Did I Introduce Romaine Too Quickly?

[brianamonster]

Hello!

I’m trying to get more fresh greens into Gizmo’s diet. His diet has been a little all over the place lately…for a few months he was receiving 1/8 cup of pellets, unlimited hay, and a few pieces of parsley about 3 times a day. I felt like he was a little thin, so (over the span of a few days) I increased his pellets to 1/4 cup. Well, that resulted in messy poo (I believe it was cecal overproduction that was getting stepped on).

He is now getting just a hair more than 1/8 cup pellets, unlimited hay (timothy and orchard), and parsley. I gave him a small piece of romaine last night with his parsley and he loved it! It wasn’t a whole leaf…maybe a little smaller than my palm. This morning I did the same thing. Literally in the time that I walked out of my bedroom and came back with his greens, he had some odd looking poo in his cage. It was the consistency of cecals, firm but mushy, but it didn’t look like cecal (in the sense that it didn’t look like multiple poos stuck together). It just looked like one big mushy poo (sorry to be graphic). It wasn’t watery at all and it smelled quite badly. I did some googling and it didn’t look like pictures of rabbit diarrhea, but it also didn’t look like dysbiosis. He hasn’t had anymore poo like that since. I’m racking my brain trying to figure out why it happened. Would it be from the romaine the night before? Am I introducing it too quickly? The only other food he had last night was a tiny amount of pellets and his hay.

Any insight is greatly appreciated!

Briana

[brianamonster]

Oh, he also got a small piece of an oxbow senior supplement earlier in the day yesterday.

[JackRabbit]

Romaine is pretty commonly given to bunnies and often the “go to” lettuce for buns. That being said, romaine gives Moshi mushy poop with even one bite of it, even though my girls are fine with it. Our “staple” is green leaf lettuce and seems to be the one thing that all of mine tolerate well all the time.

[brianamonster]

Hmm, interesting! He hasn’t had any mushy poo after the small piece he ate this morning, which makes me wonder if the romaine was the cause. I wonder if it would be beneficial for him to just have hay and greens today? Or would he be starving if I skip his pellets? 

[Stickerbunny]

Every vegetable has a chance of giving mushy poops/tummy upset. If you want to make sure it’s the romaine, don’t feed anything BUT hay for a few hours, give a tiny piece of romaine and see if it gives mushy poop. If so, you know it’s romaine and try a different lettuce. Red leaf or something. Some bunnies just can’t eat everything.

[Eepster]

Posted By bunneh928 on 11/18/2014 1:25 PM

Oh, he also got a small piece of an oxbow senior supplement earlier in the day yesterday.

Is your rabbit senior?  Since you are introducing foods still I figured he was new to you and at least somewhat young.

[brianamonster]

Yes, he is senior (I’ve had him for 7 years). The bulk of his life he got pellets, hay, and parsley or cilantro. I’m trying to be a good bun mom and give him more fresh greens

[Author]

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