Sherwood Pellets

[Luna's Mom]

Hello! I started Luna out eating small pets select pellets which she eats just fine. I notice her poop is really dark, pretty much black. I read some where that after switching pellets to sherwood there buns poo turned normal brown color. So I ordered some and started to mix her pellets 1/2 & 1/2. She gets 1/8 cup of pellets in the morning with a sprinkle of dried herbs and 1 oxbo cookie. She has unlimited mixture of timothy, oat, meadow, and botanical hay. Between 7&8 she gets a salad with 4or5 different vegetables and a couple herbs. On Tuesday and Thursday she gets a little bit of a fruit with her salad usually apple, strawberry, or banana. At bed time she gets very small piece of dries mango or papaya or some kind of green in her treat game to get her in her cage for bed. She poops and pees and eats good, they are just really, really dark. Any ideas to what I am doing wrong to make her poop so dark. Thanks in advance and sorry so long.

[vanessa]

I’m also on a 50/50 mix with Sherwood and small pet select pellets. My bunnies poops are darker on Sherwood. I wouldn’t worry about it. I really like Sherwood. I think my bunnies have the best shiniest softest coats while eating Sherwood. Once they are on 100% Sherwood, I’ll start trying the professional Sherwood formula with one pair. Currently, my bunnies get unlimited hay, 1/4 cup pellets, 2 cups mixed salad greens, 1/4 bell pepper, 1/2 celery stick each, and 1 radish, per day. I give them strawberry tops when I’m cutting strawberries for myself, and I use a 1/4-inch banana slice to hide medicine, if they are on meds. I also give them apple cores when I’m cutting apples for myself, but other than that, I don’t give them fruit on a daily basis. When I’m using parsley or cilantro to cook with, they get the first 4 inches and whatever I don’t use of the bunch. During summer when I can grow veggies, they get a better variety. And Spring appears to be upon us! I’ll be able to grow veggies earlier this year 🙂

[Luna's Mom]

Luna does seem to like sherwood better because she will go through and pick those out first. I don’t think her poo could get much darker, it’s pretty much black. Other than the color it’s shaped and sized good. I was also thinking about growing her a garden. When buying her a good variety of greens from the store they tend to go bad before she can eat them all. I guess she might just be a dark pooper! Did you notice any chalky urine with the shewood pellets? I forgot to mention that too.

[vanessa]

It’s interesting that she prefers the pellets. I had to get mine slowly used to the pellets. Most rabbits don’t initially like them, although some do, because they don’t have the molasses (sweet) used as a binding agent.
No chalky urine.
Guinivere used to have chalky urine when I was giving her lots of kale, but the other 3 rabbits had the same amount of kale with no chalky urine. When I cut back on the kale and collards, no more chalky urine, and none with the Sherwood.

I like to go to our grocery store and buy the mixed greens. Having 4 bunnies and birds that all eat greens, I can get the 1lb bag. For one bunny, I’d get the smaller bag. I think it is about 6 ounces. The mixed bags typically have 4 or 5 different greens. I get bell peppers 5 or 6 at a time, and they stay pretty fresh. Celery holds for a while too. Moisture keeps it fresh. I think the radish bunches would get slimy leaves pretty quickly, so I wouldn’t buy a bunch of radishes for 1 bunny. Cucumbers don’t stay fresh. Oh hey tomatoes! Lancelot Loooooves tomatoes.

However, I don’t think veggies are necessary. I think pellets and hay are just fine. I use veggies for variety, interest, and treats.

I find that orchard hay and alfalfa (Sherwood) make dark poops. As long as they are plentiful and normal in size and texture with no mucous, I wouldn’t worry.

[vanessa]

By the way – dark poop isn’t “wrong”, and light poop isn’t “normal” or “best”. The color of the poop is determined by the type of hay/veggie that they eat. It’s the quantity, size and texture that are important.

[Luna's Mom]

Thank you for letting me know that. I feel like a poop inspector since she came. She was 3 to 6 months when she came to my house. They were unsure exactly how old she was. I hadn’t had a bunny since I was a kid and it was way different. I’ve gotten so attached so quick it scares me if the littlest thing is different. Sometimes there is so much information it becomes hard to weed it out! The only things I have found she don’t like is watercress, dill, parsley, and dandelion leaf fresh. That was one reason I wanted to try sherwood, they seemed a tad bit healthier ingredients. Her timothy hay is sps, the meadow hay is from bingingbunny, oat and botanical is from oxbo.

[vanessa]

We are indeed poop inspectors 🙂 When I was a park ranger in South Africa, we would look at wild animal poop and pee to determine the sex of the animal that had left the poop/pee, it’s social status, and what it had eaten 🙂 That involved breaking open the dry antelope poops. If they were moist – I would break them open with a stick. Otherwise we had no qualms using our hands 🙂 Antelope poop was like bunny poop – herbivorous in nature. Protein poop from carnivores was a different story. I never touched that with my hands.

[Luna's Mom]

It’s really a crazy thing how much can be told from poo and pee! It’s actually quite interesting! I grabbed Luna some tomatoes last night at the grocery store so we are going to try those today and see what she thinks. She loves to eat I did buy one of those containers that are suppose to help vegetables stay fresh longer. It did keep the cilantro nice over a week and the romaine hearts stayed crispy for the whole 7 days and then they were finished so I dont know how much longer it would have kept. The downside is the price and they really don’t hold a lot. Hopefully savings in keeping the greens fresher will make up the difference! I’m going to try it out a little longer before I get another one.

[sarahthegemini]

Luna’s Mum – my two bunnies eat exactly the same and yet Buttercup’s poops are golden brown usually whereas Peanut’s are much much darker.

[vanessa]

When i buy mixed greens, i always look at the back bottom of the grocery shelf first. They stack the oldest veggies top front, and the freshest veggies bottom back. If there is a sell by date, i look for the freshest veg that way too. Even the cilantro – dont grab the first one on the shelf. Pick the one at the back. If your lettuce syill has the root base/stump, keep the leaves moist. If it is plucked leaves in a human salad bag, swap it to a ziplock bag and roll the air out of it.

[Luna's Mom]

So funny you mention grabbing from the back because last night was the first time I really ever noticed that with produce and such. It was when I went to get her some thyme, the first 1 was a wilted and brown looking so I kept digging. I usually buy her the romaine hearts with the root attached. It kind of depends on what they have. I usually shop at meijer but lately there produce and vegetables have been really crappy. I mostly buy organic just because I don’t like things with gmos. I went to kroger last night and was much happier with what they had. From meijer I usually get the prewashed stuff in the plastic tubs because it seems freshest. Who knew there was a learning curve for shopping for bunny food!

[Luna's Mom]

Do you have any tips for cutting her nails the first time? The vet has cut them 2 and it’s coming up time again and I would like to cut them myself. I do my dogs but she is totally different! I only picked her up to look at her incision after she was spade. I just put a treat in her carrier and she hops right in. She is very food motivated! I try to do everything with the least amount of stress on her as possible because I don’t want to scare her into a heart attack or something. She has warmed up to all my animals but the big dog Leo. He just lies at the door and she has stopped running under the bed when she hears him coming. She will actually walk toward him now but not too close. My goal is for her to run around like everyone else. I hate that she is in there on her own. The cat does keep her company sometimes. I am home most of the time so I am in and out of there all day too. My sons room is across the hall and she will get to his door through her tunnel but she turns around and goes back. So hopefully all in good time!! How is your little fellow doing. I had read another post about him. He is very adorable. It’s frustrating when you would do anything to make them better if you just knew what to do. It’s a very good thing he is with someone like you and not someone who wouldn’t go the extra mile to keep him happy and comfy as you can. I hope he is feeling better.

[vanessa]

Thanks, Lancelot is actually doing really well this weekend. He is feeling back to normal again. He will always be deaf and blind and I suppose incontinent too, but it’s good seeing him be able to sit up without wobbling, clean his own ears, etc. After losing one bunny to EC, I’m determined to do everything I can not to let it happen again. I get quite fired up reading other peoples posts about EC bunnies whose treatment was too little to late. I agree with Diana Krempels statement of treat quickly and agressively. EC also causes enough complications that it needs a wholistic approach.

It’s really helpful that your bunny will hop into a carrier. I’m going to try clicker training with Avalon and Morgana to get them to do the same. I ordered a clicker – I’ve hac them for 3 years and they only recently let me pet them. So trimming their nails – is the most challengin. Morgana in particular. She is squirmy, feisty, and when fighting doens’t work, she tries to curl up into her invisible tortoise shell. Lancelot is the easiest to groom. I hold him on my lap, and just snip away. If yoru bunny will let you hold him, and snip one nail at a time – that’s the best way. My other 3 need to be wrapped up in a towel. Clipping nails is probably the think I like the least. I wrap them in a bunny burrito, but when I fold the long edge of the towel over their butt, before rolling them up, I leave a towel-tail so I can pull it out and reach their feet without unwrapping the whole burrito. Once they are wrapped up, they do’t typically struggle too much. They did in the beginning. Morgana is black/brown, so I have a hard time seeign the quick in her nails, and typically judge by the size of the quick in Avalon’s nails. The other buns quicks are easy to see. I use a cat nail clipper, or a small dog clipper. I don’t hold them on their back or trance them, I just hold them upright, and perhaps angled only slightly back, the same angle as the backrest of my couch. They are not tranced in that position. The rest is easy for 3 of the 4. Clip clip clip, and it actually goes really fast. Morgana tries to hide her paws from me, so I cover her face with a dish cloth. If she can’t see me, she thinks I can’t see her. Then I grab one paw at a time. I was nervous the first time. After the second time, I was completely comfortable. I’d cut anybunny’s nails today. The burrito helps, and remembering to leave a tail so I dont’ struggle to open up the foot-end. The don’t like it – none of them. So the quicker I get it done, the less stress it causes. There just isn’t a way to get them to like it. Just like kids and vaccinations. We don’t understand it at the time, but we quickly forgive. When I put them back after cutting their nails, they are very anxious to be back in their room, I give them a treat, and leave them alone for a few minutes, to get over it. About 5 minutes later, all is forgiven.

I think the most important part and the part I was most stressed about, was how to keep them still so I could cut the nails. The burrito with access to the feet – is the key, for bunnies who won’t let you just hold them and cut. If they struggle too much in an upright position, tilt them back untill they stop struggling. Once they start getting used to it, you can slowly bring them back to an upright position.

I can’t let my bunnies run around like you do – my dogs would kill them, The cat is fine with them.

[JackRabbit]

Vanessa, please be careful giving your bunny apple cores — the seeds are poisonous! Best to share a bite that you would also eat!

Btw, we feed Sherwood maintenance pellets to all three of our bunnies and their poops are normal color. I do notice their poops will darken a bit depending on the the hay — soft rich dark green hay produces darker poops while more fibrous 1st cutting hays produce lighter poops.

[vanessa]

Yes don’t worry Jackrabbit, I do knock the seeds out 🙂 The crunchy little “seed house” is what they get, not the seeds.

[vanessa]

I like reading about other people who also use Sherwood pellets, since it can be scary to start them because of the alfalfa and calcium.

[Luna's Mom]

Luna is pretty easy going about everything except picking her up. I will give the burrito a try. She will sit as long as you will pet her and rub her ears.she lets me brush her and she will jump on my back when I am bent over sweeping out her cage. I put her carrier in the room with her for like 2 weeks before her first vet appointment so she could get use to it. I put a little fuzzie cheap bed from target in it and throughout the day I would toss a tiny chunk of something inside it to get her use to getting in . She ended up sleeping in there and everything, I always left the door open. It sems like when bunnies get sick that vets are not as advanced in helping them as cats or dogs. Atleast that is just how it seems. I was lucky to find a good vet for Luna about 45 minutes from my house. Since Luna hasn’t been ill, I haven’t experienced that type of care with them yet. I was super happy with her spay and how smooth it went. The vet my dogs and cat go to don’t treat bunnies so I had to find a new one. I’m glad Lancelot is feeling better this weekend. He seems so sweet it’s heartbreaking to think what he must go through when he is having a bad day. I don’t know if you already know about hay from bingingbunny. It has a really sweet smell to it and it has clovers in it. Luna goes crazy when I get the bag out of the closet. It’s called crazy bunny hay or something like that. I know you said you have tried a lot so you may have already heard of it. I found it on a website for Midwest bun fest, I think that is what it was called. I have bought Luna a few different hays and none of them smelled like that one. I agree about doing everything you can do to help. That’s one scary thing about bunnies it seems like they can be fine 1 minute and not the next. I think it’s better to be safe than to wait things out until I really get to know Luna really well. I think I know her pretty good but then she throws me a curve ball to keep me on my toes!

[Luna's Mom]

Hi, I just wanted to let you know that the name of the website with the sweet smelling hay is actually bingalingstore.com. I was filling Luna’s tissue box this morning and realized I had wrote the name wrong. She also has a hayrack above her litter box, but she eats her hay so much better out of the tissue box!

[vanessa]

Thanks, I’ll give it a try for Lancelot. You mean like a cardboard tissue box? My bunnies would shred it… Lancelot likes to eat off the ground, so I have to give him heavy dishes or he will flip them. And not plates – or he will sit in them and pee.

[Luna's Mom]

Yep just a cardboard tissue box. She did make the opening a bit bigger at the top but she doesn’t eat the cardboard so far. I read somewhere that someone had found a wood tissue box at the dollar tree, I think. It’s probably just easier for her to eat out of the box. I was afraid she would poo all over but did it anyway because I didn’t think she was eating enough hay. Luckily she jumps in her box to poo and jumps back out to eat more!

[vanessa]

Well I just discovered how Morgana gets poop in her food bowl. I can’t find my camera or I would take a pic of it… She had a little pet table with two tiny pellet bowls that I bought off Etsy.com. The bowls must be about 3-inches diameter each, and the are receded into this cute little food-table. She sits on the table, her but hangs over one of the bowls and she poops into it, while eating from the other!

[Luna's Mom]

I had a little giggle from that one! How creative she is! Bunnies have such huge personality with the things they do?. They are so funny and cute.

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