Bunny has orange urine on a hay-only diet

[Beanslife]

Lately, my 4 month old bunny has been having orange colored urine. Dark orange, but not necessarily bloody. This started roughly a week ago, when I gave him a few too many dried carrot treats; the color of them matched up with the color of the urine, so I assumed the excess treats were the cause. However, I haven’t given him anything orange since I noticed the orange urine; he has been on a hay diet with no treats and no pellets. The orange urine is still happening! What should I do? Is this normal? He is acting as he always does; he’s doing binkies, eating and drinking as normal. Thank you for your help in advance! 

[Bam]

Bunnies can spontaneously produce orange/red urine. Here’s an article from the House Rabbit Society: rabbit urine

Here’s another one with pictures: rabbit pee medirabbit The top two pics are of normal, healthy bunny urine. 

Since he is a he it’s not a bloody vaginal discharge. It looks like the second pic on the Medirabbit pic.

There are often several types of grasses in a batch of hay, some of which can color the urine even if they aren’t orange to look at. 

[Beanslife]

Thank you for your quick response! He has been eating the same hay every since I adopted him; same brand, same type, same everything, and the orange urine is new. Could the hay still be the cause? 

[Bam]

Rabbits can produce red urine spontaneously, through mechanisms unknown.
Since he’s not a girl and he’s very young, the red coloring is very unlikely to be blood, but you can test by dripping hydrogen peroxide onto a stain. If it foams a lot, it means blood. But in general when you see actual blood in bunny urine it is in the form and shape of red specks or a red blotch in the middle of the pee stain. This is mostly seen in unspayed middle-aged to old female rabbits, because they are prone to disorders of the uterus.
Uniformly red or orange pee looks a bit starling, but it isn’t an observandum. Very often the pee is a much lighter color when it comes out but deepens to a dark red when it’s exposed to air. It’s not a sign of illness at all.

[Author]

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