A question about urine…

[kellyrorgan]

Hi guys, everyone was so nice and gave such quick responses last time that I thought I’d come back with another bunny question:

What color is a bunny’s urine?    I’m sure that sounds like a strange question but tonight we got to see what it looks like (on tile floors) and it was a milky yellow color. Is this normal? Everything else seems ok, but I thought I’d just ask around and check. Thanks guys

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

Yeah, rabbit and guinea pig pee seem to be kind of yellow and cloudy from what I’ve seen at home!

[Gravehearted]

The cloudiness is actually the calcium in their diets that they don’t absorb. A little cloudy is normal, but if it’s sludgy or thick then it’s cause for concern. Calcium can build up and cause problems – so that’s part of the reason it’s good to pick a pellet lower in calcium and switch adult bunnies from alfalfa pellets & hay over to timothy.

the best thing for cleaning up bunny pee is a spray bottle of vinegar diluted with water.

[osprey]

The color also varies depending on what they have eaten recently.  It can go from almost clear, to a deep orange/light red color.  I have noticed that when my guys eat lots of carrot tops, their pee turns orange.  As Gravehearted said, the milky suspension in the pee is calcium.  Bunnies can’t store or process excess calcium, so it goes out with the urine.  This is why you’ll see some rabbit diet advice that tells you to limit high calcium foods, especially for older buns.

 

[BinkyBunny]

Just adding to what Osprey and Gravehearted said that if it is thick or sludgy, you’ll need to reduce the calcium in his diet to prevent health issues like stones

Some rabbits are more prone to this problem even if the diet is at normal levels of calcium in their diet. Just means you have to cut out even more calcium.

Oh, just FYI, the vinegar water mix I use is 50/50

[kellyrorgan]

What is a good amount of calcium for both Timothy hay and pellets, I’ve not really seen any numbers. I checked the packaging and the numbers looked low to me (hay- 0.25% to 0.75%      pellets- 0.5% to 1.0%&nbsp Is this amount ok? We’re not giving Sully any other veggies or goodies yet, so the hay and pellets are the only places where he’s getting the calcium. It didn’t look like there was a lot being "flushed out" but I just wanted to double check.

And thanks for the tip on the vinegar/water mixture, the pee accidents are few, but it’s good to know what to use.

[MooBunnay]

What brand of pellets is it that you are using? I use Oxbow, and have never had a problem, and it says there that the calcium is between the following:

Calcium(min) 0.35 %
Calcium (max) 0.85 %

So it sounds like yours has a normal amount. The Oxbow pellets are recommended by my rescue group – so I am assuming they are quite healthy, and that the .35-.85 % is a normal range for a pellet, so it sounds like yours are OK as well.

[kellyrorgan]

The pellets that we’re using are: Sunseed Soothing Special, Sunscription Vita, Vita Rabbit Formula (wasn’t sure which name was the actual name of the product.) It’s the food Sully was being fed before we adopted him. They seem to be good but we’d not heard about the calcium thing before so we just wanted to double check. Thanks so much.

[BinkyBunny]

What greens do you feed your bunny the most?

[kellyrorgan]

So far all he is getting are pellets, Timothy hay, and water of course. He’s not gone on the floor again so I can’t really see the color again, but when I clean out the newspaper from the bottom of his litter, it looks like normal pee. We have since started testing fresh spinach but have decided to try some other veggies after reading mixed reviews. What we saw was probably normal, but it was a little weird the first time, we did think something was wrong. Just being cautious bunny-parents

[Author]

Messages