Smelly Poo

[xnovalentine]

I read somewhere on here that basil makes bunny poo smell — well, i havnt fed lulla any basil but her poos stink. I can smell them a few feet away.

Does anyone else know what may cause odor? I thought that it may be her pellets – they are alphalpha based since she is still pretty young, but maybe she’s outgrowing these pellets and thats why they are smelly? Also – she LOVES parsley and she’s been eating a lot of it lately. I also feed her usualy carrot tops, sometimes a carrot, celery, cilantro (she doesn’t eat much of it), and romaine lettuce. Maybe some of these may cause it? Does anyone have any ideas?

[babybunsmum]

hmmm… i’ve noticed that my bun has some poops that smell strongly & others times they don’t.  this was before i made any changes to her diet.  i thought it had something to do with when she dropped poops to sorta ‘mark territory’ (i think i read this some where).  these arent cecotrops i’m talking about… i mean the normal poops.  is it Lulla’scattered poops that are smelly, or all of them? 

[Pancake]

I have that problem too! I feed pancake parsley,pellets(alfalfa based) and hay.

[xnovalentine]

alll of lullas poos smell! even her bum smells – she was sitting on my chest and gave me the butt thats how i know this lol. Its got to be either the parsley or the alfalfa pellets. they have almost a herby scent to them – but it isint a pleasant herby scent. its like an icky fart after you just ate a bunch of herby things type scent.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hmm, she may have a senstitivity to sugar.  Have her scent glands been cleaned?  Those can get pretty smelly and are in that vicinity. Parsely shouldn’t have anything to do with the smell and actually should make things more pleasant and it is one of the most tolerated vegetables in a rabbit. The protein in the alfalfa could be the culprit, is she getting regular timothy hay?  I am wondering if she is getting enough fiber.

[xnovalentine]

I’ve been concerned with her hay intake — i rarely see her eat it. I’ve tried putting it on top of her litter to a) act as a pee barrier because she is miss soggy butt and b) to encourage her to eat more. I also mix hay in with her greens and she has a diggy box FULL of hay that I havnt seen her jump in lately. I’ve also got a hay rack in her cage, and I even put it in her cage by her bed because i never see her eat it. I’ve tried reg timothy and orchid grass but she seems to not care for either anymore. I’ve been thinking of switching her food to a timothy based pellet, but I know she likes the alfalfa more – so i just want to to eat something with fiber in it.

As for her scent glands — i’m not going to do it! lol but i did make an appointment at the vet on the 19th and made it a point to ask for her bum to be cleaned out lol. so she’ll get that done when we go for her *gasp* spay.

As for the sugar — you may have a point. She does get raisins and carrots probably more than she should, I should maybe cut down on those anyway.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Hmm, it sounds like that is the problem, too much protein and not enough fiber.How old is she now? I think I would start with slowly switching her to a timothy based pellet to try and force her to consume more fiber, especially if her poo is dark and smelly and not light in color with little odor.  If you would still like her to have some alfalfa, you can buy a small bag of the alfalfa hay and offer a small handful of it with her regular hay.

Here is an article with trying to get a rabbit to eat more hay:

If Your Bunny Won’t Eat Hay

[MooBunnay]

The time that I have noticed that buns get the “poopy butt” is too much protein as Scarlet Rose mentioned. See if her tips about cutting out some of the sugar and alfalfa will help. I would recommend cutting out treats all together for a time frame like a week or two and see if that changes anything. It will probably take at least a few days for her body to adjust to the no treats and for you to see if there are any changes.

[xnovalentine]

another thing i might add — ive noticed she is eating her litter (aspen litter), maybe she’s trying to get fiber from this. I try the timothy pellet tonight and take away her hay and see if this might also help the situation.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Don’t take away the alfalfa pellets all at once.  You need to switch slowly.  Mix 3/4 alfalfa with 1/4 timothy for a week, then 1/2 & 1/2 for a week, then 1/4 alfalfa and 3/4 timothy the next week and then the week after that, you should feed 100% timothy pellets.  A sudden switch can cause stomach upset and more problems, so you’ll want to do it gradually.

[poopy]

on a previous discussion on this forum we concurred that basil does make the scent glands/poop more fragrant (kind of like a skunk) i notice it when i feed my Medusa basil.

also try cleaning out the scent glands as members have suggested

[cerise]

Sugar from carrots and raisins make for one heck of a stinky litterbox! Sugar and too much protein mixed together can give your rabbit “poopy butt” which will lead them to not wanting to eat their hay and can also cause other problems (stasis / gi tract issues.) Rabbits need very little protein and only the tiniest amount of natural sugar (raisins sometimes have added sugar in the form of fructose, corn syrup, dextrose, maltose, or almost anything with an -ose, so be careful.) If her litter doesn’t look like hard little round dirt clods then she’s having food issues most definitely. Some rabbits, when they get older, cannot eat very much in the way of many alfalfa-based pellet foods at all (or sometimes, ANY pellets) without causing them intestinal stress, so I would definitely agree with Scarlet_Rose about slowly switching to timothy pellets first before attempting to remove pellets from your bunny’s diet (which you might need to do.) One more thing about pellet foods — some commercial brands add fruit or sugar and extra animal fats in the form of protein (nasty!) to the pellets in order to make the rabbits ‘like’ to eat them, so you may want to check the ingredients / nutritional information on your pellets to see how much sugar and protein they contain (protein should be NO higher than 14%!) Make sure your pellets have at LEAST 18% fibre/fiber.

Also, if the hay gets wet/damp at ALL, throw it out. Wet hay can be VERY dangerous to your bunny and she might be avoiding the hay because it’s ‘wet’ and she doesn’t want to get sick (which is why she might also be trying to eat her litter.)

What kind of hay is she eating? If she’s older than six months, you’ll probably want to make sure she has oaten hay or timothy hay instead of lucerne or alfalfa hay, which is for younger than six months.

My vet always tells me to give my rabbit unlimited hay, 2-4 ‘cups’ of fresh vegetables, and a MAX of 1/4 ‘cup’ of pellets (since she’s a mini-rex — any bunny under 3Kg or 7lbs) — with treats given sparingly (two slices of a carrot, two halves of a cashew, a peanut or two.)

[babybunsmum]

i am in need of advice in this category too, so i’ll just chime into this thread if thats ok…

about a month ago now i adjusted Baby’s diet (5 lb 7yr old lop) to 1/4 cup of pellets /day, 2 cups of greens and unlimited hay.  (before i was giving her less greens, unlimited pellets & unlimited hay).  she never ate that much hay, which i realize now is because of the pellets being unlimted.  when i made this change i expected her hay consumption to increase a fair bit but it did not.  so i thought i’d try a hay blend with her & see if she liked it more than the timothy.  funnily enough… in the space of 4 days from making this decision to actually picking up some hay blend she started eating a LOT more hay.  to the point where for the last few days she’s eaten ALL of the hay i put out & is begging for more!  (i was limiting the amount set out hoping that feeding her several ‘fresh’ hunks a day would encourage more eating).  i went ahead with the hay blend anyways and now she has ‘poopy butt’.  thats the only dietary change, so i assume its from the hay blend, which she seems no more or less fond of than the timothy at this early point.  my question is this… will her system get used to it or is it more like "once a poopy butt… ALWAYS a poopy butt"?

here’s some product info from the bag of the hay blend (they also have a fact sheet http://www.bournefreefarms.ca/PDF/Technical%20Information.pdf see page 3 for grass types) :

Crop is herbicide, pesticide, and preservative free.

12% min. crude protein

1.5% min. crude fat

40% min. crude fibre

15% max. moisture

 

[Scarlet_Rose]

If it is the hay that causes the upset, try to just mix it in with the regular hay. It could be stress from the change or just that it doesn’t agree with her and it may be something that you eliminate from her diet. I haven’t seen a hay blend like that will all the grass in it. Normally too much yard-type grass (fresh) like fescue & bluegrass can cause this problem so I am wondering if the dry does too now.

[babybunsmum]

thats my suspicion… i’m going to give her a wee bit a day with her timothy (still giving her the timothy) and see if it continues.  i’m just really glad she’s eating so much hay now!  thanks scarlet_rose

[Scarlet_Rose]

No problem! I am glad to hear she is too!

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