Thanks for the info, guys! *whew* I was worried about the pellet thing, but if Sarita said hay only for two days, then that’s the way to go. (ooogh…Pippi is NOT going to be liking me for a few days!)

I am also wondering if now Pip might be working up an intolerance to romaine lettuce, as I was giving her one leaf in the am and one in the pm to up her water intake and it seems to have backfired.

She was also getting some Italian parsley and an occasional carrot during the holidays. I had to cut that out about four days ago because she was showing signs of calcium in her urine. And since she peed on her pen floor today, I wonder if she might be sparking a UTI?

Although….Baleful, you’re giving me an idea. I usually wet the greens down and leave the water ON instead of really patting it completely dry…well, one of the things up here is that during hard freezes and breakup (thaw) the well water around here turns kind of…iffy. The whole family has come down with the ick during these particular seasons.
I have to wonder if there could be a sudden rise in bacteria in the well water and maybe it’s hit Pip particularly bad? It doesn’t seem to have affected the other two though?

Hm. Maybe wash the greens with bottled water for a bit and see if it makes a difference. :-/

All three bunnies are shedding like crazy now too. The house heat is stifling, no matter where you go in here and I’m concernec the high heat may be affecting them physically.

Oh, and today is the first day in a while she’s been out in the xpen with Mimzy. Do I have to worry about her infecting him with anything if she’s sick? (I mean, if she starts leaving ceals in there and he eats them?) They’ve both given each other a thorough grooming and are cuddled up together in their water bottle box under the willow tent. It’s amazing how well they snug up after being separated for any length of time.

No Beka, these are timothy pellets. I have taken them off the menu completely and she had maybe one cecal uneaten in her box (and not even a whole one) today. Her shelf was dirty again, but not as bad as before. I didn’t give her any romaine yesterday either, but let her have a leaf for a treat today to see if the cecals come back. If they do, I’ll know it’s not the pellets. (I washed the leaf with bottled water and dried it today. We’ll see if it causes any problems.)

I’ll have to order Oxbow from Fosters&Smith when I can afford to, I guess. I think she really misses her pellets, but I didn’t have any real complaints from her. No box tossing, ramp chewing or bar shaking. You’d almost think she couldn’t care less. But she stood up on hind legs to beg for treats this morning, so I figured she should have some green.

Dark green…it would be good if the hubby could find some kale, they’ve been without that for a few Sundays. (Sunday is kale day. I sure wish it could be fed more often, they really like it.)

No Parsley, carrots or tops…kind of running out of options. I know she’ll eat endive. I gave up on red leaf lettuce, it just sits in her bowl. I’d give broccoli, but I don’t think she needs the gas issues.

The oats are a good idea, K&K. I’ll have to get some fresh ones, as you can probably imagine, any whole, non-instant oats in my larder are most likely several years old, so I don’t want to make her sick. >.< I could use a good bowl of fresh oatmeal and raisins myself. Good comfort food. ^_^

I also put the wheat and oat hays that the cigarette beetles appeared in outside in the subzero weather, I think it’s still good. I’ll give her a little of that to keep the fiber going. She had a good grooming yesterday and seemed much less itchy.
I actually got her used to the fan too, so the room was MUCH cooler last night. Everybun was more comfortable.

She is drinking a little more water too I notice. Good thing. *nods*

Anything else you guys can think of to do, please let me know. Thanks so much for all your wonderful advice.

Just a quick update on Pip’s progress:

After two days with nothing but hay and greens, carefully washed and dried, her improvement is exponential! No cecals left over and no messy spots on the floor or shelf of the pen. I was floored! 0_o

After the trail period, I gave her those 15 pellets you mentioned, Beka, and she was ravenous for them, and the first time it had no effect. Last night however, she did have some spotting on the shelf, so it’s got to be the pellets that are causing the problem.

Thank you guys so much for giving me the cure! ^_^ She seems to appreciate the extra hay I give her and I think we can probably wean her off the pellets. But I am concerned as to how she will get proper vitamins without them. Will just the 2-3 cups of greens really do the job?

And what should I watch for to see if she may be needing something more to keep healthy? Will she just be listless or are there other telltale signs of malnutrition?

Well we kind of backslid today. I found a cecal in her litterbox this morning. She’d had 15 pellets last night. So, those are officially off the menu. *toss*

I don’t know what’s in these or why they are suddenly causing this problem, but if she can get by with just hay and veggies, she’s a nicer bun for it. Once I tried reintroducing the pellets, the litterbox tossing and general nasty attitude came back. She was actually oinking at me last night when I put my hand in the pen!

Must be a lot of sugar they aren’t disclosing on the label, ‘cuz I don’t see any listed. <_<

Well I dropped the pellets entirely. Yes, they were the Kaytee brand, Sarita. That must be it. I am curious to know if you can find anything on the label that would indicate the cause of these pellets making the buns leave their cecals. Is it just the calorie count?

I use the medicine cup too, Baleful, that’s a funny coinky-dink! 0_o And I’ve been giving her some wheat hay in the eves. Not enough to make her huge, but so that she has a little more fiber in her gut. She is happily snarfing it up and I think she may be thinning out a little even! I was really surprised!

She must be feeling better, because litter box tossing has become a nightly event. I wake up now, not to cecals everywhere, but to bunny litter and bb’s all over the night pen floor! >_< Sheesh, can't win for losing!

My only worry is that she is enjoying the reintroduction of broccoli a little too much. I thought I heard bunny trumping the other night and my son says my room smells strange. 0_o I keep it REAL clean, soooo…..exactly how much broccoli can a bun have per week?

Hmmm…can bunnies take Beano?

I tried the oats, K&K, it’s a no go. Mimzy likes his at least, but the other two gave it two paws down. ;_; Just as well, I’d rather Pip eat the extra hay instead of more sweets. ^_^

Thanks Jerz! ^_^ Ouch, that’s a hot potato you’re sittin’ on! >_<

Hmmm…I stopped reading at “Dried Cane extract”. Sugar. Might’ve known. And it’s odd that Oxbow adds a yeast culture. I wonder if that helps the bunny digest the compacted food material?

I gotta get ALL my buns off this stuff. I may as well be feeding them straight from the sugar bowl. (Looks like they included the bowl in the ingredients.)

I think I’m going to poke around Dr.s Fosters and Smith and see if they’ll ship to Alaska. :-/

So a bun who lives indoors can go without pellets altogether as long as it has fresh greens and hay? Who’dve thought? 0_o

Well, just to be on the safe side, I went ahead and picked up a bag of Peter’s brand today. It actually lists Sun-dried Alaskan brome hay in the ingredients. They can’t have many of these, since it’s first content is alfalfa, but it’ll be nice as a treat food until I can get some Oxbow here. I don’t want to cut out pellets altogether if I don’t have to, but they seem to turn their noses up to them anyway if there’s lettuce, broccoli or kale in their pen instead.
Mimzy does tend to nibble all night on his though. He takes very few. But he really likes them.

But…holy postage stamp, Batman! The shipping for stuff like this (right now at FosterSmith) is over the top! >_< I looked at a few stores while in town today and no-one here stocks Oxbow. ;_;