Hi All,
I am new here (I will have to get some pics of my cuties and post them in the intro forum!). Honey and Luna are 4 month old Holland Lops. One (or both) of them over-produce cecals. Over the past 2 months I’ve done many searches about this and read many related posts (here and on other bunny forums) and it seems that a too-rich diet is the culprit. From certain things I’ve read, it seems Holland Lops are, perhaps, more prone to this sort of issue than other breeds?
When we brought them home, we were doing timothy hay and the pellets from the breeder. I slowly switched over from her pellets to Oxbow Essentials Young Rabbit Food. (The breeder’s pellets were, I believe, something bought in large quantity from Tractor Supply–Purina or another?). At first, we were doing unlimited pellets and unlimited hay (always timothy but sometimes some orchard or oat hay mixed in). No greens yet–I want to wait until they are 6 months.
When I first researched cecals, I started limiting them to 1/2 cup total a day, each. I split 1/4 cup between them in the AM and again in the PM. The rest of the day they have lots of fresh hay (and always plenty of water, of course). This has not stopped the problem.
Here’s my dilemma: They are still young and almost everything I read says to feed unlimited pellets. I cannot imagine limiting their pellets further. In addition, I worry that they aren’t getting enough given they eat a TON of hay (they have hay spread between 3 litter boxes and, in addition, two mangers. I have to fill both mangers at least twice a day!). I know eating a ton of hay is awesome and I don’t want them to *not* eat it. I’m concerned, though, that they are actually starving and not getting enough food.
They are probably 3-4 lbs each and other than the cecal overproduction seem very healthy and happy. Poops are firm and cocoa-puffy. I have a theory that sometimes the extra cecals are because they come when they are snoozing and they ignore them. No idea if this is a good theory (LOL) but I do find many, many of them in the AM up on the 2nd floor of their condo where they sleep. There are others, however, that end up out in the “open” play area during the day.
My options are:
1. Keep things as they are and expect extra cecals.
2. Go back to unlimited pellets and expect a LOT of extra cecals.
3. Further limit pellets.
I’m inclined to stay where we are–I feel like it is middle of the road–they still get pellets and are eating plenty of hay. What are your thoughts?