Anyone's bun(s) dislike Oxbow's new papaya pills?

[Jenk]

Ayear ago, my vet gave me a good-sized sample of Oxbow's(now-former) papaya tablets to offer bunners. (These were the papaya-colored ones.)My two buns who got them really liked them, so it was easy to administer them, as needed.

I recently ordered Oxbow's reformulated papaya tablets (which are white). I've twicetried giving one to my girl, Emma. She ate half of the first pill before walking away and ignored the second one entirely, which was offered on a different night. I haven't tried giving them to my Cali boy, Pinkerton. If it turns out that he likes them, at least half of the battle will be won.

Has anyone else had a bun turn up his/her nose at the new Oxbow papaya tablets? If so, have you found a good substitute?



Thank you,

Jenk

 

[slavetoabunny]

My crew loved the old ones and wouldn't have anything to do with the new ones. I ended up giving the bottle away to a friend whose rabbit liked them.

 

[Jenk]

slavetoabunny wrote:

My crew loved the old ones and wouldn't have anything to do with the new ones. I ended up giving the bottle away to a friend whose rabbit liked them.

I thought I'd feel relieved to know that others are experiencing the same issue, but now I'm just more disheartened. Why, oh, why did Oxbow feel the need to mess with the formulation of their papaya tablets? :rollseyes

 

[Myia09]

What are they used for?

 

[Jenk]

I stopped at my vet's office yesterday to pick up a few things and asked the receptionist if they still carry the "old" Oxbow pills. She replied, "No, we just have the newer ones. But I'm hearing that people's pets don't care for them." So, slavetoabunny, our bun crews aren't the only ones, apparently.

Myia09 wrote:

What are they used for?

The fruit-based enzymes are thought to help digest the material (e.g., mucous) that holds fur together in the digestive tract. With the material coating removed, moisture can reach the fur, help break it up, and, thus, help it to pass through the digestive tract.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Sorry if this is slightly off topic, but are the regular papaya tablets from the health food store okay for bunnies? That's what I bought last week. They're white and my guys love them. I used to buy the old style Oxbow papaya tablets but never tried the new ones.

 

[kirbyultra]

Shiloh, those are actually fine, but believe the human ones have more sugar so you might want to give it less often.

 

[SnowyShiloh]

Helen, I was wondering if that was the case. Rory's having some tummy troubles and I was crushing them to mix in the baby birds' formula so I needed to buy them ASAP. When a bunny is having digestion problems, how many papaya tablets can you feed a day?

 

[Jenk]

kirbyultra wrote:

Shiloh, those are actually fine, but believe the human ones have more sugar so you might want to give it less often.

That's a bummer 'cause my crew has too many digestive sensitivities for me to add sugar to the mix.

 

[kirbyultra]

I use the tablets as purely a treat. I don't really think that it has the digestive aid power that it advertises to be honest. It's sugary, and tastes fruity. What's not to love? But feeding more of these in digestive distress can and most likely will complicate matters as the sugar feeds the bad bacteria in the GI tract.

 

[kirbyultra]

Btw on NYCBuns list Mary recently wrote:

"My foster buns LOVED the old oxbow tabs (which I used to buy in the 
500-count jars), but they completely reject the present, high-priced, 
replacement formulation. Good thing, too, because the cost is really 
prohibitive, if you have a large number of bunnies.

So after much research and bunny taste-testing, last year I started buying 
Country Life papaya tabs from vitacost 
(http://www.vitacost.com:80/Country-Life-Natural-Tropical-Papaya).

Bottom line: they are like bunny crack.

And get the price: $5.27 for 500 tablets (compared to Oxbow's $10-12 for 
90 tablets), with a flat shipping rate of $4.99, no matter how many 
bottles you order. And now, if you order $79 worth of anything, the 
shipping is FREE - so if several people combined an order, it woudl be 
super cheap.

I don't see any bad stuff in the ingredients, but for the small quantity I 
feed (2 tabs/rabbit every morning), it probably wouldn't even matter if 
there were. Unlike the old Oxbow formulation, these tabs do not even 
contain food coloring."