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› FORUM › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › Grooming/Shedding Dilemma
My rabbit, Hunny Nugget, is part-lionhead. She is shedding a lot. She apparently did not finish her supper tonight, and she had an abnormal disinterest in pineapple (which we use to combat hairballs). My mother is the one who observed this; she did some research and found something that claimed a metal flea comb could be used to remove excess rabbit fur. I just bought a flea comb for dogs (it was all I could find) in accordance with my mother’s wishes. Afterwards, I did research of my own and found a site that claimed metal brushes are harmful to rabbits, as it can damage their skin. Is this true, even if one is careful while brushing?
I don’t want Hunny to get a blockage; I’m worried she may already have one, even though she seemed fine this morning and is apparently still able to produce poop (normal pills, not pearl strings). I plan to groom my rabbit with the flea comb when I get home, but I don’t want to hurt her and will avoid using it if it could cause problems…
I should mention the flea comb comes in a package that says “Oster Tug-Free Tools: Less Stress” on it. It was packaged with a grooming comb I have no plans on using.
Personally I find that a flea comb is better at detangling rather than brushing off loose excess fur, especially if your rabbit’s fur is very fine.
That said, I do use a flea comb in combination with a lint roller on my bun. Is the head of your comb round or sharp? If it’s not sharp, that should be alright as long as you are careful. You can also try a lint roller (a lot of people here do), but make sure to roll it a few times on your clothes first so that it’s not so sticky that it hurts your bun when it tugs at the fur too hard.
Is it sharp ended? Would it cause irritation or discomfort if you ran it over your own skin for an extended period of time? These are both big no’s.
Rabbits have very delicate skin, much more sensitive than ours so if something feels irritating or hard to us, it’s much worse for them
My rabbitt’s have thick coats, so we use a wide tooth comb, to get rid of tangles, then a slicker brush, which gets the majority of excess hair, and then finally a plastic fine tooth comb. The fine tooth come is only to brush the lengths of fur on the face-so moustache and beard and ear fluff
We do have a metal furminator-but the tooth length isn’t deep enough to actually reach the skin, and it’s angled to avoid it in the first place.
Slicker brushes for small animals are probably the best- the metal is fine and will bend under pressure to stop too much tugging at knots or tangles, and the tips are plastic coated to protect the skin
Those combs, to me, don’t look like they’ll be very great for removing fur (depending on coat type) more apt for detangling fur
My mother asked me to purchase the flea comb after watching this video by Mary Cotter from rabbit.org: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H4GDPFsYeiA
Hunny is eating hay and pooping. I worry still about a blockage, but maybe I’m just paranoid…
Random aside-question: what should I do if it seems Hunny has loose fur stuck to her eyeball?
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My apologies for posting three times; it was an accident. I’m worried about Hunny because she won’t eat pineapple to help break down any ingested fur. She normally loves it. Hunny does eat hay, so at least that’s a good thing…
To be honest hay is a far better mode of keeping her digestive system in good health. Blockages are usually a result of stasis, not a cause of.
As for the use of pineapple and papya there is a fair bit of debate over weather they are actually helpful- Papain (found in papaya) and bromelain (found in pineapple) may help to break down mucus binding an obstruction, allowing it to slowly break up and pass. However, there is no evidence to suggest that these enzymes break down keratin, which is what hair is composed of. They are both very sugary and can actually cause some harm to an upset digestive tract
Generally 1/2 teaspoon per pound of rabbit is the most that should be given in a day.
I know my girl regularly refuses pineapple because she doesn’t seem to like the acidity of it.
I give my lion lop a pineapple & papaya digestive supplement by Oxbow, he goes absolutely mad for it & I haven’t noticed any ‘bracelet poops’ since he started having it (maybe 3 months ago?). Might well be a placebo haha but can’t ignore the results!
I used to use a flea comb type thing which didn’t work that well, then a friend suggested I try the furminator. I actually got a knock off from Amazon (!) but it works GREAT. He’s generally not a fan of being brushed so I do it while he’s munching hay so he all but ignores me xD
Hunny is eating and pooping well. Brushing is prooving frustrating, though, because it doesn’t seem to be removing very much fur. I’ve been using a plastic cat brush.
I did try wetting my hand a bit with warm water, and that produced some results, but not much.
Update: Hunny has been eating and pooping normally, and the flea comb is doing a decent job removing loose fur. It’s obvious my girl has ingested some of this, but she seems able to pass it. I worry about her shedding when I can’t be with her; I have to work late every day this week.
Hunny got loose fur on her eyeball again this evening. What should I do when this happens?
You could try gently trimming the fur around her eyes if it’s particularly long. Also be sure to brush from front to back, away from her eyes. If she gets loose fur in her eye, she should be able to blink it out. You may also be able to get some eye drops from the vet if it’s severe – I had some recently for my bunny who was getting loose dust in his eyes while we were packing up the house to move.
I have found that a rubber brush works well for getting the fur off of my Julep. I also have the comb that I bought from the shop here on BinkyBunny. I only use that when she is blowing her coat and things are crazy. Have you tried using a lint roller? If you get an off brand that isn’t super sticky it can help a lot. I agree with Heaven about trimming the fur around her eyes and about using eye drops. You can also find saline eye drops that will work and should be much cheaper. I have bought and used those if Julep seems to have some redness in her eyes while she is shedding heavily.
The fur around Hunny’s eyes is not particularly long. The stuff getting in them likely comes from the rest of her body.
That said, I came home to find a large, yellowish-white glob on the surface (it seems) of Hunny’s right eye. Internet research leads me to believe this is irritation induced by a hair. I can’t seem to loosen this one, and my fluffy girl is not the type to sit still and let me do a procedure to remove it.
Will Hunny be okay with this on her eye? Will she be able to remove it on her own? I’m really worried about this; it triggered some PTSD from when one of my previous bunnies damaged her eye on a piece of hay…I just don’t want my girl to suffer. She means the world to me, and I spend enough time worrying that her shedding will cause GI stasis…
Hunny won’t stay still long enough for me to take a decent picture of her eye, but what she has looks like this:
I do not have saline solution or anything like that. Even if I did, I do not feel comfortable administering things to Hunny myself. I would require another family member’s help, and I would likely be unable to get that for several hours.
That looks like an eye booger. I’ve seen it in my bunny’s eye before. It started in the middle of his eye and eventually moved to the corner of it. He managed to get rid of it himself when he was cleaning his face, so I don’t think it’s an issue unless it’s still there after a long time. Some people just help the bunny remove it by wetting a cotton swab (Q-tip if you’re in the US) and gently cleaning it off.
› FORUM › HOUSE RABBIT Q & A › Grooming/Shedding Dilemma
