Mixed Bunny Poop

[Kiahak]

Hey everyone!

So, I have a 3 month old mini/standard rex mix. I’ve been feeding her alfalfa hay and alfalfa pellets since she’s still young on growing. As she grows up, I want to move her to timothy/orchard grass/hay at a point and either switch to timothy pellets or off pellets altogether to a strict hay/veggy diet (which would be at like, 7 or 8 months of age). 

The thing is, I noticed her poop has been a little odd. I have read the poop guide and other guides. The thing is, it’s always been dark and moist or dry. It being dark is a sign of high protein, right? Which would make sense with her diet, but I would assume it’s okay with a growing bunny, but is it? She has always had a fair amount of doubles too, and sometimes smaller than normal poops. So I started reducing her pellet feed from 1/2 cup to 1/4 cup a day. I’ve started introducing her to vegetables a week and a half ago. First celery, and just kale yesterday. I’ve noticed much more disparity in the sizing of her poops (a very large single, more doubles, and I even saw one that looked like 4-5 small ones together) lately since I’ve started trying her on kale yesterday. Is this a sign that she should not have kale? 

I figured since I’ve reduced more pellet feed and have unlimited hay, I would expect to see it go to a more normal poop pattern. But I think trying the kale is interfering. I figured maybe the best thing to do is to keep her at 1/4 cup of pellets, unlimited hay, and celery. And keep it like that for a week and see how it turns out, and if it stays that way it is should I go to a vet? Or is a little bit of disparity fine and just keep her on kale until her microbiota adjusts, because she’s not having diarrhea or anything. I mean, she is a growing rabbit with new diet changes, so maybe it’ll take a bit to adjust?

[Bam]

A little bit of disparity is fine when you introduce a new veg. As you are saying, her tummy will need time to adjust. But it’s of course fine to keep her on hay-pellets-celery for a week as well, and go really really slow with the intro of kale. If you suspect kale isn’t really agreeing with her, cut it out for now. Make a smoothie for yourself with it, if you’ve already bought a lot =)

Her gut microbiota will develop over time provided she eats plenty of hay, she’s still very young and you can’t expect the same microbial diversity in a baby bun as in an adult. You can mix in a bit of grassy hay with the alfalfa, it has good fiber and it’s good if she gets into the habit of eating grassy hay while she’s young. Individual food preferences are to a great extent learned, so it’s good to lay down good eating habits early.

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