eats regular poops

[Bougatsa]

It is gross but…I see my bunny eating regular poops too! She is not exactly eating them as I see them falling from her mouth..she bents over exactly like she does to eat cecotropes. Sometimes she is eating cecotropes and others she is chewing normal poops, eats a bit and lets the rest fall off her mouth. Sometimes she does the same thing with the poops she left around. She goes sniff them  and them takes a bit! Why on earth does she do that?? It’s disgusting as little bits of poops are all over the place…

[jerseygirl]

Mine does this sometimes. I don’t really know why. Is Phoebe been eating less hay lately? It’s thought they might do it sometimes when looking for fibre.

[Bougatsa]

She generally eats a bit less because of the heat but I see her eating hay frequently. Who knows…

[Andi]

I was going to post about this this week as well!
PitStop is a regular poop eater/chewer. He leaves little piles of chewed up or half eaten regular poops. He’ll sit in one area and do it, so there’s a pile. Sometimes the pile disapeares, so he’s eaten them.
He is a small bunny and enjoys eating his hay, he’s done this poop eating since I got him about 3 years ago many now.
Out of all the bunnies I have had he is the only one to do this.

[Bougatsa]

Phoebe eats poop right of her bottom and poop that she las left around…and the weirdest part is that she sniffs 2-3 poops and decide to chew only one of them.
Plus I have noticed something else. She will eat cecotropes the minute after she wakes up..for exampe I pet her, she takes a nap while I do and when she leaves she will eat cecotropes..is its okay? Cause I’ve read that they do it at night or half an hour after eating.

[BinkyBunny]

 

I cut and paste this from an thread from last year that Jersey posted. She found an response by Dana Krempels about this: 

 

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Rabbit: Eating Fecal Pellets
Expert: Dana Krempels, Ph.D. – 9/10/2008

Question
Hello,

I just recently adopted a pet bunny from a friend and wanted to just double check something. I knew before that rabbits eat their own poo, and I read an answer previously about the two different kinds of poo. However, this morning, I noticed my bunny eating her own poo-but it looked exactly like the kind of poo she normally does..and leaves. They were round pellets and relatively large (compared to my pet mice ones).
Is their an obvious difference in the two kinds of poo? or are they very similar, so I’m just thinking they were the same kinds? is it possible my bunny is eating both her kinds of poo? and what would that mean?

Thank you!

Answer
Dear Adriana,

The two types of pellets do look different, as described here:

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

Sometimes a bunny will eat a fecal pellet, and this is more common in bunnies with “Cowpoop Syndrome” who have a genetic condition that causes the mixing of fecal and cecal droppings. But in either case, it’s not something to worry about. It’s pretty unusual, and generally happens accidentally when the bunny is also eating cecotropes that come down at the same time as the regular poops.

Hope that helps.

Dana

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The thing about your description though is it doesn’t seem like an “accident ” so the search for this mystery continues.

[Andi]

My bunnies eat cecotropes in the early mornings and then late evenings, so i feel it is normal. I’ve seen them make them during the day as well (this is more rare), though those ones are usually left behind from what I’ve seen (These usually in a free run space).
The Poops Pitters munches on are regular round poop, and he does this during the day, usually after playtime. I notice it often when he is upstairs with me. He has never have mushy poops, or ‘cowpoop syndrome’ he’s always been very regular in that department.

I first couldn’t figure out why there were peices of poops, it was like he was just chewing on them, but if i don’t clean them up right away he will go back and eat them after they have been chewed on. i do believe he pulls them right from him bum, rather then just picking them up on the floor.

yum yum LOL

[jerseygirl]

I forgot about that BinkyBunny.

There seems to be various different speculations as to why they do it but not actual hard facts. What get me is Jersey sometimes breaks open the ones that have a ball of fur in them. Rabbits!

[Deleted User]

I suggest to just make sure she is getting enough timothy as well as veggies. My bunny never has done this but thats all i can suggest.

[Andi]

My poop eater is one of my biggest hay eaters too LOL…. maybe it’s still like hay?
I don’t stop him from doing it, but i do clean them up quickly when he’s upstairs with me running about the house.

[Karla]

Posted By jerseygirl on 07/21/2010 08:00 PM
I forgot about that BinkyBunny.

There seems to be various different speculations as to why they do it but not actual hard facts. What get me is Jersey sometimes breaks open the ones that have a ball of fur in them. Rabbits!

Freddie breaks his open as well! That is weird. I guess they have nothing better to do…

With Phoebe eating the other ones, isn’t it the same with dogs who eat their own or other dog’s poo? Some claim it is due to improper diet, so you might want to try to give her some different pellets, while others claim it is a big mystery that will never be solved. At least so far no one knows, but it is nothing bad. Only gross  So, if she seem healthy otherwise, I wouldn’t worry.

[Bougatsa]

The food pellets are the best available in Greece, and the hay too is really good and smells amazing and she likes it a lot..

[Andi]

I wonder if something like this could have been a bordom thing, or malnutrition thing in the past that is now a bad habbit?
My Bun came from a crappy situation and was very ill when we found him, so i don’t have any history before he was taken into rescue. I guess i wonder if that only b/c the rabbits doing this seem to be good eaters, with a good diet and still eat/split poops.

[Free2Dream]

I was wondering about malnutrition too, Andi. I know that horses will eat their poop if they’re missing nutrients in their regular diet. Oliver eats regular poops occasionally. It’s gross, but I assume it’s just a baby thing? At least that’s what I’m hoping. I know that puppies do it, too. I’ve never gotten a glimpse of the special poops with the name I can’t spell, haha. I think he gets to them before I do.

[jerseygirl]

It’s funny when a topic comes up then all of a sudden you notice it more. Rumball doesn’t do this much. I’ve seen him do it maybe twice? But the other night he got up from his snooze spot and had left 3 poops there. He then turned around and ate them. Maybe he was cleaning up after himself???? One poster once had her Doe cleaning out her litter box of them for a day, then she just stopped. It’s probably a different reason for a different bun I guess.

[Author]

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