INCREASE water consumption to help hydrate impacted gut:.Rinse it and offer bunny wetter veggies to encourage water consumption. DECREASE pellets for a day or two to encourage a hungry bunny to eat more hay (fiber).Change or add hay frequently throughout the day to encourage bunny to investigate and munch. INCREASE rabbit’s fiber intake: offer her a variety of fresh hays.If you notice that your rabbit’s feces are strung with hair, smaller than usual or not uniform in shape and size there are several things you can do before getting extra-concerned and calling your vet: What to do if You Notice Early Signs of GI Problems Tiny dry fecal pellets, decreased amout of fecal pellets, no fecal pellets at all.On-again/off-again diarrhea in combination with irregular shaped poops.Periodic soft, pudding-like stools followed by erratically shaped fecal pellets.Decreasing or sudden lack of appetite for both water and food.Feces strung thickly together with hair (from grooming).
The first and most important thing to do is learn to recognize the early signs of GI problems and treat your rabbit accordingly and get him or her to your rabbit vet before things get worse. GI Stasis can be secondary to ANY rabbit illness, so GI observation and support are always important.
Stress (moving, illness, changes in family life, loss of rabbit companion, etc.).Too much sugar in the diet (too much fruits and carrots, yogurt treats, honey-seed bars, etc).Too many carbohydrates in the diet (breads, cereals, crackers, etc.).A high fat, low fiber diet, such as a pellet-only diet, can cause gut issues as well as cause buns to be overweight IMPROPER DIET – rabbits should get primarily grass hays (free fed) and greens, with a small amount of timothy pellets (if any pellets at all).A rabbit in GI Stasis is often said to have a “hairball” – and while this may be a part of the problem, the hair/food mass in the gut is a RESULT of the stasis, not the cause. Rabbits who are not eating can quickly become anorexic and can die from something called hepatic lipidosis or commonly “Fatty Liver Disease,” which is caused by the toxins produced by the bad bacteria in the cecum. The bunny is then unable to pass the mass of food/hair in the stomach, feels full, uncomfortable and often gassy (due to the build-up of bad bacteria in the cecum), which only adds to his “I don’t want to eat” mentality. This will generally decrease the appetite for both food and water, causing the body to extract the water from the stomach, which exaggerates the problem by causing the contents of the entire GI tract (food, hair from grooming, etc.) to become further dehydrated and impacted. When the speed with which material moves through the GIT is altered it can affect how quickly the stomach and cecum empty. The indigestible particles are then passed out in the fecal pellets (regular poop) and the cecum begins the fermentation process that will produce what is commonly referred to as night feces or cecotropes, which a rabbit will ingest directly from the anus. The cecum is a large blind-ended sac located at the junction of the small and large intestines.
The food then exits the stomach into the small intestine, where nutrients are absorbed into the body, and then it continues on into the large intestine where the food particles are sorted by size: larger particles of indigestible fiber (those nice long pieces of fresh timothy hay) drive the smaller fragments of digestible fiber backwards into the cecum.Food is swallowed, enters the stomach where it is mixed with stomach acid and digestive enzymes, which continue the digestion process.When the rabbit chews its food it is mixed with saliva, which contains proteins that begin breaking down the food.
Tiny bunny poop series#
Information and tips to be used in conjunction with ongoing care from your rabbit vetįor more information, see the Rabbit 911 lecture from the Rabbit Care Seminar Series 2014īy Cat Logsdon How The Rabbit Gastrointestinal Tract (GIT) Works: a Quick Overview Nursing your Rabbit Through Gastrointestinal Stasis
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