Eating Clay

[tommy-blackberry]

We have a shelf in our house where we keep small clay sculptures that people have made (mostly air dry clay, unpainted, 1-5 inches in size). Recently, we moved a sofa next to the shelf and have noticed our rabbit hopping up to the shelf to nibble on the clay. He seems to eat a lot, because we have noticed a few small pieces partially or completely missing. How bad is this for him?

[tobyluv]

Clay litter is harmful to a rabbit’s digestive tract when ingested, so I assume that clay from figurines would also be dangerous for rabbits to ingest. It would be best to relocate the sculptures somewhere out of your rabbit’s reach, if you don’t want to move the sofa back to where it was. Make sure that your rabbit is eating plenty of hay, to keep his digestive tract working well.

[tommy-blackberry]

Thanks. His diet is mostly hay, all the time. What is the best material to give him to chew? He usually leaves wood sticks alone.

[Bam]

We just recently had a case here with a bunny that had ingested clay. The rabbit pooped out the clay. In small amounts, ingesting clay is not harmful, in bigger amounts or if small amounts are consumed persistently over time, clay can cause intestinal blockages. In nature, rabbits get a tiny amount of clay/soil in them from the plants they eat. In many dog tummy meds there’s clay added because clay helps absorb toxins and so they’re transported out safely with the poop.

That said, clay figurines are obviously not a natural part of a bun’s diet =)

Hay is the best chewing material. It wears the teeth exactly like rabbit teeth need to be worn. Many buns like to chew on willow toys (wreaths, balls etc). Fresh twigs from pesticide trees (willow, apple, hazel etc) are often preferred over dry wood sticks. the bark is yummy for rabbits and healthy for them.

[tommy-blackberry]

What do you mean by “pesticide trees”? Aren’t pesticides poisonous? We give him fresh peach sticks from our tree, but he doesn’t seem to like them.

[Author]

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