I’m very sorry you lost your bunny.

Sometimes young bunnies have a microparasite called coccidia. It gets worse with stress (for example the stress of getting a new home) and often results in diarrhea. If you call a vet now, when this has just started and the bun is still in good shape, treatment is much more likely to be successful and doesn’t have to be super-expensive. Tell them what happened with your first bun. Chances are they’ll prescribe Albon and fluids. Albon is an antibiotic that kills the coccidia parasites.

A very young bun gets dehydrated quickly, and they are obviously very frail. They can also get cold, so try to keep your bun warm, for example by wrapping him in a blanket and sitting him in your lap while you call the vet. Do you see any normal round poop as well as the smeary ones? This is important because it makes a huge difference for the diagnosis. Some smeary poop + normal poop is ok, but smeary, runny, watery or mucosy poop without any round normal poop is an emergency.

Not much else to add except I think the breeder is very irresponsible. Allowing buns to be re homed at just 5 weeks old? That isn’t right. And not feeding them hay, just pellets? So they get weaned from mum-bun early and then given pellets rather than hay. Terrible. I’m sorry for your loss but I really think you should report the breeder…

Gota agree about the breeder. Feeding no hay and letting babies go at 5 weeks is so irresponsible, it’s highly likely that kind of breedder would breed anything and everything ie poor genetics.

With poor genetics comes a very short and or low quality of life in the resulting offspring sadly.

Sorry if this was addressed and I missed it but are you sure the soft poops aren’t the normal cecotropes rabbits do?

Of course you were scared. It’s totally understandable. I’m really glad your baby bun seems to be okay now! Alsp I don’t know if it was clear in my response above about the breeder being irresponsible but I just wanted to clarify that I in no way tried to put blame on you. Its all the responsibility of the breeder. Thank goodness you are a vigilant owner and quick to query anything that’s not quite right!

Wow, clearly that breeder is just awful. Poor buns. Rabbits should not be separated from their mum before 8 weeks.

I noticed in your original post that you said the poops looked like grapes and appeared wet. And then said you found some of those same poops with the new bun. Rabbits do produce two kinds of poop: cecotropes and fecal poops. Cecotropes are wet, dark, and look like little clusters of grapes and they smush or smear easily. Your rabbit should be eating those- YES, EATING THEM. The reason they eat this type of poop again is to maximize nutrient absorption. So are you sure the droppings you are seeing from new bun aren’t cecotropes? It would make sense that you are seeing them because he was on a diet of strictly pellets, and that diet is too rich so they will over produce the cecotropes and not eat them all. Their diet should be mostly hay, unlimited amounts, with some pellets as a nutritional supplement since hay is mostly fiber.

Diarrhea is definitely a different scenario, and it sounds like it was a coccidia infection as bam suggested. But I’m just wondering if what you are seeing are cecotropes because I don’t want you to freak out about those, but you should know what they are because it can tell you about their diet since if you find them around you know that their diet is too rich. There is a “guide to bunny poop” on here that shows you what cecotropes look like, so you may want to go have a gander in the poop gallery LOL

Yep exactly what I was thinking in my post above, description sounds like cecotropes.

your first experience sounds like an absolute nightmare! I can’t imagine bringing a little baby bun home and having them pass in my hands… but find consolation in the fact that it wasn’t anything you did! Glad to hear the new guy is doing well and eating hay, that’s great! If you have access to alfalfa hay try and see if you can get that. It’s more expensive than Timothy, but it’s great for growing buns and it might be extra important for him to get those nutrients to grow into a strong bunny since he should technically still be with his mummy!

Fluffykins I didn’t see your post! I have a bad habit of reading just the original post and scrolling past most of the replies. Didn’t mean to steal your thunder!!

Just to add to the hay suggestion, Alfalfa is great for young buns, but remember to switch him back to Timothy around seven months old.
I’m so sorry your first experience as a bunny parent was so terrible, but take pride in the fact that you did everything in your power to save that sweet boy, and know that what happened was absolutely not your fault. I’m glad you took his brother, it’s a shame he’s away from his mom so early but I’m glad he went to someone that cares so much for him. If you didn’t take him, the breeder would’ve just sold him to someone else, so I’m glad he’s in such great care.

I’m sorry for the loss of your bun. How is your little guy doing now?

I just wanted to add regarding the alfalfa hay, that if he is on alfalfa pellets he doesn’t need alfalfa hay as well, sometimes it can be hard to switch them back to timothy if you get them on alfalfa, that’s all

Remember when switching foods to do it slowly so mix a little of the new pellets with the old then gradually increase the amount of new pellets every few days

Hope your little guy is doing well! The Oxbow pellets made for young rabbits have alfalfa, and were recommended to me by rabbit shelter people when I adopted a baby. You might try that one if you haven’t bought a bag yet. My bunny likes them. I think there’s different opinions about this, but I was told that alfalfa hay can be given in unlimited quantities for a young bunny along with unlimited alfalfa pellets, as long as he isn’t overweight (and my vet confirmed that this diet was appropriate).

(PS. It sounds like your first bunny was sick when you brought him home, not naturally super “calm”, so it sounds like you did everything that you could for him. Sorry that you went through that.)