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Forum DIET & CARE Different hay causing different poops?

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    • Princess*Smudge
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        Hey everyone, haha I know ANOTHER question from me…. sorry.

        About 3 weeks ago i started using a new brand of timothy hay. The one I was using previously was okay, but it wasn’t the best kind of hay just the stuff Smudge had been given by the lady who had her before me. It was a generic petstore brand but she was happy and healthy and eating it just fine. Then the store by my house started caring a new brand.. I’m at work and I don’t remember the brand name I’ll try to remember to get it… but its greener, a better cut, organic. You can tell the difference when you open the bag it smells so fresh and Smudge couldn’t stop eating it! I did the mixing of the two just to make sure I didn’t shock her system but by the end of the 2nd week of mixing she was only eating the better hay so I started feeding her that. Anyways with the new hay (she’s now been on for almost a month) I have noticed a steady change in her poops. They used to be little round black poops like any bunny would have or so I assumed. Now I’m finding her poops are a brown color much lighter than before slightly bigger/more roundly formed and when I look at them they actually look like all their made out of is hay???? They don’t smell as bad either, and I thought maybe this is because of the better quality hay there is nothing bad being digested just good ol’ fibre and hay.. but now I am second guessing myself so I just wanted to be sure. I read another post (not sure where) that some people who had switched to Oxbow hay found their bunnies poops more black. Anyways if anyone could shed some light on this that would be great. Smudge devours the hay and she has good quality pellets too which I’ve never changed. There have been no new introductions into her diet. She gets a mixture of romaine/green leaf/red leaf lettuce, with parsley and sometimes some dill too as her salad each morning. The hay she has all the time. Pellets are 1/8 cup in the evening (she is just 4lbs). Thanks for any insight! I just want to make sure this change is normal! 


      • osprey
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          The kind of hay a bunny eats definitely effects the size and color of the droppings.  You said the poops are lighter in color and larger, I think this usually means the bunny is getting more fiber.  This could be because the hay is somewhat different, or just that the hay is tastier so she is eating more of it.  Bunnies that eat a lot of oat hay will have much lighter, almost tan colored droppings.  As long as the poops are well formed and frequent, she is doing fine.


        • LittlePuffyTail
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            My buns poops change colour with the lightness/darkness of the hay.


          • JK
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              Oh yes they absolutely change size and color with different hay!  I switched from timothy hay to orchard hay and they went from what you are describing, a lighter, bigger, less smelly to smaller, darker and stinkier poops!  Now they seem to be back to the first kind – thank god. The smell was overpowering during the initial switch and now they don’t smell any more! Yes if you squish one (yes I have done this!) it is totally hay.


            • Princess*Smudge
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                Thanks everyone! I figured that all it was was a change in hay but better safe than sorry!

                Oh and Knowltons… I cut one in half with a butter knife so I could get a better look… my family officially thinks I’m crazy, the jury was still out prior to that moment. And I am throughoughly enjoying the less-stinkiness!


              • JK
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                  You think your family thinks you’re crazy? Mine is ready to commit me.  Every single time someone walks in the office, I’m on this site! They think we are a cult!  There’s no amount of explaining to them what an intelligent bunch of people blah blah blah we are!

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              Forum DIET & CARE Different hay causing different poops?