Eating droppings

[jerseygirl]

Jersey occasionally eats her regular droppings.  I’m not overly concerned.  Figure it’s chiefly pellets + hay and somewhat tasty to her.  But I just saw her  jump out of her litter box chewing away on something.  She dropped it and it was a dropping but was full of hair (the fine wool like hair).  It could even be carpet fibres.  Why would she be eating this???   Talk about making trouble for herself!

[Cassi&Charlie]

Weird, I’ve never seen my bunnies eat regular droppings.

[MimzMum]

I see Pip doing this once in awhile. And oddly, she is the one of the three who seems to prefer this over eating cecals.

How is the rest of her diet? Is she turning her nose up at anything or eating anything new? How many treats does she get per day?

[KatnipCrzy]

I have noticed Cotton doing this occasionally.  Usually when we are watching TV and on the couch- she will notice that she left a poo and check it out- sometime she will half chew it and let it fall out of her mouth.  It seemed more “oh, what is this…munch, munch….kinda dry and crumbly” and she hops away.

 

[BinkyBunny]

Does she eat alot of hay?

[jerseygirl]

No BB  She doesn’t eat alot of hay. It’s improving a little but she doesn’t devour it like other members buns seem too. I put hay in litter box as that’s where she mainly eat’s it. Sometimes she’ll eat droppings in preferance to hay though. Like she’s hungry and they most closely resemble pellets so she’ll eat them. She doesn’t eat them excessively but a small amounts regularly. Do you think if she was filling up on a hay she liked, she’d eat less droppings?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

If she doesn’t like hay much, have you tried timothy hay cubes? Some bunnies love those.

[jerseygirl]

Timothy is really difficult to get here. I can get Oxbow tim hay online but $$$. Gonna try fresh oat.

[MimzMum]

Watch the oat, jerseygirl, it tends to make them plump. High in calories.

[jerseygirl]

Oat and wheat is all that is readily available really. She does get fibre by grazing on grasses and weeds outside but it’s not huge amounts and I’d rather it be a consistant amount and consistant quality from hay.

[MimzMum]

Whoops, okay, I misread that. It’s the wheat that makes Pip fat, I had to stop giving that to her. But the oat is not as bad and it helps with her digestion, so. Sorry, I’m totally confusing everyone. >.<
Yes, oat hay is good. You may find the poops are larger and more flaky after feeding that to your bun. But the good news is, bunny will not have as much trouble with fur in the GI tract and, it really makes good fertilizer if you have a garden! ^_^

[jerseygirl]

Sorry BB, were you asking about hay due to concern about moving hair through gut? Or is there a connection with that lack of hay in diet & eating droppings? Me confused.

[BinkyBunny]

Sorry Jerseygirl for not clarifying why I asked that question about her hay consumption. The reason why some bunnies eat their normal poops is still sort of a mystery – it’s seen in healthy bunnies with good diets too, and doesn’t seem to be harmful (unless there is some OCD bunny out there that eats all of their poops over food) so the only reason I ask is I am making a mental note to “file” away to see if hay consumption does somehow relate. The reason I say this is because their is no nutritional value to the fecals, but there could be fiber value.

[jerseygirl]

That makes alot of sense.

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