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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 BEHAVIOR Help Please! Lazy Messy Bum Behaviour…

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    • peppercorn_factory
      Participant
      18 posts Send Private Message

        Hey guys!

        I would love some suggestions in regards to my bun’s newfound laziness…

        Pepper is 18 months old, and she is a free-range bun, meaning she has the entire house to explore.

        She tends to stick to her “domain” though, which is under our billiards table, as it has a cover over it, is nice and dark under there, and I’ve set it up with tunnels, litter tray, food and water etc. So for pretty much the last 12 months that’s where she spends most of her time, and comes out when she feels like socialising. It works well for all of us!

        However, a couple of weeks ago I decided to pull EVERYTHING out from under the pool table and rearrange it, partly to do a full clean out, but also to change things up for her, give her some new things to explore and places to hide.

        Since then, she has picked her new favourite hang out place to be inside a big wicker basket, turned upside down, and with a few holes cut in it so she has multiple escape routes. She’s got an old sweater to lay on, a water bowl, and since she likes it so much in there I’ve been putting hay and greens in there for her to munch on.

        Her litter tray is LITERALLY a hop outside of this basket, but she has gotten so darn lazy that she either isn’t going to the toilet as much as she used to, or she isn’t cleaning herself like she used to. So almost on a daily basis now she is getting a huge clump of poop sticking to her butt region, because she is just sitting/laying in the same position for most of the day.

        She’s not overweight, her diet is pretty good, so I know that laziness really is the key factor here.

        I don’t really want to remove her new favourite hiding place since she likes it so much, but I don’t know how to make her come out more often and be more active, therefore cleaning herself more often.

        It is really not fun for her or for me to have to try to remove clumps with baby wipes every day, and if it’s too stuck on there I have to bathe her rear end, and then we both basically need to have a shower.

        Ok, that’s my story. I probably could have made it shorter but I guess I’m in a chatty mood

        If you have some advice, hit me with it!

        Much bun love xx


      • tobyluv
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        3310 posts Send Private Message

          You said that her diet is pretty good. Does she eat a lot of hay? Often times when a rabbit gets a messy bottom, it’s because they are eating too many pellets and not enough hay. If you think that could be the reason, you should cut back on her pellets, which will hopefully make her eat more hay. It would probably be a good idea to keep her food and water outside of the basket, near the litter box. That would encourage her to move around, and come out to eat, then be near the litter box. You could keep a little hay in the basket, but it might be better to keep the greens and pellets and water outside of the basket. Other than cecals, which are soft, her regular poop should not be soft or stick to her fur, so it sounds like her diet it too rich with pellets or maybe some of the greens don’t agree with her. Besides the fact that she doesn’t want to be messy and you don’t want to have to keep cleaning her, you don’t want to take a chance on fly strike.  It would be rare for that to happen inside the house, but I suppose it could happen.

          If these suggestions don’t help, you may want to think about having her checked out by her vet.  At her young age, she should be more active, and not be sitting/sleeping in the same spot all day.  Rabbits do like to sleep and especially take naps in the afternoon, but most rabbits also love to run around and play. 


        • jerseygirl
          Moderator
          22338 posts Send Private Message

            Ditto. I would be looking at her diet also. Pellets and treats mainly. What type of hay does she get?
            I do remember from your previous posts you said her poo’s are often small. Peppercorn poo’s! She’s not a great hay eater?

            Rabbits will often eat their cecal pellets when hidden away during the day or night. They not always in the litterbox for those. It’s sounds as if she’s producing too many and uneaten ones are getting smooshed on her backside. Or they are a bit unformed. meaning there is a bit of a gut imbalance. The first way to try correct this is with diet.


          • peppercorn_factory
            Participant
            18 posts Send Private Message

              Thanks for the responses guys!
              She’s never been a great hay eater, and I’ve tried every variety under the sun, and the only one that she will really eat is Lucerne. I give her a combination of Lucerne, Oaten and Meadow, as well as fresh picked grass, however she really only eats the Lucerne and the fresh grass from the garden, with a very tiny bit of the others. I know it’s high in calcium, but I figured that she needs to eat some kind of hay for her teeth and gut, so better to have that than nothing at all.
              I have been restricting her pellets for quite a while now, so I know she’s not eating too many of those as I only give her a very small portion once a day, and only after she has eaten her fresh greens.
              I also haven’t given her treats for quite a while so as not to contribute to messy bums, as some things seemed to do that to her on occasion, even though she loved her treats.
              I’m really not sure what else I can do with her diet? Any ideas on how I can improve it?
              I do still feel that because she feels so comfortable and safe in her new little hideaway that she’s just too content there to move around much.
              When she does come out to play, she’s very active and jumps around, and is overall very happy. There are no other behavioural signs of sickness, and she runs around like a nutcase even when she has a chunk of poop hanging off her!
              I had thought of taking her food and water outside of her little comfort zone to make her come out to get them, but I’m afraid that she is as stubborn as I am and will starve herself rather than do what I’m trying to make her do!


            • jerseygirl
              Moderator
              22338 posts Send Private Message

                Even though she is young, she may have some teeth problems stopping her from eating decent amount of hay. Maybe it would be worth getting her molars thoroughly checked and a sample of her poo tested.

                Here’s a pretty comprehensive article about messy poop that explains some of the causes. 

                http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html


              • tobyluv
                Participant
                3310 posts Send Private Message

                  You said that you have tried every variety of hay, but what about different brands? Some rabbits can be very picky about their hay and only want either certain varieties or certain brands.

                  It’s good that you are cutting back on her pellets. You didn’t say how much you are giving her, but you might want to cut back even more and just give her a spoonful of pellets each day. You also might have to cut back on the greens a little. Or go back to how we first start bunnies on greens. Just give one variety for a week, then introduce a second variety the next week, and so on. It may be that one of the greens she is eating is causing the soft poop, and if so, you could find out through a process of elimination. Hopefully, if she gets hungry enough, she will start eating more hay. I still think that you should move her food out of the basket, and have it near her litter box outside the basket. Surely, when she is hungry, she will come out to eat.

                  It’s good that she is active at times. Since she seems to be having some GI issues (unless she is just sitting on uneaten cecals) moving around is good and can help prevent gas buildup.

                  Does she have long fur? A vet can do a hygiene clip on a rabbit if it has long fur and gets poop stuck, but you really need to figure out the cause of the soft poop.

                  I was also going to mention having her teeth checked out, but I see that jerseygirl has advised you about that.


                • peppercorn_factory
                  Participant
                  18 posts Send Private Message

                    Thanks again I will get her teeth checked out, but she does enjoy the Lucerne quite a bit, so I don’t think her teeth are an issue. She’s just super fussy with hay!
                    I got some fresh Lucerne from a local supplier, but because it is winter here now they don’t have any fresh Grass Hay or Meadow Hay, so that will be a few months away. So the only option for those is the packaged stuff from the pet stores, which she seems to ignore.
                    As for pellets, she is only getting about a heaped teaspoon a day, so I don’t think that’s overfeeding at all, although she does inhale them because she LOVES her pellets haha.
                    Her fur isn’t overly long, she is molting a bit at the moment, but she’s not ingesting much fur, so again, not worried about that.
                    As of this morning I have moved her greens out of the basket so she has to go get them, and I’m taking the basket out from under the table during the day to try to force her to be more social. She can have it back at night time to sleep in
                    I will keep doing this and monitor how she goes, and I will make it my mission to keep her more active during the day time. Fingers crossed she gets the hint!
                    During June I was away for 5 weeks and she was staying with a friend’s bunny, and they got rather bonded to each other I think, and her butt was immaculate when I picked her up so I assume they were cleaning each other or something! Maybe her laziness is her way of trying to make me get her a mate haha.

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                Forum BEHAVIOR Help Please! Lazy Messy Bum Behaviour…