Senior bunny diet changes? (Not eating cecotropes)

[bastion]

Hello again all!

This time I’m coming to you for some insight on my 7-8 year old bun, Theodore. He’s an older man now, and still very healthy and active, still acting like he’s three years old aside from being generally more snuggly and less inclined to jump quite as high as he once did.

I have noticed over the years that getting at his cecotropes has been a little harder for him, but he’s found ways around this – namely he will either prop himself against something or just drop them and circle back to eat them. Clever bun!

I just moved him a couple days ago from NYC to Boston. He’s been settling in very nicely in his new digs (he’s actually been here before) and is already very comfortable. While moving him though, I realized I didn’t remember to bring his pellets, so I ordered some more to be delivered to the new address.

In the meantime, I gave him his fresh greens and of course plenty of hay. I noticed that he has been voraciously eating the hay more often lately, and with the pellets not in his diet, even moreso. His digestion otherwise looks entirely healthy and he is behaving completely normally other than this one thing:

I did notice that basically right after moving, he’s been producing cecos (healthy looking ones!) but not eating them. At first I assumed this was just stress from the trip and getting used to the new space again, but now it’s been a couple of days and this still seems to be a pattern. Because I noticed he was eating even more hay than usual with fewer pellets (I’ve been feeding him 1/4 cup of Oxbow Adult, regular Tim Hay pellets for years), I decided to cut back a bit on those pellets. The only other dietary change I’ve made is introducing one Oxbow joint support pellet per day max. Also, if I offer him the cecos he’s missed, he eats them just fine.

All the signs seem to suggest to me that he’s getting maybe a little too much protein and that I should be cutting back on his pellets as I already am, but if anyone has any more insight, I’d love to hear it. I found a great rabbit vet in Boston already (I think, we haven’t been yet!), however I am going out of town for the next two weeks but plan to get him seen when I get back. The sitter has the vet’s number as well.

Thanks!

 

[DanaNM]

So, I’m a little confused. Were the uneaten cecals when he was on hay-only? Or when you reintroduced pellets? Or when you introduced the treats?

If they were on hay-only, then I don’t think they are excess, he probably just was having a hard time reaching them. If they were when you reintroduced pellets after him being on hay only, they may have just been temporarily excess. Or the treats could have triggered some excess.

I have a senior too, and I do notice he has some uneaten cecals when I give him even 1 extra treat. He is a bit arthritic so I can’t fully tell if they are just ones he missed, but usually he eats them without much issue. It does seem like seniors start to get a more sensitive tummy.

Seniors can also have some trouble keeping weight on though, so if his weight and muscle tone have been stable with his current pellet ration, I wouldn’t reduce it too much. 1/4 cup is a bit on the high end, depending on how big he is though, so you may be able to reduce his pellets a bit.

Is he a larger or smaller breed? If he’s starting to show a lot of signs of arthritis, your vet might prescribe daily metacam.

. . . 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.  

[bastion]

Hi! Yes sorry, to clarify: over the last few years he’s had a few uneaten cecals here and there, nothing too majorly noticeable. Only in the past couple of days has it been noticeable. The timeline went:

• Moved bunny to Boston from NYC, not too stressful, but this kind of thing is always going to be somewhat stressful
• Did not have pellets so had him on only hay and greens for the last two days
• In those two days, noticed increased production of uneaten cecals
• Dropped back to 1/8 cup of pellets

He is a Dutch bunny weighing in just under 4 lbs.

[DanaNM]

Ok thanks! That’s helpful. I think given he wasn’t getting pellets when you noticed the cecals, it’s prob more stress related. Perhaps traveling made him a bit more sore?

But with his size a 1/8 cup of pellets is probably fine. You could monitor his weight to make sure.

. . . 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.  

[Wick & Fable]

I am also leaning towards not actually reducing pellets and considering some veterinary assessment/recommendations for treating potential arthritic pain which prevents him from eating his cecotropes. As @DanaNM mentions, reducing pellets can be a concern for elderly rabbits — in fact, some owners find it most medically needed to switch to a more alfalfa-based diet in the later years because their rabbit is having difficulty maintaining weight.

While I don’t think this is excess cecotrope production, note that producing excessive cecals is not inherently a bad thing — if your rabbit doesn’t have the need for the additional nutrients, then that’s that. We just clean up the cecotropes. It’s a common occurrence for younger rabbits on alfalfa-only diets. Unless there’s additional signs in the urine/normal poop suggesting an unhealthy imbalance of nutrient intake, I wouldn’t stress too much (though obviously it sometimes makes a mess. See here for safe cleaning methods: https://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Bathing_rabbits )

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.

[bastion]

Thanks guys! I will schedule an appointment to have him seen to as soon as I get back home. For now I’ll keep him close to his usual pellet amount and will monitor his digestion.

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