Not as excited about food

[beebun]

These past several days had been a little weird.. Chito still eats, drinks, plays normally, but he doesn’t look too excited about food. Usually he wolves down his veggies in, like, 10 minutes, and his pellets in about 3. Nowadays it takes 20,30 minutes. He would take a pause and lay down, and then resume eating 5 minutes later.

Is he okay? He poops alright, if a little darker and smaller because he’s been eating orchard hay for a while because we all (as in the sum of Indonesian rabbit pawrents) ran out of oxbow Timothy (it has to be imported and it got delayed for a while). Eventually I tried alfalfa King’s Timothy hay, which he eats happily.

Some more context: there had been no major change to his life, but the weather had been consistently bad these days.

Any insight would be so, very appreciated.

[beebun]

Oh and I’ve also started giving him oxbow multivitamin hay tabs. I don’t know if it’s relevant, but maybe someone has similar experiences?

[tobyluv]

Sometimes, when a rabbit is off his feed, it is due to dental problems. Have you noticed any drooling or wet fur around his mouth, or any food falling out of his mouth when he is eating? You mentioned bad weather. Has it been hotter there than normal the last few days? Heat could cause a decrease in appetite. If Chico continues this unusual eating pattern, it would be a good idea to have him checked out at the vet. To do a thorough dental exam, a vet usually has to sedate a rabbit, but you could see what your vet thinks and what he is able to examine without anesthesia first. The vet should of course also check his heart and lungs and determine if there could be any other problems causing this.

[beebun]

No, not really…. Vets compliment Chito’s teeth a lot, but I’ll give it another look!

It’s not been really hot, but there had been more rain. Usually when it rains he would just be hiding more. I don’t believe it can get so cold in tropical Jakarta it would affect Chito negatively..

He still loves to eat btw, he just isn’t too keen on his pellets, which is unusual. He would also choose hay over his veggies, which usually doesn’t happen. My sister did leave the pellet container open for God knows how long (she tends to forget). Chito still eats his favourite, dill leaves, first, but doesn’t quite dig his romaine.

Thanks, though, Tobyluv! I’ll keep an eye on the boy’s teeth and rush to the vet if there’s any signs of drooling.

[beebun]

Update: there’s a bit more cecotropes than usual

[Author]

Messages