Rabbit suddenly refuses to eat hay and has smaller droppings

[Pom]

Hello! I woke up at 5 in the morning today and let my rabbit out for floortime and she ate hay and drank water and all that just as normal. However as the day went on she started acting weirder and took longer to wake up… I checked her litterbox, which I had cleaned AFTER her floortime at 5 AM and her droppings were a good deal smaller. I wouldn’t say they were half sized but they were decently smaller and there were less than usual. They are not abnormally shaped or any different in color but they have changed in size.

Tonight I gave her more pellets to see if it was hay she was refusing to eat or all food in general, and she gladly took the pellets! However, I have yet to see her drink water. I have taken her out for floortime again today, she still hasn’t eaten any hay as far as I can see but she remains active and doesn’t appear to be in any pain, although she did sleep for longer today.

What’s worse, is that I think she may have eaten newspaper today too! I heard her shredding the newspaper that was on the floor of her cage which shes done before but then I looked and it looked like she was EATING it more than shredding it instead! (any newspaper is now out of her cage) 

Sorry if this is all over the place but I’m SUPER worried/stressed right now. What should I do and what do you think the reason for this behavior is?
I will try listing all the possible changes that happened today that I can think of:

– I ran out of hay the shelter I got her from gave me this afternoon but she has still eaten the other hay I have in the past? (I try to mix them)

-Today some construction work was going on outside which was kind of loud

-While I have the shelter pellets and her other pellets mixed, I think she’s also running low on the shelter pellets (which I know were a higher quality than the pellets I have)

Should I start giving her unlimited pellets for the time being? Or should I let her eat them all and see if that will make her eat hay? (shes NEVER been on unlimited pellets before)

Naturally I’m going to keep an eye out to see if she stops eating/creating droppings (and take her to the vet) but I figured I’d go here first while she’s still acting somewhat normal to see if this behavior has an explanation because I’m really nervous right now…

[JackRabbit]

Can you change out the hay or get more from the shelter tomorrow?Assuming that she gets salad everyday, you might increase the salad (and serve it wet) a bit if she’s refusing hay as opposed to increasing pellets (the more pellets she eats the less hay she is likely to eat). The wet salad will help with hydration and keep some fiber moving through her system until you figure out the hay thing. As always, keep an eye on her eating and pooping . …

[Pom]

Update: She just ate some lettuce that I had washed and given her (in hopes that she’ll get some fluids in her) but it took some time for her to want to eat it fully (granted she’s getting kind of tired of this lettuce now that I ran out of some of her other veggies but still shes not usually this reluctant?)
She hasn’t changed in her activity levels and she’s still using her chew toys as normal
I saw her sniff at her water and then hop away flicking her feet at it? I change her water every day and I don’t clean her dishes with soap or anything that could leave a residue and I just changed it now to see if she’ll drink but so far she hasn’t
I THINK she just ate a tiny bit of hay (when I say tiny I mean the same length hay as a blade of grass or so…)

[litheandgraphic]

Stress can be a factor in changing the size of the poops, but they should go back to normal size if this is the case within a few hours.

It’s likely that she doesn’t like this other hay you have. It would be best to get some more from the shelter ASAP, or go to the store and get another brand. If necessary, you can also mix in other types of grass hays such as botanical and orchard grass hay. As for the water, try changing the thing you put it in, like another bowl.

Don’t worry too much about the newspaper if it was the regular newspaper and not the shiny inserts they use for advertisements. Normal newspaper is safe for bunnies due to the soy ink used in printing (but chemical ink is used for the shiny pages).

Keep a close eye on her and get her hay as soon as you possibly can. Keep us posted!

[Pom]

The shelter is too far away to get more hay from there but I’m going to get some new hay tomorrow
I tried swapping out the hay and tried combining the hay that had been sitting out for the day with my stored hay to see if I could get the scent of the stored hay onto the hay that was sitting out
I held out a little bit of hay to her (it was the flowery/seed looking part of timothy hay) and she ate it! However it was only a tiny bit and she still hasn’t eaten any on her own…

[litheandgraphic]

Posted By Pom on 8/28/2014 11:53 PM
The shelter is too far away to get more hay from there but I’m going to get some new hay tomorrow
I tried swapping out the hay and tried combining the hay that had been sitting out for the day with my stored hay to see if I could get the scent of the stored hay onto the hay that was sitting out
I held out a little bit of hay to her (it was the flowery/seed looking part of timothy hay) and she ate it! However it was only a tiny bit and she still hasn’t eaten any on her own…

That was good thinking on your part; it sounds to me like she’s not impressed with the new hay and just wants her old hay back or another brand. I think it will be okay when you bring more of her preferred brand, but keep us posted. By the way, if she stops pooping for more than 6 hours, get her to a vet asap.

[Pom]

Good news! In the middle of the night last night, I heard that distinctive munching sound coming from her cage. I went to go check, and it seems my rabbit has had a change of heart? She ate almost all the hay in her litterbox and ate some more this morning. She’s pooping a lot more than she was before, and her poop has grown in size a bit (It’s not what it used to be but its significantly larger than it was yesterday) Ive seen one or two misshapen droppings but it looks like they are only that way from injested hair? Otherwise they all appear to be the normal shape. Overall her appetite is better than what it was yesterday

However I still haven’t seen her drinking any water and this is another thing I’m worried about D:

[Pom]

It seems like we’re going backwards again… I cleaned her litterbox this morning but she was asleep all day it seems (either that or just refused to come out of her hidey house)
This morning I also fed her some more wet veggies because I still haven’t seen her drinking anything and she ate them just fine
When I got home later on tonight I checked her litterbox and there wasn’t anything in there, so I lifted up her hidey house to see if she was okay and she eventually went over to her litterbox. She didn’t eat anything in it but she did pee (only a little bit) and passed a few small droppings (not as small as yesterday but still not the normal size) but it almost looked like she was straining to do so?
I put various different water dishes around her cage to see if she’ll drink from them
Just now I put hay in her hidey house and I can hear her eating it right now, so I’m starting to wonder if her recent reluctance to leave her hidey house is related to the problem?

[BunnyBrigade]

Have you checked her tummy to make sure that it’s not gassy? Also, did the shelter do a wellness check on her before you got her? Did they check her teeth?

[Pom]

The shelter did do a wellness check before I got her (so they did it about a week ago??) and they said she was fine
Also I’m not sure if the problem is her teeth? She does eat (and recently I did see her drinking a little water) just not as much as usual
We tried to check her for gas but shes not used to being handled at all and got really stressed out by the whole thing, so I decided to let her be for a while before I even attempt to check again
She’s been acting really withdrawn and skittish lately and shes not eating/drinking/creating droppings as much as usual (but she has gotten better about it since yesterday, however there has been only very slight improvement) and she’s only really active in the middle of the night instead of the times she used to be active
I think I’m going to call the shelter I got her from to see if they have any advice and then I’m going to call the vet to see what they say

[Pom]

Alright the problem at hand has changed a lot, so I’m moving to a new topic! (It’ll be on this same board/thread though)

[Author]

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