Toby is continuously shedding

[devilishblueyes]

kirbyultra wrote:

Toby had a stasis episode on Christmas Eve and he was building up a gut slowdown for weeks prior. He was look better in January. Feb was iffy, and March has not been so great. His poops have been furry strings of pearls at least twice a week. He has been shedding since, for as far back as I can recall, November 2009. Granted, he didn't shed much before that because he was a baby but is it normal for a bun at one yr old to continuously shed fur?

He doesn't have mites, I am certain of that. He just constantly sheds fur. Every day I vacuum up several big balls of white fur. And I really do vacuum daily due to me and my husband's allergies!

Toby is a dwarfy, mini rexy looking medium sized bun. He does not have Rex fur though. He used to eat alfalfa pellets made by oxbow but at around 8-9 months old I started to combine Timothy (also oxbow) pellets. He's finishing up the mixed pellets now and by April he and my Kirby will both be eating Timothy pellets. He only gets 1/8 cup a day. I used to give him 1/4 c but found him quickly getting quite pudgy so I reduced it. He's only 4.2 lbs anyway so a 1/4 c is a touch high... He eats Timothy and orchard hay. Regularly gets romaine and green lettuce and parsley as his staple salad.

I don't know why he is constantly shedding! I could pet him once and my hand would be covered with a thin layer of fur. If I groom him I think I could go on grooming him forever and there'd be more loose fur an hr later.... But he has a perfectly thick coat. He isn't thinning anywhere.

I'm just not sure if this is normal! He gets these weird poops which cause me to worry. But he is still eating fairly normally at least!

Advice?

Thanks!!
Helen

The diet you are feeding them first has about half what a rabbit that size should get in pellets at 1/8 cup. So right there that is cutting the protein from pellets in half. Timothy hay only has about 9% crude protein. Lettuce only has 1.2% crude protein. Peter Cheek in his book Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition recommends that a rabbit gets a minimum of 12% crude protein. Oxbow on their websites lists 12% crude protein. Average that with the 1.2% from lettuce and you are get about 6.5% crude protein. Now if you figure on top of that that the rabbit is probably getting about half of what it should eat. It's more like it is really only getting about 3.25%. Realy a rabbit should get about 16% crude protein. So your rabbit is only probably getting roughly estimated about a fifth of the protein it should get. A diet that lacks protein or certain vitamins and minerals can cause a bad molt just as easily as too much protein. The trick is to find the balance which researchers have found to be about 16% protein. That's why most good rabbit feeds such as Heinolds and Purina hover around that percentage. You'll see some with more or less based on the application. For example growing rabbits need more protein so you'll see a baby formula. Wool breeds needs slightly more for more hair growth. Milking mothers need more. And show formulas normally will have less because they are trying to hold a coat that is already in good condition. If you have a rabbit with a coat that is in bad condition, a low protein diet will hold it in bad condition for a long time.

 

[kirbyultra]

So I've been feeding Toby alfalfa instead of timothy pellets and success has been limited in controlling his molting. It hasn't stopped but the amount of fur flying around his cage has slightly been reduced. Frankly I'm not convinced the pellet change or "increased protein" did this as it was so gradual. Could just as well be time or weather changes.

In any case the amount of calcium deposited in the litter box this week has convinced me that the alfalfa stops today. I am very alarmed by it.

 

[devilishblueyes]

The best way to stop the molting is to just help the rabbit though the molt. Help get the loose fur out so the new fur can come in. Lightly wet your hands and rub your rabbit from front to back. The loose hair will stick to your wet hands. Do that for about 1 minute or so or until the fur starts to become a little spikey. If the fur starts to become too spikey then it is getting too wet and it is time to stop for the day. Have a trash can handy nearby. To remove the fur from your hands just rub them together over the trash can. Place your rabbit on an old carpet pad. It will collect the loose hair so it doesn't fly all over the place.

 

[kirbyultra]

I do that already.