Excess Caecals

[Aliena]

My baby bunny Alaska (who has had many health problems most of you will have read about), is doing tons of ceacals and not eating them. I'm not sure if she is eating some and leaving lots or whether she is not eating any at all. This has been going on for awhile now so I imagine she must be eating some otherwise she would be looking very unhealthy since she can't live without them. They are not mushy or anything but there is a lot of them and she is just popping them out at any time of day. Do you think it could be related to diet? She has a lot of green food and also has lots of rolled oats at the moment because she is soooo tiny and I'm trying to get weight back on her because she's supposed to have surgery in a few weeks time. If anyone has any clues as to why this is happening, or whether its cause for concern feel free to enlighten me.

TIA.

 

[Maureen Las]

Excess cecals usually is from too much protein in the diet.

My holland lop ,Beau , who has bad teeth issues eats almost all pellets and very little greens and hay...he also produces too many cecals. There is very little I can do about his eating at this point.

I have worried about it , mentioned it to the vet , but it hasn't led to any problems.

I would ask your vet about it but I would guess that it is diet related.


Alaska (by the way) is just about the cutest thing I ever saw.
Why does she have to have surgery so soon. (haven't been reading posts lately)

it would be better to build her up slowly

 

[Aliena]

She has to have surgery to take a biopsy of her ears because the tissue is dying at the tips but before her ear problem she had enteritis and lost a lot of weight so she can't have surgery because of that and also because she's only ten weeks old (the bunny on my avatar isn't her, that's Kuta). I guess if she seems healthy then it doesn't matter about the caecals, its just messy.

 

[Maureen Las]

Poor Alaska..I did remember reading that post..how sad!
I would mention the cecals to the vet but I doubt if its a big concern at the moment.


Kuta is truly the cutest thing I ever saw.

Good luck with Alaska..so young to have so many problems.

 

[jcottonl02]

Aliena- I had this EXACT problem. I went to the vets and here is what they said.

Basically rabbits have a very strange digestive system- I can't remember the exact details, but basically the reason they eat their poo is becuase they digest their food mostly after they have tried to absorb the nutrients etc. so then they eat the poo and get the nutrients they wouldn't have got. That's the gist- it's probably not completely right but its the gist lol!

If you are feeding your rabbits the recommended amount of pellets on teh packet- like a whole bowl ful lol then they are getting a good diet- rabbits in the wild don't have that- they have grass which has basically not much nutritional value. So they eat their poos.

Cut down on the amount of pellets- let them eat more hay and grass, and they will start eating their caecals again.

It';s not bad what's happening- she is just getting a too good, nutrional diet. you have a choice- keep feeding her lots of pellets etc. and clean her up every day- she'll probably sit in the caecals lol or just cut down on the pellets.

It worked with me Good luck

 

[Aliena]

I know they need to eat their caecals because thats where they get their B vitamins from, they don't absorb them the first time around. I can see how cutting back on pellets would fix the problem but at the moment she is very, very underweight so I can't do that right now. Fortunately she doesn't seem to sit in them which is great because it means I only have to pick them up, don't have to try and unstick them from her bottom Thanks for the advice.

 

[jcottonl02]

Yeah my Pippin was really underweight- Yeah I completely understand u wanting to stay on the pellets- they did wonders for Pippin. I guess just wait till he's the right weight and then start cutting back, and until then keep checking ur bun so they don't sit on their caecals and get a dirty bottom.

Good luck