robeyw
Active member
There is a lot of discussion of excess calcium causing bladder sludge. Some of this indicates that this is a pasty material settling in the bladder which interferes with urination while other discussion seems to refer to a white particulate suspended in the urine. How can I tell if I am feeding the correct amount of calcium? In Pet Rabbit Feeding and Nutrition, J. A. Lowe gives the acceptable range as .5 to 1.0% DM with .6% preferred for the adult non pregnant, non lactating rabbit. In post 239819, a minimum dayly intake of 73mg/lb of body weight is given. Some formulated foods give a factor of 2 range for calcium content while there is a range of values for natural foods.. My rabbit has always had milky white urine which forms a precipitate on sitting regardless of calcium intake. Some means of knowing if the rabbit is being fed properly. I my attempt to get clear urine I reduced the calcium to a range of .35 to .54% DM which is 55 to 86 mg/lb body weight (probably too low) with no obvious change in urine. At this level, the top 1 cm of a column has cleared in 4 hours and a gelatinous precipitate which dissolves in HCl has formed in 24 hours so I think it is calcium but would not form sludge in the rabbit. If I look at a simple diet of Oxbow adult rabbit food plus grass, I get a range of roughly .35 to .6% calcium (assuming a range of .32 to .5% for grass) which has a potential of being too low. How would you normally manage this?
