Why is my bunny leaving his cecals around and not eating them?

[angelachristin]

I posted the other day about poopy butt.  His butt isn’t poopy anymore, but every day around the same time, I am finding uneaten cecotropes in his pen.  He’s a 1-year-old neutered mini lop, I adopted him from a shelter on 11/15.  About a week after I got him, I saw the first one, and at first it was maybe 1 every 3 days or so that I would find.  For the past 3 days, it’s been at least 3 a day, usually broken apart and stepped on.  He has a cage inside his xpen that I leave open with his litter box and water bowl in, and he is leaving the cecals behind his cage on the floor.  Not in the cage, but on the sheet that covers my carpet under the xpen.  They are not mushy (they were the day he had poopy butt, but I cut down on the greens he was getting, and now they seem to be 100% normal looking cecotropes).  He eats no pellets, just hay (timothy, oat hay, and meadow grass) and greens.  I was giving him about a cup of greens for breakfast and another cup for dinner (an assortment including parsley, cilantro, carrot tops, bok choy, kale, spring mix, mint, etc.)  I cut down to once a day after the poop butt incident and a lesser amount, maybe half cup.  yesterday all the greens he had were just 2 small bok choy leaves, a sprig of mint, and maybe 3 sprigs of parsley.  And still he is leaving cecals.  What could be causing this?  He isn’t overweight.  I saw him yesterday reach down to his bum, get one with his mouth and then he dropped it out of his mouth onto the floor and left it.  Other times he is sitting there and then when he hops away, one is sitting where he was.  Any ideas?  he was at the vet on 11/30 and they checked his teeth and said he was fine.  He is still eating boatloads of hay, drinking up a storm and his regular poops are fine and abundant.

[Monkeybun]

He could be sensitive to one or more of the greens. I would stop the greens, and then do one at a time, one type a week. The next week, do a different kind. Rinse and repeat.

[Sarita]

I agree with Monkeybun, I wouldn’t stop the veggies altogether but slowly introduce – I suspect he wasn’t getting veggies in the shelter just the pellets and his gut flora just has to adjust.

Sometimes this is also an indication of dental problems but that is usually in more mature rabbits. and your vet didn’t think it was his teeth anyway.

[angelachristin]

The weird thing is, he wasn’t getting pellets at all in the shelter, they said all the rabbits there eat only hay and greens, they are the ones who told me not to feed pellets because they said it’s not good for them.  She made a list of the greens they were feeding him and told me to feed 4-5 different types a day. 

 I gave him no greens at all today to see if it stops tomorrow.  If it does, I will start back tomorrow night giving him 1 type at a time I guess?

[Sarita]

I would call the shelter as well with your concerns – they sound like they are very rabbit savvy and probably know their rabbits very well. I know they would want to help you solve this.

[angelachristin]

Good idea, I will call tomorrow. The one lady there who did my interview was VERY rabbit savvy, she was amazing.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Yes sounds like it was a very good shelter. Perhaps his tummy is upset with the move? It sounds like you adopted him about three weeks ago?

[angelachristin]

Yes, about 3 weeks.  I don’t know, he was fine for the first week and then it started a little toward the end of last week and now this week it’s just ridiculous.  Maybe it’s the cilantro and parsley…for the first week he mostly was getting kale and spring mix because that is what I had, and some collards and Italian parsley.  Then when I shopped last weekend I got carrot tops and bok choy and cilantro and curly parsley and ever since then this has been happening.  Those are all things they said at the shelter to get for him but maybe it was too much different all at once?  I’ll see how he goes tomorrow and call the shelter too.

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