy poop has cleared up, but don't feed as much as before.

One other thought I had was that it might be your hay causing these issues. You're feeding them oat hay, right? Are there seed heads in it? If there are, all those extra carbs from the oat grain, could be causing these problems.
 
You can as JBun suggested try limiting the diet for longer, to give the changes time to occur. Otherwise, if you see no improvement from that, pull them out of the hutch and into something else for a few days to see if that clears it up. Since they're still eating and pooping regularly, it's not a huge issue yet, just need to manage it so that it goes away. If either of them stops eating or pooping, then you can freak out, lol.
 
I feed them a mix of alfalfa and oat hat, and there are seed heads in the oat hay. I'll do my best to remove them before feeding it to them in future.

No funny poops since this morning, and I'll keep them on hay only for the next few days to see how that goes. :)
 
Looks like Felix's excess cecals have cleared up, however Clementine's droppings are still softer, darker, and larger. The softness is what concerns me the most, since I'm used to Felix's droppings being harder and 'crumbly', whereas Clementine's are soft and almost feel greasy. It doesn't appear to be all of them, only some. I'll keep her on a hay-only diet for a bit longer to see if it makes any difference.
 
If you haven't already, I think it would be a good idea to have a fecal test done right away. You want to be able to rule out coccidia and bacteria as being the cause of this. Some vets will even let you do this without bringing your rabbit in. I think you've tried the diet angle, and really if it is the fecal poop that is like this and it's not the cecals, that can be more serious.
 
I haven't had a test done yet but I will. Would a rabbit-savvy vet be necessary, or would any 'general' vet be okay? I only ask because my rabbit-savvy vet is only available certain days of the week and is located further away, while there's a 'general' vet just up the road which means I'd be able to get it done much sooner.
 
It depends. Some vets don't even test themselves and send it to a lab. And I'm not sure of the differences with fecal testing for rabbits, as opposed to cats and dogs. I don't know if there are specific things that need to be looked for in one species versus the other. Maybe call and discuss it with your vet to see what the best option would be.
 
You might try getting them some alfalfa and oat cubes, sold for horses but, that's what my bunnies eat instead of loose hay. No seeds, compact, and easy to feed. If you do use it, make sure they don't have too much pellets, the cubes take some effort to eat and they will opt for the faster, easier to eat pellets if they can.

Darker can be simply from greens, like basil so, I'd not worry over that as much as the softness. Diet changes can cause that, but it should stop in 2-3 days if there is no diet change.

If it goes longer, I'd ask my vet for suggestions, and if it was still soft after 9 to 10 days of trying, I'd take the bunny to the vet.
 
I'm so relieved. Tonight her poops are crumbly again. :)

They're still larger than Felix's, but perhaps that's just her body. They're all that size and all a uniform spherical shape. She seems healthy and happy.

I have hay cubes but they vastly prefer free hay to the cubes unfortunately. They nibble at them for a bit but tend to get bored and ignore them.

Now that they both appear back to normal (not seeing excess cecals from Felix, normal droppings from Clementine), what should my process be to reintroduce greens? Just start slowly, give it 2-3 days and see if they remain normal?
 
I'd give about a TBS of a SINGLE green once daily for 3 days and see how the rabbit does. Then add one more green, the same way. That way you can quickly stop feeding any that upset the rabbit. Rabbits generally do not do well with frequent diet changes but, you should be able to get 2-4 fresh greens that you can feed regularly.

Mine all eat basil, fresh timothy, romaine lettuce, most also get carrot, apple and rye grass (fresh, not dried) but, I have two that cannot have the rye and one that cannot have apple without causing issues.
 
It might be best to have a week of normal poop before starting to reintroduce veggies. You just want to make sure their digestion is stable before you try it. Then start off with a very small amount twice a day, for the first 2-3 days. If all seems ok, then gradually start increasing the amount. With them showing possible sensitivity to veggies, I would go much slower and at least take a week or longer, for each veggie. You're giving their cecal flora time to adapt to the new food, as well as making it easier to tell if a particular veggie is causing problems, as it can sometimes take several days before an issue arises.
 
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