1 Year Old Bun – Weight Gain, Doesn’t Like Hay, & Poopy Bum

[peppercorn_factory]

Hi all!

I’m new on here, but have had my little bun Pepper for just over a year now.

In the last month she has put on a little pudge, at first I thought just a growth spurt considering she is still young.

But, she really has been chowing down on her pellets a lot more than usual. She’s always loved them, but she’s going through them pretty quick these days!

Since I got her at 7 weeks old, she has never been much of a fan of hay. I’ve tried different varieties, but she has a nibble and then ignores it. She will wait for greens or pellets rather than eating hay. Any suggestions? It feels so mean to take away pellets, but I think maybe I should. Has anyone else had this issue?

Also, the last couple of weeks she’s gotten messy and hasn’t been cleaning her butt. This has never been an issue before, so I have cut out treats in case that was making things a bit messy down there for her. I’ve had to give her 2 baths (bottom end only) this week just to clean her up so it doesn’t get matted. Any suggestions on this?! I don’t think either of us want to go through this bathing routine on a regular basis!

While cleaning her rear end, I got a close up of her lady garden lol. On either side of her bits I noticed a little brown bit, same size and colour on each side. At first I thought they were actually dried squashed bits of poop, but when I touched them she kicked me away. So upon googling, I think they may be her glands? Can anyone confirm or deny this?! I’d hate to try to remove “dried poop” and learn that it was actually an attached body part!! I’ve seen mixed reviews on cleaning these glands, but she is due for her calicivirus vaccination this month so I’ll get some vet advice too.

Any advice on my various issues would be greatly appreciated!!

Thanks

Anna & Pepper

[Mikey]

Make sure you are feeding her the right amount of pellets. I believe its something like 1/4th of a cup of pellets for every 6 pounds of rabbit. Hay should make up the majority of her diet. Youll want to cut down on pellets it sounds like and add in more hay. Veggies and greens can be helpful too. Perhaps you can mix the greens in with the hay to get her more interested

You might want to go to a vet to get her checked out the sooner the better. A reoccurring messy bum is not healthy. It sounds like something might be going on in her stomach or intestines

[Theodorusrex]

I have no experience on the glands front I’m afraid. My bun Theo went through a picky stage of not eating enough/any hay and we have slowly reduced his pellet intake to no more than about 2 tbsp of pellets in the morning. He wolfs these down but since we’ve reduced him he is eating so much more hay – we have to top up his litter tray a couple of times a day because the hay is gone (he has a hay bin in his pen as well but he particularly likes to eat hay when he poops). How much of his pellets are you feeding him? I notice Theo’s poops are bigger and lighter in colour and generally more healthy looking since we reduced his pellets. Her messy bottom may be because she is producing too many cecals due to having too rich a diet i.e. too many pellets and not enough hay. If your bun is litter trained and you don’t already try putting plenty of hay in her litter tray – this is where Theo eats 80% of his hay from.

[Bam]

It sounds like plugged up scent glands. You can clean them with a q-tip dipped in veggie oil. The stuff in the glands has a strongly unpleasant smell and can be hard and look like 2 black seeds. This is a nice video: Clean scent glands

Mt bunny Bam once had plugged up scent glands but it seems he’s gotten better about cleaning them himself since. 

Recurring poopy butt is also known as ISC; intermittent soft cecotropes. The best remedy is coarse fiber, i e hay. Sometimes the bunny can benefit from a probiotic so as to get a little help with her GI microbiota (the microorganisms that live in the gut and do a lot of helpful work there). Here is an article from the House Bunny Society on ISC: poopy butt

It can be very tricky to find a hay that your bun actually likes, but hay is vital for her health, both her tummy-health and her teeth. Rabbit teeth grow all the rabbit’s life and need to be worn down constantly or they will get overgrown. Bunny teeth can grow almost an inch in a month! (2 cm, 4/5 of an inch). I’ve had to try many types of hay with my buns and eventually found a type they actually adored – then I ran into trouble last fall when my supplier of this really good, leafy organic hay went out of business. I now have Oxbow oat hay and orchard that I serve in small wads because that entices them to eat more. 

[peppercorn_factory]

Thanks Mikey and Theodorusrex
I didn’t realise pellets had to be restricted that much. Pepper has a little bowl full of pellets that she grazes on whenever she wants. So I will try your idea and just give her a couple of tablespoons worth in the mornings (she only weighs about 3lbs). She will hate me for it but hopefully it will help her out!
She eats plenty of fresh greens, and I always give her variety with veges etc. I’ll try mixing some of her greens with the hay like you suggest.
Putting some in her litter is a good idea too, thank you for the tips guys!

[peppercorn_factory]

Thanks for the video bam! That was actually really helpful. So I guess the little brown bits that look like seeds that I thought were poop are actually the gland secretions that need to be removed. This should be really fun to do since she kicks like crazy when I touch down there! Can’t blame her much haha.
Sounds like my bun has lots and lots more hay in her future, much to her dismay I’m sure!

[jerseygirl]

With a couple of my rabbits, I have to clear out the gland sometimes. I use gloves (because it smells!!) and a q tip moistened with mineral oil. You can use warm water instead, if you prefer.

When reducing her pellets, do so gradually. You don’t want a rabbit dropping weight too fast. Can you estimate how much she is eating each day? Does she eat the whole bowl or leave some?

Regardless if the pellets are causing the soft poo or not, cutting down on pellets will hopefully encourage her eating more hay.

I want to re-emphasise what bam said about teeth. I really recommend your vet get a good look at her molars. Her avoidance of hay, messy poo and not cleaning herself so well are all pointers to a dental issue.

I had a rabbit (Jersey) who never took to eating hay. She did eventually develop some molar Spurs. Even after having those trimmed, she still didn’t go for hay. In the end, I resorted to giving her hay pellets. They were larger then normal feed pellets & were 98% hay.
She never had messy poo but also never had normal round poo either. On the hay pellets, she produced more normal rabbit poos for the first time.

By the way, is your username a reference to Peppers poos? Lol
I used to liken Jersey’s to peppercorns sometimes.

[peppercorn_factory]

Thanks jerseygirl! I’d estimate that she eats at least a big handful of pellets each day, so probably a fair bit more than a little bun is meant to. She grazes on them all day long.
She is due for a vet check this month so I will make sure they check her teeth. Fingers crossed she hasn’t developed any issues there.
I’ve tried giving her Oaten Hay which she flat out refuses, so now she’s on a mixture of Meadow Hay and Lucerne.
I know that Timothy is meant to be a good one but I can’t find anywhere here (Australia) to get it as it’s apparently only imported, not grown here.
And yes, my username is about bun poop haha. I originally named her Cocoa, but after a couple of days of seeing the peppercorn production, she was swiftly renamed to Pepper!

[jerseygirl]

Definitely sounds like a no hay diet poo!
Peters do a Timothy/Rye mix if you want to give that a go.

[Edited by jerseygirl]

Pity about the oaten, it’s so much better (and cheaper) for them to have local hay.
You’ll want to wean her off the Lucerne hay also as they can be too rich. Poor girl, having all her goodies taken away.

Some rabbits will just eat grass over hay. I’d wash it well if you pick any for her. Im somewhat paranoid at the moment giving them feed from outside due to the virulent calici virus that’s around.

[peppercorn_factory]

Oh! I forgot to mention that she does love eating fresh grass that I pick in my back yard. So is that just as good for her teeth?
I had no idea that grass carries the virus, I thought it was just mosquitos and wild buns?
Pepper doesn’t spend much time outside, I’ve tried taking her out on the grass several times, and she just looks at me like ‘Why am I out here when I have a whole house in there mum?’

[Mikey]

The backstory for your username is awesome! LOL Good luck with all of the weaning and cleaning. She might be grumpy for a few days since all of her favorites are being cut down or taken away. Just make sure she gets a lot of pets so she knows shes not being punished

[Butters]

I think feeding pepper a mixed green salad found at a local store (it has dandelions and other types of lettuce and leaves) Or (for the poop thing) you could see what kind of litter you are using, she may not like it

[Author]

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