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BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New rabbit who won’t eat :(

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    • calipa_st
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        We got Calvin on Saturday March 1st ..I expected him to be nervous,  and he has been. He’s very scared. But, it’s been over a week and he has barely ate a thing since I got him. And this past Saturday his litter box had his cecals in it that he hadn’t eaten

        He eats different pellets than my two that I have, they eat oxbox and I was to give him the shelter pellets then introduce him to the oxbox, so he has his regular pellets and they were giving romaine at the shelter so I stuck with that and introduced cilantro (I forget what else they said was okay but mainly easy things like that but to take it slow with him..)

        so he had cecals saturday night, and I offer a bowl and water bottle he is drinking it seems but hasn’t touched his veggies since saturday. I haven’t dealt with this before and am scared


      • Sarita
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          I wouldn’t worry too much about not eating the cecals.

          Has he eaten hay or pellets?


        • calipa_st
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            No pellets, one day I saw him eat them…I just messaged the shelter, they said he wasn’t a big pellet eater to begin with and to make sure he’s eating his hay

            The issue with that is I don’t like the hay I got this time! I have read it can vary, but this timothy hay is like, softer and shorter…just feels different. And he spreads it around his litter box (I usually put the bedding on the bottom then hay on one side. ) so I can’t tell how much he has eaten! Rodan loves his hay feeder but I’m going to let Calvin borrow it to see if I can get him eating more hay…Rodan is going to be so jealous lol


          • Sindri
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              I hope his eating habbits get better. I have been having a hard time getting my rabbits to eat their hay. My rabbit Usagi is really picky about hay. I posted about Small Pet Sellect 3rd cut Timothy in the diet section. You should try that out if you can. Usagi eagerly jumps into the box of hay and eats straight out of it every time I am getting it out to add to his boxes. Kilala my other rabbit also loves it. Before the other hay was either spread around the cages and room and now the majority of it gets eaten up. Its soft and green and looks yummy. No matter what you try I hope he starts eating more and settles in.


            • calipa_st
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                I talked to the lady who took care of him at the shelter, she asked if he was eating treats…which is usually my go to when I want to know if my bunny is okay as well (like with Lucky’s lip, I offered him a treat and he refused, he *never* refuses, so I took him to the vet)
                She said he didn’t ever have carrots! I thought that was the treats they had, I just assumed, but she said the treats he had were craisins or banana chips, so thankfully I always have craisins on hand lol, and he ate them! So I guess he’s not *that* sick.
                I’m going to clean his box out, and also give him the fun hay feeder, and my boyfriend gets home from work before me, I’ll make sure he checks on Calvin to see he’s eating his hay. I’m hoping it’s just taking him longer to settle in.
                I’m a worry wart though, but the shelter gal really helped


              • Marc Comeau
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                  Shelter staff are often volunteers or not formally trained and not rabbit experts. Stick to the basics of fresh Oxbow or Kaytee Timothy, or Oxbow oat hay, depending on the batch (look for large stems, leaves and seedheads rather than small stringy grassy bits). Avoid Oxbow Orchard Grass and alfalfa including alfalfa pellets. Oxbow T pellets are second best and ideally only max 20% of diet. Third best is Oxbow pellets moistened into a thick paste with a tiny bit of cookie crumbled into it, not too much, and a few solid pellets mixed in. Fourth best (because of cost) is a bag of Oxbow Critical Care powdered food. Just mix into a paste. If he refuses to eat it put paste into a ziploc freezer bag and make a small cut off one corner and gently squeeze into his mouth a bit at a time.

                  Veggies are not good because they lack the essential long strand fiber that maintains gut motility. Motility must occur or they will feel ill and not want to eat. Avoid anything with sugar or starches. This promotes the growth of yeasts rather than good bacteria in the gut, causing intestinal upset and resulting in him not wanting to eat anything but more sugary foods.

                  A water dish is better than a bottle as it results in more fluid intake and therefore more good bacterial rather than yeast fermentation, but requires frequent wiping (no scented detergents) and refilling.


                • calipa_st
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                    ^ It’s a House Rabbit Society, so it’s not just an uneducated shelter. They had cared for him for almost a year, so I trust they know what he previously was eating.


                  • Marc Comeau
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                      You guys are lucky to have one of those. I guess that’s my frustration coming out from my experience with other shelters, though not ones here.

                      Hmm sorry my post sounds kinda bossy re-reading it. This is my first time on any internet forum so hopefully I’ll make all my mistakes early.

                      I did already on your Introducing Calvin thread but I wanted to thank you for your kind words about Sophie which I appreciated very much.

                      Cuddles to Calvin. 


                    • NuggetBuns
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                        I hope he starts eating normally soon! I remember when we first adopted Emilee, she couldn’t care less about food. It was something she HAD to do, not something she enjoyed, but now she’s a huge foodie. It’s different for shelter buns because everyday they eat the same thing and it gets boring. My advice is to give him his pellets (from HRS) and mix in a little bit of Oxbow in there for a gradual transition. If you notice him eating the oxbow pellets and leaving the other stuff behind, then you know it’s just the old pellets he doesn’t like. I wouldn’t worry about that too much if he is eating the romaine and cilantro, the main thing here is that he is eating something.

                        What kind of hay do you have? If you find that he’s not eating the hay that you got, you might have to try out different ones to see what he likes. It’s a pain in the butt, but once you find the right hay, you’ll know b/c he’ll be running to you every time you fill up his litter box.


                      • calipa_st
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                          ^ do you know which veggies they fed at that hrs? the day I took him home, I gave romaine out to all the rabbits. they were super short staffed, only three people were there! so I tried to help as much as I could (I felt like I was in the way! and it was so hard to resist just trying to pet all the rabbits and actually get work done lol)

                          He hasn’t touched his lettuce and I went to work at 11am, and it’s now 9pm. I don’t know if he has eaten any pellets, I’m going to mix in some oxbow ones and see if he picks at them.


                        • Marc Comeau
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                            Quoting from the top of the page:

                             “BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!”

                            If he doesn’t eat a significant amount of long-strand fiber from hay or pellets, preferrably Oxbow pellets, in the next 12 hours you will risk gastric stasis which is a medical emergency. He’ll need to be gently force-fed some Oxbow pellet paste with a little bit of cookie mashed in it to stay alive. When rabbits don’t eat they feel sick and that makes them want to eat less, which is why force-feeding of rabbits is so often necessary. If you’re unable to do it you may have to go to a rabbit vet quickly and be shown how to do it. I’m sorry, I feel rude for saying this but it’s true and what a vet would tell you.

                            A fresh bag of quality Timothy hay may make a big difference. Vegetables will do more harm than good at this point because they lack long-strand fiber essential to motility and good bacterial fermentation and will displace hay or pellets with his limited appetite.

                            Rabbits are upset easily, especially when left alone, which is stressful for them. Giving him lots of slow gentle petting and attention will relax him and increase appetite but won’t solve the problem by itself.


                          • NuggetBuns
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                              I wish I checked this sooner, what’s the status on Calvin? Has he eaten anything at all? I really hope he’s okay. The only vegetable that I’ve seen fed at HRS is romaine lettuce. I only volunteer on Saturdays so I’m not sure if they give them additional greens during the week. You said you tried cilantro, did he eat that?

                              I agree with Marc Comeau that if it’s been over 12 hours and he’s still not eating anything to go to the vet immediately. You didn’t mention any other signs of GI Stasis, so here’s more information in case he has that condition: http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/ileus.html

                              Also agree that switching to a different hay (more fresh would really help. Nugget and Emilee refuse to eat any Oxbow hays (Timothy, Botanical, Orchard) and they won’t even look at Kaytee. They only like American Pet Diner Gold Timothy. It might be a good idea to get some hay from HRS, theirs is fresh from a local farm in Delaware.


                            • calipa_st
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                                He is eating parsley, not touching his romaine… he seems to be picking at his hay, but not much is missing of it. He doesn’t have any other signs of gi stasis and I know he’s eating his greens finally, and picking through the pellets…maybe he was just super stressed the first week??


                              • BlueMoods
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                                  I’d try different hay. Find out what the shelter had for hay. It may have been a grass hay form a local farm and, he may prefer that to the pet store bags of hay. I know mine all prefer farm hay, won’t touch pet store hay. They are used to mixed grass that comes in horse sized bales, that pet store stuff is simply not the same and, they don’t like any of it.

                                  Different grasses do taste different. I’d also try misting the hay with 3-4 sprays of apple juice. Don’t leave that hay over 24 hours but, the sweet juice may get him eating more of it. If apple juice doesn’t work, since he likes craisins, try cranberry juice, as low a sugar brand as you can find. Just 3-4 sprays so he won’t get too much sugar form the juice.


                                • calipa_st
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                                    He seems to be doing fine…seems like he likes cilantro and parsley, won’t ever touch his romaine (which is all he got at the rescue, so maybe he’s enjoying the change of pace!)
                                    I know he’s pooping, he just doesn’t seem to eat a lot of hay, but, neither does my other dutch..who only eats his hay at nighttime it seems. Both of them are little dainty picky eaters, and my Rodan eats every thing in sight immediately lol (I’ll fill his hay up and he eats ALL of it immediately! craziest thing..)

                                    So, I’m assuming he’s fine. He’s pretty skiddish still, gets traumatized all over again when it’s time to catch him and put him away so I haven’t been letting him out as often as I was. He’s just too difficult to catch and he gets really defensive


                                  • Imbrium
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                                      My girls are some of the world’s pickiest hay eaters!  When it came time to transition them off of alfalfa/onto grass hay, I tried *14* different types/cuts/brands before finally finding one they would actually eat ><

                                       

                                      Long story short, Sierra Valley orchard grass was the winner!

                                       

                                      If you’d be comfortable PMing me a mailing address, I’d be happy to send you a free sample of it for him to taste test (that way you don’t have to buy a whole box of it only to risk him not liking it).  I’ve done that for three people on the RabbitsOnline forum whose bunnies “just wouldn’t eat hay” and all three dove right into the SV hay!  I just got a fresh box of it yesterday, too .

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                                  Forum HOUSE RABBIT Q & A New rabbit who won’t eat :(