Oat hay possibly causing gurgling?

[sarahthegemini]

Hi guys, I briefly mentioned this in my cecals thread but I’ve heard more gurgling so figured it deserved it’s own thread  Basically over the last weekish, I’ve heard gurgling again from both bunnies. The only thing that has changed is they’ve been given more oat hay. They have orchard 24/7 and previously were given oat as a treat. Mainly because it was quite expensive per kg and quite dusty so value for money was poor! I just recently bought a sack of oat from timothyhay.co.uk and it is much better quality and cheaper per kg so I figured they could have that 24/7 too. It could be a coincidence but the gurgling started roughly the same time that they were given unlimited oat. 

(It’s made me think about the cecals issue too. I had given them unlimited oat for a few days before when they got a little bored of just orchard and I can’t remember but I’m wondering if the extra cecals were a result of that. This is just speculation but worth mentioning)

I’m just wondering what your thoughts are on this. I don’t know 100% if the oat is the sole cause of gurgling but I’m currently giving them just orchard for a few days to see. Yesterday (first day of just orchard), the gurgling I heard was much quieter and I only heard a little, much less than before.

[Wick & Fable]

Initial thought is one of two:

1) They are just generally eating less hay, so the gurgling to reflecting their stomach having difficulty moving things through because of the lessened fiber and less thriving microbe environment in the stomach

2) They are eating more of the seed heads, and that’s making them feel a bit bad.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Wick on 5/30/2018 12:51 PM

Initial thought is one of two:

1) They are just generally eating less hay, so the gurgling to reflecting their stomach having difficulty moving things through because of the lessened fiber and less thriving microbe environment in the stomach

2) They are eating more of the seed heads, and that’s making them feel a bit bad.

I actually kept a close eye on them and although they ate the seed heads first, they ate the stems afterwards. They also ate plenty of orchard too (they had both oat and orchard available) so I don’t think hay consumption went down. It’s baffling 

[Bam]

I think it could be the oat hay that causes both the gurgling and the cecals. If it is, I don’t think you need to worry. It’s about their tummies adjusting to the new hay. It doesn’t mean it’s too rich or doesn’t agree with them, it just means that the gut bacteria is adjusting to optimize the breakdown of the oat hay. That is normal and one of the reasons it’s recommended to switch or cycle hays – it makes the gut microbiota more diverse and that in turn makes it more robust.

I just recently read about this in an FB group.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By bam on 5/30/2018 1:37 PM

I think it could be the oat hay that causes both the gurgling and the cecals. If it is, I don’t think you need to worry. It’s about their tummies adjusting to the new hay. It doesn’t mean it’s too rich or doesn’t agree with them, it just means that the gut bacteria is adjusting to optimize the breakdown of the oat hay. That is normal and one of the reasons it’s recommended to switch or cycle hays – it makes the gut microbiota more diverse and that in turn makes it more robust.

I just recently read about this in an FB group.

Thank you Bam, that’s really interesting. I had no idea! So their tummies have to adjust from having a small more limited amount of oat to having unlimited? It’s ‘safe’ to continue giving the oat then? I assume once the gi bacteria has adjusted so to speak, the gurgling and extra cecals should cease? 

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