Rabbit poop question?

[Candle]

Bunita has always had weird poops. Even when I picked her out at a farm her poops were small and weird shaped and quite dark.

I looked on our “guide to poop” page and she has the misshapen small poops. Which apparently indicates she doesn’t eat enough. She’s always had access to unlimited hay since I got her and gets daily pellets and vegetables. She doesn’t seem to eat a ton of hay but I figure that’s just because she doesn’t feel too hungry? She often has the hair poops too where they’re stringed together but I brush her regularly. Unibunny has more hair that sheds far more often and he never has that problem.

Should I be concerned or is this just how she is? I thought once I got her and with a proper diet it would work itself out but it seems to be the same… She also used to drink very little water. Unibunny who was about half her weight drank more than her even though she had free access. She now drinks about the same amount as him but it took over 3 months for her to finally start.

Do I need to deworm her or something? I don’t really know anything about what I should be concerned about or not since it has been going on her whole life and it’s not like she doesn’t have the option to eat more or anything

[LBJ10]

What amount of pellets is she getting and how big is she? If she’s getting a lot, she may not feel like eating hay.

[Bam]

As long as there is poop and it’s not sticking to her butt so she’s always dirty there and need butt-baths, this is not extremely worrying since she’s always been like this. It’s when a bun’s poop starts to shrink and/or become much more sparse that an alarmbell should go off. Bunnies’ tummies have individual differences, just like people’s tummies. Some are sensitive, others are like feral goats.

As a rule though, more hay, hay that she likes (you can try different hays – all grass hays are fine for bunnies) is very good for a bunny that has a tendency to a slow gut. (Double poops and beads-on-a-string-poop signify a slow gut.) It’s great that she’s started to drink more, hydration is very important. Greens are also good, esp leafy greens, pellets should be given in moderation. Choose a pellet with the highest fiber content you can find. And you can try cutting some on the pellets and see if that encourages her to eat more hay. (Don’t cut out pellets, all dietary changes must be done very slowly.)

[Candle]

I’ve tried a variety of things with pellet amounts. At first I thought she needed more so I gave more, then I tried less. Then I tried very little. She probably gets 1/4 cup a day now maybe? I’ve never had her weighed but think she’s probably around 6 pounds.
Both buns prefer 2nd cut field hay. I just bought a big bale of timothy hay (1st cut I think?) And it’s not crunchy enough for their liking. There are a lot of flyaway pieces and neither of them seem to care for that so that’s annoying. It’s all that was available at the feed store though. We’ve had it once before and I just end up throwing out most of it but let them be picky and take out everything they still want.
She doesn’t seem like she’s starving or anything. She was quite overweight when I got her (and still with the weird “underfed” type poops) and now I think she looks pretty healthy. She gets up and eats whenever she wants. I don’t think she has any teeth problems either

[Basil the Bun]

We went through this. My bun just didn’t care for Timothy hay at all. He’d literally rather starve than eat it, lol. Try other hays! We’ve had great luck with orchard. Once his intake went up, the poop went to normal.

[Chelsea]

I posted something very similar to this about my bunny, and a member suggested I try different pellets. I’ve also been restricting the amount and types of greens to see if that will help. So far I’ve discovered Sherwood Forest gives him amazing poops (first time I’ve ever seen him have classic normal looking ones) but he really doesn’t like them, and will only eat it if I mix it 50/50 with oxbow. Any higher percentage than that and he stops eating pellets completely and his poops get super small. I’m going to try Science Selective next to see what happens, but otherwise I’ll just stick to 50/50 oxbow/sherwood. We can only get him to eat Timothy hay – he rejected all the other kinds we try. He likes it best when we go out and harvest fresh grass – the longer, thicker blades the better – but that is only possible part of the year.

Which is all to say changing diet really can help, but it can be quite the guessing/elimination game to figure out what actually helps. I wish it was easier!

[Author]

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