Please help! My rabbit has been have abnormally small and less poops these past few days! In the photo you can see not much poop, and the circled small poop is becoming more and more occurring. He seems perfectly fine though. He hops, flops, and acts normal. I've maximized his hay intake, but he's picky and doesn't eat much hay. I have to force feed him or else he won't eat much. Is this stasis? Should I visit the vet yet?
Abnormally small poops
- Thread starter pattycccc
- Start date
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What have you fed him for the last few days? And what have you been force feeding him? Usually you shouldn't really force feed. For hay try to encourage eating by adding herbs or buy some treat hays like oat or botanical.
I've been waving timothy hay under his nose till he eats it. It's quite hard because he takes it for a stick to toss around. I'll try to add more herbs to his hay, but he's really picky! The past few days I've fed him veggies from our garden, and barely pellets. Due to pandemic we go to the store when it is essential, so there isn't much variety.
Mehidk
Well-Known Member
Has anything changed in his diet lately? Or perhaps he's shedding more? My rabbit not too long ago was going through this scenario and I realized that her stomach was doing extra work to push through the extra fur she was licking along with the transition with new hay and some veggies. Normally she's fine with switching her hay and veggies weekly, but I think with the extra fur made it more hard for her and it stressed her out. So I removed the pellets and gave only some cilantro and focused on giving her mainly hay to push the fur through her digestive system. You could also add some mint because that helps with their tummy too. Lastly, I would normally brush her once a week but since her heavy molt happened, I've been brushing her daily.
Why are you barely feeding any pellets?
If he is refusing to eat hay then he needs to be eating enough other food to make up for it. Otherwise he won't be getting enough food each day, he'll lose weight, his digestion will slow down, and his poop will get small like what you are seeing. Small poop is from not eating enough food, whether it's because the rabbit isn't being given enough food to eat, or because it has a health problem and is chosing not to eat.
If he is refusing to eat hay then he needs to be eating enough other food to make up for it. Otherwise he won't be getting enough food each day, he'll lose weight, his digestion will slow down, and his poop will get small like what you are seeing. Small poop is from not eating enough food, whether it's because the rabbit isn't being given enough food to eat, or because it has a health problem and is chosing not to eat.
Oh thank you! I realized that I sort of starved him to eat more hay. I added more pellets for him to eat, but not as much as I used to (which way more than the needed amount). His poop is normal now, but there still isn't much in quantity as there used to.
Nothing's really changed in his diet...and he's a nether land dwarf so he doesn't shed as much as other rabbits. But I'm brushing him more often just in case.
