Tiny, Infrequent poops

[Rain]

I recently switched Rain’s hay and went from Forti-Diet (I think it’s a Kaytee Brand) to Oxbow. I bought a bag of Orchard Grass and  a bag of Botanical. Rain likes the Orchard grass I think, and won’t touch the Botanical. He will eat it, but the problem is with poop. I’m not sure exactly how much he’s eating. I have a feeling that Oxbow’s pellets are causing problems with Rain because they have Soy and Oat flour and a bunch of things that I don’t exactly think are okay for bunnies, even though I know a lot of their other rabbit things are good. Anyways, his poops are suddenly way less and they are dark and tiny. The good thing is that when I open them they are dry and crumbly,and are golden particle things inside, which probably means he eats his hay. I’ve given him just a little pellets today when I came home from school, because I totally freaked when I saw that there was hardly any poop in there. I wanted to give him something to eat so that not eating doesn’t make it worse. He ate every last pellet. I also noticed that half of his hay was still in his litter box. Yet whenever I put a strand of hay in front of him, he eats all of it. I decided to give him a litter area outside of his cage for today to monitor everything. I gave him a box with plenty of hay, a little bit of pellets, and then a bowl of cold water. He just ate pellets right now so I don’t expect him to eat hay for an hour or so. He produced three normal sized poops that were black with little portions of brown in color. Inside was hair strands and pellet mush, and some hay strands. I think he might be on the verge of GI Stasis, so I’m going to brush his hair. I didn’t know he was molting, because when I pull on his fur, none comes out, yet when I brush him, a bunch is left on the brush. I’m in agreement with my dad that if he doesn’t get better by the end of today, then he will be taken to a vet tomorrow evening, as my father has work till 5 and I have school until 4. Any suggestions for me? What should I do to help him until then? How can I increase hay consumption without starving him and worsening the problem? Please help!

[Deleted User]

If he’s on the verge of Stasis, getting him to eat anything is super important. It doesn’t have to be hay. Feel his belly. Does it feel hard and very rounded? If it does, give him some belly massages and get some baby gas drops for him. This will help to push out any gas that’s bottled up.

[sarahthegemini]

Not being rude but if you suspect he’s on the verge of stasis and doesn’t perk up by the end of today, you cannot really afford to wait till tomorrow evening to seek help.

Having said that, if he’s eating strands of hay when you put them in front of him, keep doing that. Is he drinking plenty?

[Rain]

Okay, so eating anything at all is good. He’s drinking good amounts of water. I’m going to try feeling his belly and give him a massage. He won’t still long enough for me to do it. Also, I can’t pick him up.
The only rabbit vet in the town that I know of isn’t available today. I can’t take him early tomorrow because my parents would never let me skip school for an animal, especially since I’ve skipped a lot the past week. They aren’t emotionally attached to animals at all and don’t understand people who are.It’s just how most adults in my culture are. There’s nothing I can do at all about that. I can on the other hand go out and buy the necessary supplies needed to help him. I’ve heard baby gas drops are good for this stuff, so I will definitely go buy that. I can also go get Critical Care if he stops eating. The only store with Critical Care closes at 8 pm. Currently, he is eating all his pellets, and I gave him a little oats. All I have for him to eat right now is hay, pellets, oats, and carrot/dill treats. I didn’t get veggies because of the E. Coli outbreak.
I fully brushed him twice to pick up as much fur as possible. His cage is also clean. What else can I do?
If tomorrow morning, he is in an extremely urgent situation, I will beg my parents as much as possible and do what I can.

Edit: His stomach is not hard. It feels normal. Do you guys think this is because of his litter box changes recently? I was using cardboard boxes that I had to change out frequently before yesterday. Now he has a clear plastic box. He’s changed a lot of boxes in the past month because I’ve been worried about the cardboard soaking up too much urine and feces and getting smelly too quick. Now he has a permanent box, because it’s plastic. Do you think these changes are too stressful for him and causing him to go through this? 

(He’s pooped like ten more pellets now. Half of them are normal and dark and the other half are tiny and dark.)

[DanaNM]

Does he get any greens????

Offer wet leafy greens, hydration is very important. Don’t wait until he stops eating to give critical care, as it provides nutrition and hydration.

I wouldn’t feed any more treats or oats unless it’s just to gauge his appetite.

I don’t think the litter box has much or anything to do with it, more likely due to the changes in diet you mentioned. Rapid diet changes can cause GI problems, even if the new diet is better for the bunny.

. . . 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.  

[Rain]

Ohhhh noooo! I don’t have any more of the old hay! I can’t give him a slow change right now. I thought it was okay to just give him new hay. That’s what I was told!
I just came home with some green leaf lettuce and gave him a leaf and a half. I’ll give him another leaf before bedtime.
As for critical care, none of the stores around me at this time have any.
Yeah, I just give him oats on his hay to make him eat more of it but he just picks through the hay for the oats and doesn’t touch it again. He’ll nibble on some strands of hay, and the featherheads in the Botanical, but not more than that. He devoured the veggies and pellets though. His poops are increasing steadily though. I still can’t tell if he eats his hay or just shoves it all around the litter box to make it look like he did. I’m still monitoring everything.
Thank you DanaNM I’ll be sure to give plenty of greens until things are normal again. I’m not sure if this is GI stasis. He’s eating everything, but it seems like he just doesn’t like his hay. How can I get him to eat his hay?

[DanaNM]

I don’t think they hay was a problem (unless he doesn’t like the new kind as much), I was thinking more that the pellet switch, maybe combined with no greens?

But maybe I read your post incorrectly! Sorry I thought you said you switched from Kaytee pellets to Oxbow?

My current bunnies tend to like “crunchy” hay over softer hay, so they prefer first cut timothy over orchard grass, but it depends on the bunny.

At any rate, that’s very good that he ate his veggies and pellets with gusto, and his poops are increasing. Keep pushing wet greens (you can even give him some extra given the circumstances) and hay.

If things get back to mostly normal and he still isn’t eating the hay, it might be a bad bag, or he might not like that type! Or there’s always dental issues, but I think if he was eating hay before and not this new stuff, it’s prob the hay itself.

If he’s not close to normal tomorrow I would still see a vet.

. . . 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.  

[Rain]

It seems things are almost normal. He’ll eat anything but his hay. He’ll pick through the pile and find some occasional tasty strands but that’s it. It seems like good, fresh hay, so I don’t think it’s a bad bag. He probably just doesn’t like the type. Do you think if I buy him Oxbow Timothy he’ll eat it? His past hay was timothy and he loved it. The only reason I switched is because of the bad quality. Will he eat the same type of hay, even if it’s a different brand? I can’t go out and buy any for a while, probably not until Thursday or the weekend. My parents aren’t happy with this at all. What will I do with the hay that he won’t eat? I’m not sure if pet stores accept returns or not.

[Wick & Fable]

Personally I do not feed Wick oat hay anymore. He became very selective and only ate the seed heads and would not eat anything else. He also randomly stopped liking orchard hay, so now he just gets Oxbow Timothy hay stacks. He likes the stacks better than the loose hay.

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.

[Bam]

Do you serve some hay in his litterbox (or within reach from his litterbox)? Buns often like to munch on hay when they go to the bathroom.

You don’t absolutely have to use Oxbow hay. Maybe you could find some Timothy that isn’t Oxbow or Kaytee, if you’ve had bad luck with the Kaytee. Hay must of course smell good, but it doesn’t have to be very expensive. Oxbow botanical has Timothy in it, so maybe that’s why he likes that a little bit at least. Hay doesn’t have to be switched out gradually they way pellets should be. What Dana means is probably that if he stopped eating hay when he got the new hay, you could mix old with new just so he still gets hay in him. But if all old hay is gone, that’s obviously not an option. It’s very good that he takes a few strands when you hand feed him, keep that up

Oxbow has a variant of pellets without soy and wheat and molasses. It’s called Garden Select. You could switch to that later on.

Instead of Critical Care you can soak pellets in water and feed with a syringe. You can mix it with something good-tasting like mashed banana or baby fruit purée. Some buns will even eat that type of mash from a plate or spoon.

[Rain]

Yes, I always put the hay on one side of the litterbox.
I’m happy to report that I saw him munching on his orchard grass for at least ten minutes. And also about ten normal, good sized poops in those minutes. I had given him a leaf of lettuce before that, so that helped probably. I also saw thirty plus good sized poops when I got home. I’m giving like three leaves of lettuce a day until he gets better. Is that alright or is it too much? I gave him two before this happened, so it’s only a little bit different. I’m just trying to get everything out of his system so that it doesn’t sit there and turn in to a mass or something, like what happens in GI Stasis.
I’m currently not giving any pellets because I’m scared that they are going to make it worse. I know that with Rain, oats and wheat kind of things stop diarrehea which probably means it will do the opposite for when he doesn’t have enough poos.
I’ll try out the Garden Select, but it’ll probably take a while because I just switched him to Oxbow Adult pellets. I’ll definitely be sure to look for those though.
For the hay stacks, how long does it take for Wick to finish one? How many come in the box? I have a feeling I might have to do the same for Rain because he’s so picky. Well, I mean, now he’s eating the hay, but I feel he’ll probably stop soon because he’ll get bored.
Because I already know he accepts orchard grass and loves timothy, next time I go pet shopping, I’ll get a bag of the hay blends. That has both of them. The botanical is a no-no, and Rain’s already super selective so no oat hay either.
I’ll try to make this mush thing. I’ll definitely do it if poops or eating decreases. Luckily, Rain is getting better. I think the problem was the sudden change in the hay, and my bad decision to not get any timothy. I’ve learned my lesson. The hay blends will be good right, because there’s something familiar along with the new hay.

[Wick & Fable]

I don’t have a full box to reference right now, but I believe there are 6 stacks in each box. I start with one stack, and typically when there’s half of that left I’ll start another stack so there’s a mix of newer and older hay, and also because you want to use up the stacks in a timely manner or they smell less fresh! I pull the stacks apart complete for Wick because he can’t pull them apart with his short/crooked front teeth.

One entire box lasts, at the shortest, 2.5 weeks for Wick. It has varied slightly, depending on Wick’s eating and also if he happens to pee on a pile and I need to throw away hay rather than reuse it.

I think, if you decide to do stacks, you can try doing one disc at a time, or, do what I do which is start with one, then once that’s been exhausted, mix it with pieces of a new one. Like I said I pull them apart for Wick due to his dental, but you may not have to do that unless you find rain isn’t putting in the effort to eat. The box instructions does say that you should pull each stack and break it a bit to get it started.

The hay stacks can hurt when you pull on them though since all the hay is so pointy, haha.

For Wick, the hay in hay stacks is much more appealing than the Timothy loose hay. Unsure why, but he would overlook so much loose hay, while with the stacks, I’ll literally see him spend 1minute to munch down a nice clump of hay. It’s amazing.

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]

As with any hay transition though, the initial reaction may not be foretelling. For both oat hay and the stacks, Wick was pretty meh, but after a couple days, he really munched down. A box of hay stacks is cheaper than the large bag of Timothy hay I used to buy for Wick.

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.

[Rain]

Yes, I think I’ll definitely try these Hay Stacks! Rain’s being incredibly picky right now. Unless he wants his old, dusty hay back, which I’m not going to do for him, because that hay is not good. For Rain, I have to go buy new hay every week. Two weeks is a lot better!
I think Rain likes his hay, but like Wick, for the first couple days, he wasn’t really digging it. It’s hard for me to know which side he likes to eat from though! Usually, his litter box is half hay and half litter, but he keeps shoving the hay to new sides every day, so I can’t tell where I should put it. The hay I put in the normal area was covered in poop and pee when I came back from school, which is probably why he didn’t eat it. I put it in the other side though, and he ate it. He keeps shoving it back to his pee and poo area and it wastes a lot of the hay. Which gives me a good excuse to tell my parents why we have to go shopping again, because I do need to try out the other types of hay. But it does waste money and good food, because Oxbow is a little pricey.
Thanks Wick for all the info! I’ll be sure to try out some of the stacks. They see
By the way, does anyone know if Amazon sell fresh supplies? I’ve seen that they have some great prices for hay and stuff, but I’m not sure if they sell fresh things or not. Then again hay can’t exactly be fresh because it’s dried grass. And it’s good for years. But I don’t know if the stuff Amazon sells is from like ten years ago or something.

[DanaNM]

Do you have a hay rack? That usually helps with hay waste.

The ones sold for bunnies are usually too small (and expensive for what they are….), so I use a rack meant to hold toilet paper rolls, similar to this: https://i5.walmartimages.com/asr/da185cfb-8574-4d55-8229-2b88dc873689_1.704718d7830274c6ae4cc695660f49f2.jpeg?odnHeight=450&odnWidth=450&odnBg=FFFFFF

You can also use a tissue box with the plastic removed or another cardboard box with a hole cut out, attached to the side of the cage with a zip tie or clamp.

I am a little confused as to why you don’t try Oxbow timothy? You went from one timothy brand to a completely different type of hay. Maybe he just wants timothy over orchard?

. . . 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.  

[Rain]

My local pet store doesn’t have any Oxbow timothy. They have EVERY OTHER type of hay. What luck!
I do know that they have a mix of timothy with something else. And timothy stacks. Basically everything except plain normal timothy hay. I’ll try both the mix and the stacks. If Oxbow is just not working, I’ll try Small Pets Select. I think he just likes timothy, because it seems he doesn’t like the sweeter or softer hays.

[DanaNM]

Ahhh I get it now!

. . . 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.  

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