Red pee — when is it bad?
For the most part, if your rabbit has red pee then there is nothing to worry about. While it’s not necessarily a ‘normal’ rabbit urine color, it’s rarely a sign of any health concerns.
If the rabbit pee is a uniform, consistent red color (bright or dark red), it is almost certain that the coloring is not from blood. It’s rare for rabbit urine to have blood in it, but if it does the blood will more likely appear in splotches, rather than uniformly throughout the urine.
What are the main causes of red rabbit urine?
- Antibiotics: sometimes rabbit pee changes color when they are taking an antibiotic treatment.
- Cold weather: When the temperature first starts to drop in the fall, some rabbits will inexplicably have red pee for a few days.
- Diet: If a rabbits diet is high in beta carotene (carrots, spinach, etc.) or red berries (strawberries, raspberries, etc.), their pee may become a red color.
Hydrogen peroxide test
If you are still worried that there might be blood in your rabbits pee, or the color has not returned to a golden or amber color after a few weeks, you can perform a hydrogen peroxide test to determine if there is any blood in your rabbit’s urine.
Get a sample of your rabbits pee and pour a little bit of hydrogen peroxide on it. Hydrogen peroxide shouldn’t react to plain urine, but if there is blood present, the mixture will start to foam up.
