Gurgling Bunny Belly

[Lightchick]

So, as you may know, I just swooped another bunny up out of another park.  I have no idea what she/he was eating before he was dumped, but I don’t think he was in the park for long at all.  Which means he’s gone from probably being an Easter bunny (nasty pellets for food maybe?), to outside vegetation, to regular bunny diet with me.

I don’t know how old she/he is.  He’s not an infant–what’s the age cut-off for Alfalfa?  Maybe I’m giving him the wrong hay?

I’m giving “Little” mostly cilantro and parsley, and some romaine.  About 1/2 a cup at a time.  He LOVES orchard grass.  Gave him an 1/8 cup of timothy pellets, which he initialy picked at, but is now ignoring. 

I can hear his/her belly gurgling across the room!  And there were signs he had poopy-butt before I even caught him, and now he tries to use his litter box, but sometimes still smears some mess on his floor.

I don’t know if I’m keeping him or not, but I’d like to make his time with me as comfortable as possible.  Is there anything I should be giving him different to help ease his upset tummy?  I can’t phase out old diet items, because I don’t know what he was eating before…  His appetite is good, and he’s pooping, so I don’t think it’s stasis, just poopy-butt…

[Sarita]

I think he is just going to have to adjust to his new good diet and that can take awhile. It can take awhile for his gut to “balance” out.

I would have the vet give him a fecal float too as well to check for parasites when you take him in.

[KatnipCrzy]

From my understanding gurgling sounds mean gas- so you could try to give some Simethicone.

[Cassi&Charlie]

Lightchick, you have a problem LOL park bunnies know that they can have the good life with you I’ll have to find the other post where you found him/her.
I am absolutely no expert here but when we got Layla she had been on nasty pellets and hay, no fresh greens so she took a little while to get used to the new diet. I found that her tummy was LOUD and she got gas a few times (broccoli – oops) so I would give him/her simethicone too.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Agreed on the semethicone

-AND on the ‘problem’ part heheheh pretty soon feral bunnies are going to be showing up on your doorstep! “Honest Honey-he followed me home!”

I’d just give it some time to even out diet wise-alfalfa generally gets switched to timothy at six months to a year; but I’d just keep him on whatever you started and let things settle.

[LizzieKnittyBun]

I read somewhere that fresh mint can settle rabbit tummies.

Good luck!!

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