Eating too quickly / “gagging”?

[litheandgraphic]

Okay, so I know that bunnies don’t have gag reflexes, and thus, this is slightly worrying to me. 

Theodore is a huge foodie and LOVES his leafy greens. Every morning when I give them to him, he dashes quick as a flash over to the plate to chow down. But I’ve noticed that sometimes whilst he’s chewing away, he’ll pause for a moment and kind of push his head in a bit and look almost… disgusted? It looks very, very similar to when people swallow something a little too big for their throat, and we have to kind of push our heads in to help the food go down better. 

He has never had this problem with pellets, which he is also crazy about.

Does anyone know what this is, if it is what it looks like, and if there’s anything I can do to assist this? I should mention that the leaves he’s getting are fairly small, though I could always chop them up into smaller pieces if that would help. 

Thanks as always!

[BunnyBrigade]

When was the last time Theodore had his teeth checked? I’m wondering if he’s having back teeth issues.

[litheandgraphic]

I adopted him from a rescue that takes all pre-adopted rabbits to the vet before they get adopted, so they should have been checked not too long ago — I don’t know if he got his teeth checked for certain, though. But, if that’s the issue, wouldn’t he also be showing issues with his pellets? I should also say it only happens once while he’s eating, and it doesn’t happen every morning. c:

[JackRabbit]

I have one that was doing something similar except she held her ears forward at the same time (she’s a lop). She was apparently trying to eat too much at once. I started tearing her salad into smaller pieces and it hasn’t happened since.

[litheandgraphic]

JackRabbit – That’s relieving to hear, actually! I’ll start doing that and see if it stops. c: Thanks a lot! 

[JackRabbit]

It really scared me the first time I saw Marlee do it. I just figured that if she has to take the time to get another bite from her bowl that she’d at least swallow the bite she had chewed before stuffing more in her mouth!

Hope it works for you!

[LittlePuffyTail]

Maybe try tearing his veggies into small bite-size pieces and spreading them all around his cage?

Bindi had a few very scary gagging/choking episodes with pellets so now he only gets wet, mushed up pellets.

[litheandgraphic]

LittlePuffyTail – Ooh, good to know that this can happen with pellets. For right now, Theodore seems to take a great deal more care in chewing his pellets thoroughly before swallowing, and pacing himself, but I’ll be sure to keep an eye out for any problems with those. He sure doesn’t pace himself on the greens like that. I like the idea of spreading the veggies around his pen/cage… this will be good for his brain as well as his throat and stomach! Haha.

As a little update, I’ve been cutting his veggies into smaller pieces and that has seemed to help this issue. I’m also going to try your suggestion, LPT.

[LittlePuffyTail]

Hope it works for you! Bindi’s never had a problem with greens but he used to eat pellets like a vacuum cleaner and they would get stuck in his throat. He thinks eating a meal is a big race!

[JackRabbit]

What is it about bunnies eating fast? Mine aren’t quite do bad with pellets, but salad, treats, oat hay . . . thwy act like they haven’t eaten in months! I have bunnies trying to climb my legs when its time for salad!

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns are the same. They always act starving!

[litheandgraphic]

Hahaha, Theodore is the same way. He scrambles to get to his greens or pellets despite the fact that he’s been munching hay all day long. I guess he just loves his greens and pellets!

AND AN UPDATE

– I tried the smaller pieces plus the scattering around the pen technique, and that seems to have helped the issue quite considerably. I ALSO made kind of a weird observation: I had been giving him greens for the past couple of weeks from a high-quality pre-packaged mixture for the variety and to save myself a little time, but I recently switched back to fresh greens that I have to cut and mix myself because, well, because even though the greens mix I had been buying was good quality stuff, it didn’t last as long in storage and just seemed not as good as fresh greens, so I went back to buying fresh greens. The price equals out to about the same where I shop.

The weirdest thing? Since giving him fresh greens, even when the leaves are much larger than the pre-packaged mix, he seems to chew the greens a lot slower, and hasn’t yet gagged on them. I think scattering the greens has helped pace him quite a bit, but I thought it was interesting that he seems to take his time much more on the fresh greens than on the packaged ones. I’m wondering if it’s possible that the fresh greens have more flavor, texture, and water, so he doesn’t feel the need to shove a hundred leaves in his mouth at once. Just thought it was a curious observation.

[Sarita]

Usually those package mixes are baby greens I think which makes them more tender than the greens that are not packaged so they probably do have more texture – not sure about flavor and water content because they all taste good to me :~)

[litheandgraphic]

Posted By Sarita on 8/11/2014 9:27 AM

Usually those package mixes are baby greens I think which makes them more tender than the greens that are not packaged so they probably do have more texture – not sure about flavor and water content because they all taste good to me :~)

Hahaha, same! 

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