Healthy urine color

[Battie]

Hello again.

Google searches turn up mixed answers on this issue, so I thought I’d better check in with the bunny experts.

Again, I’m a new bunny mom, so there are a lot of things I’m not used to here.  Quincy usually pees in his litter box, so it’s hard to tell the color against the brown paper, but every now and then I’ll find a dark orange puddle around the edge of his crate.  I doubt it’s fresh, and I’ve read that healthy rabbit pee often oxidizes to this color.  Is this true?  He seems happy and healthy otherwise.  He eats lots of Timothy hay and a very small amount of pellets (they’re my lure).  He drinks plenty of water. I wouldn’t be concerned, but from what I’ve read it seems like rabbit ailments can sneak up on you.

By the way, as suggested I built him a NIC cage.  It’s roomier and taller than his old one, and he likes watching me from the top ledge.  I’ll post pictures as soon as I recover the rest of the room from my construction efforts.  (Is it dangerous that he can fit his head through the some of the grid spaces?  I didn’t realize that the NIC set I bought came with two different grid sizes.)

Thanks!

 

 

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Rabbit urine can be yellow, orange or even redish… you should monitor it and watch for white or chunky-an indication of too much calcium…But colored red, yellow, orange as disturbing as it may seem is perfectly normal-their urine color is dependant on what they are eating and a range of those colors is fine. So…yes-I wouldn’t worry at all!!

I cannot wait to see pictures of your new NIC condo!!!

[Scarlet_Rose]

This is from Dana Krempels on urine scald, but also discusses the color of urine:

http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/urinary.html

This is a discussion from the HRS on red urine:

http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-1/red-urine.html

Congrats on the new NIC cage!  I would limit your resources for rabbit info to a few reliable ones and do not use a search engine until you are pretty well-versed in rabbit care and whatnot.  If you are new, and use a search engine you will come up with all sorts of conflicting information and such as it doesn’t discern between what I would call good, sound information and just plain garbage.  It can be very confusing indeed.

Try these few:

https://binkybunny.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53

http://www.rabbit.org

http://homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/rabrefs.html

This is a listing of answers from Dana Krempels, a very rabbit savvy person who is not a vet, but is respected for her knowledge and advice on rabbits.  When I search this page, preass your CTRL + F fey to bring up a “find” dialog box, type in key words of what you are looking for and it will find it for you. It can be a little daunting, so I am just offering it as an option.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/Rabbits-703/indexExp_35789.htm

I also just wanted to let you know that of course, ask all you like here, we’re all very happy to help and you’ll get some good, sound input/advice.  Also, a lot of us have our resources where we look up things and post the links for you so you don’t have to go searching all over for the right answer.

 

[Battie]

Thank you so much for all those resources! I’ve been to HRS but missed the urine page, and I’m looking through the rest too. I’m so grateful there is an active, knowledgeable board like this one for all us new rabbit parents!

[Scarlet_Rose]

Awe, you’re welcome Battie.  That’s what we are here for and I too am greatful Binky Bunny created this site for all of us house rabbit lovers.

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