Cecal droppings EVERYWHERE!

[iLuvMyLilBuns]

Hey everyone!!

I've been having a problem with Jack & Rue ever since they were a few weeks old. They both seem to produce WAY too many cecal droppings every night.

I posted a thread about this many weeks ago and I'm posting this again because I still have the same problem.

When I first noticed the cecal dropping they were around 3 weeks old and their diet consisted of free choice hay, free choice alfalfa, & free choice Lacating and Growing Sherwood Forest rabbit pellets.

It got soo bad that I posted a thread and some people told me to stop feeding them Sherwood Forest pellets. So I changed their pellets to Kaytee Forti-Diet alfalfa pellets. After a few weeks, they still produced waay too many cecal droppings so I stopped feeding them alfalfa. After another week, nothing changed. So now I have changed their pellets to Kaytee Hay based Pellets.

My other rabbits Lila & Charlie do great on the Kaytee Hay based pellets and I never see a single cecal dropping in their hutches.

Now after a few days of Jack & Rue just eating hay, orchard grass, and Kaytee hay based pellets, nothing has changed!

It is soo bad, you guys can not imagine! I go out in the morning and I have a box in their hutch filled with hay and I have a heat pad in there and in the morning it is full of smushed cecal droppings. On the wire part of their hutch I always have a blanket for them and every morning the blanket is full of cecal droppings also. It smells soo bad I can hardly handle it anymore! Their little feet get full of it and they've ruined soo many blankets.. Sorry, I'm just venting now...

I love Jack & Rue to death but this is driving me crazy! It only happens at night, not during the day and there are soo many cecal droppings everywhere that I think there might be a deeper problem.

What do you guys think? Right now their diet is free choice hay, orchard grass, and Kaytee Hay pellets. Is the over producing of cecal droppings normal in some rabbits because I've never experienced anything like this with any of my other rabbits....

Please help! I do not want to go out tomorrow morning and be greated by a hutch full of poop, EVERYWHERE!

 

[JBun]

Are you still feeding unlimited pellets? If so, try limiting their pellets, and just keep decreasing the amount til the excess cecals stop. They may just be 'easy keeper' buns, and don't need as many pellets to stay healthy. That would be my next step if it were me. Maybe they are just getting too many nutrients from eating too many pellets, and that is causing an overproduction of cecals. If you end up completely eliminating pellets and they are still having the problem, then there may be some sort of health problem going on.

 

[MyBabyHasPaws]

are you giving any veggies? I know that too many cecals are normally from a too rich diet.

are the two related?

 

[Thumperina]

What are cecal droppings?
Do you mind if I ask here... If an adult rabbit produces regular (dry round) droppings but much smaller in size than normally, what could it mean?

 

[JBun]

What are cecal droppings?
Do you mind if I ask here... If an adult rabbit produces regular (dry round) droppings but much smaller in size than normally, what could it mean?

Cecotropes are also called night droppings. They are special soft grape like clustered poops that are full of nutrients, and rabbits normally eat them, unless they are overproducing them, have a health problem preventing them from eating them, or are overweight and can't reach their rear to eat them. That is typically what your rabbit is doing when it reaches it's head down to it's butt and comes up munching on something.

If a rabbit is producing normal fecal droppings that are very small and also may be irregular in shape, it usually means that they are developing digestive problems caused by an imbalance from their diet, or from other health problems. The most common cause is a diet imbalance from too many sugars and carbs, either from too many pellets or too many treats, or both. Sometimes certain veggies can also cause the digestive problems as well. The small poops are often a sign that your rabbit is developing GI stasis. If the problem with the digestion isn't fixed soon, your rabbit can develop a blockage in it's gut that can potentially be life threatening. There is also a digestive disorder called megacolon, or cow pile syndrome, where the rabbit will also produce really small poops, but also really large, misshaped poops as well.

If one of your rabbits has these really small poops, then you will want to take corrective measures right away, to prevent a blockage from occuring. Once a blockage happens, a trip to the vet is almost always necessary to get the proper meds to help your rabbit, and even then it isn't certain that the rabbit will pull through. So it would be really good to do something now before it gets too bad.

 

[Imbrium]

babies have a tendency to get distracted and forget to eat their cecals, it's honestly just part of dealing with such young bunnies. even on semi-limited pellets, mine were pretty bad about it. by 4 mos, the excess cecals tapered off significantly and now I never find them.

 

[Thumperina]

Cecotropes are also called night droppings. They are special soft grape like clustered poops that are full of nutrients, and rabbits normally eat them, unless they are overproducing them, have a health problem preventing them from eating them, or are overweight and can't reach their rear to eat them. That is typically what your rabbit is doing when it reaches it's head down to it's butt and comes up munching on something.

If a rabbit is producing normal fecal droppings that are very small and also may be irregular in shape, it usually means that they are developing digestive problems caused by an imbalance from their diet, or from other health problems. The most common cause is a diet imbalance from too many sugars and carbs, either from too many pellets or too many treats, or both. Sometimes certain veggies can also cause the digestive problems as well. The small poops are often a sign that your rabbit is developing GI stasis. If the problem with the digestion isn't fixed soon, your rabbit can develop a blockage in it's gut that can potentially be life threatening. There is also a digestive disorder called megacolon, or cow pile syndrome, where the rabbit will also produce really small poops, but also really large, misshaped poops as well.

If one of your rabbits has these really small poops, then you will want to take corrective measures right away, to prevent a blockage from occuring. Once a blockage happens, a trip to the vet is almost always necessary to get the proper meds to help your rabbit, and even then it isn't certain that the rabbit will pull through. So it would be really good to do something now before it gets too bad.

Thank you! They all seem to be doing really well - they are happily hopping around. How do I know when GI stasis occurred? What are the signs?

 

[Thumperina]

iLuvMyLilBuns, please let me know if I need to open my own topic. I don't want you to think I am impolite intruder.

 

[JBun]

Thank you! They all seem to be doing really well - they are happily hopping around. How do I know when GI stasis occurred? What are the signs?

GI stasis is unmistakable. Your rabbit will stop eating and pooping, and will usually stop moving around much as well, and sit in a corner hunched up, or laying down with it's belly pressed against the ground and it's butt kind of pushed up. It may also lay down and immediately get up frequently, trying to find a position of comfort. Tooth grinding due to pain, often occurs as well. Without intervention, the rabbit could die. Often before full stasis sets in, the rabbit will have small poops and will reduce the amount it eats dramatically.

So is this something you think one of your rabbits may be developing? If you have a rabbit with really small poops when it normally has larger ones, then it is most likely in the beginning stages of stasis and you will need to change some things in it's diet to see if that is the cause.

If this is something that you need to keep discussing or find out more about, you should probably go ahead and start your own thread in the infirmary.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Holland Lop babies are notorious for this. I'm not sure why, I haven't had the same problem with other breeds. Usually by about 10-12 weeks old, it starts tapering off. If it hasn't, I would definitely limit the pellets. I limit pellets for all my rabbits, of every age, and have much less of a problem with the excess cecals. Really push grass hay (not alfalfa) and limit the pellets to 1/2 cup per bunny once a day. See if that helps.

 

[Imbrium]

ah, really? that explains why I felt like most if not all of the excess cecals I used to find belonged to Gazzles (my holland).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

With some, we never see and cecals as they get eaten as produced and others don't seem to eat them, so I get a paper towel and remove them as needed.

 

[iLuvMyLilBuns]

Thanks everyone for all the advice! This morning there weren't as many cecals as usual so hopefully that means they will slowly stop!

Do you guys think I should not give them alfalfa and continue feeding them hay and hay based pellets? I think they produced waay more cecals when they ate alfalfa...

They live together right now and I usually give them 1/2 cup of pellets in the moring and 1/2 cup at night.

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

I don't recommend alfalfa hay at all, even for babies, when feeding an alfalfa pellet. This is one of the reasons why- it's just too much. Instead, mine get timothy hay from birth to adult.

As far as pellets go, it will depend on what is best for your rabbits. Mine do fine on alfalfa pellets in combination with their timothy hay. If you're still seeing a significant issue with cecals, it may be that a timothy pellet would be best for you.

 

[iLuvMyLilBuns]

OakRidgeRabbits: What brands of pellets do u reccomend for me to feed my holland show bunnies?? A breeder reccomended pen pals to me once...

 

[1357bunnylover]

My Alice's baby bunnies were like this until about 9 weeks then they started producing less. I think they just forgot to eat them.