Pellet and poo troubles

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EnglishSpot

EnglishSpot

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My litter is now five weeks old, they're in grow-out munching down hay and water like the little rabbits they are. However, every time I introduce pellets (the same ones they had when hanging with momma) I get soft squishy poos that are smeary and sticky. I take pellets away and provide hay and then their poos turn into normal dry berries. I introduce the pellets again and the cycle continues.

What gives? What am I doing wrong?
 
When you reintroduce the pellets, do you phase them in slowly? Try feeding them the hay first so they are not ravenous when they get the pellets. I would also suggest you get some large-flake kitchen oatmeal (like Quaker Old-Fashioned but no-name will be cheaper) and feed some of that along with the pellets.

There is also the possibility that the soft poops you are seeing are unformed cecotropes. I recommend this article:
http://www.bio.miami.edu/hare/poop.html
and particularly the section titled Unformed Cecotropes: Mushy or Runny Stool

Good luck sorting this out! :clover:
 
I just dealt with this... cropped up suddenly right around 4 weeks. On the advice of forum members, I fed them only hay and water for 2 days, then reintroduced pellets, mixed with 'old fashioned' oats and some probiotic powder.

I have not seen any mushy poop butts since then... however....

I did have one kit aspirate and nearly choke to death on the pellet mix. I think this was due to a combination of factors: The kits were in a feeding frenzy for the pellets, the dust from the probiotic powder and, it seems, the oats contribute to it as well.

The kit aspirated two days ago. I gave them pellets and oats yesterday (no probiotic) and although none of them aspirated like the one kit, I heard several give a cough while eating. Today I stopped adding oats to mix. I didn't have one kit 'cough' on their food today (and believe me, I was watching them carefully!). I don't know if it would be helpful to very slightly wet the food to prevent aspiration, or if that would potentially make it worse. I'm just giving a head's up that if you do this, WATCH THEM CAREFULLY when they eat.

Good luck!!
 
Thanks for the replies!

The babies get plenty plenty of hay and I have never seen hay disappear so fast! I do mix the oatmeal with the pellets, and I hadn't correlated the cecotropes until Maggie pointed out it. I haven't noticed sneezing with the oatmeal (as a baseline for you Syberchick).

When folks refer to diarrhea in rabbits on this forum, is it the same consistency as human diarrhea as compared to the softness of smeared cecotropes? Is rabbit diarrhea the consistency of peanut butter, or is it watery? I hope to god I never have to find out in real life, but sometimes ignorance is a killer.

I'll post a picture in a little bit for reference.
 
EnglishSpot":8naaebk5 said:
I do mix the oatmeal with the pellets, and I hadn't correlated the cecotropes until Maggie pointed out it. I haven't noticed sneezing with the oatmeal (as a baseline for you Syberchick).
Click to expand...

Thanks - as you probably remember, I've had a fear of Pasteurella, but I feel 'cautiously optimistic' right now, since none of the kits seem to have any sign of mucous (aside from the one who aspirated) and I now think (hope) that the issues of coughing/sneezing while eating was a combination of the powder, the dry oats and the fact that they were diving into the feed so heartily. Obviously, I'm keeping a close eye on everything.

EnglishSpot":8naaebk5 said:
When folks refer to diarrhea in rabbits on this forum, is it the same consistency as human diarrhea as compared to the softness of smeared cecotropes? Is rabbit diarrhea the consistency of peanut butter, or is it watery? I hope to god I never have to find out in real life, but sometimes ignorance is a killer.

I'll post a picture in a little bit for reference.
Click to expand...

I believe that true 'diarrhea' is watery. What I saw with my 'mushy butt' kits was basically just mooshed up cecotropes. It had that particular smell and when I washed it off, it actually came apart as a mixture of soft and hard pellets, if that helps.
 
I don't take my little ones away from mom before 7 weeks..I have only had one case of messy butt and it was cecotropes, so after a warm booty bath and blow dry everything was fine. I did notice cecotropes smashed in the wire of the grow out pen though for a while.... I think they have to learn to eat them. :?:
With 7 in the pen I really could not tell who it was.. But when I processed a couple of them had some gas in the large intestine, not a lot but it was there... No one was sick everything inside was good otherwise.I have not ever seen diarrhea in my heard, the only time I even had soft poops was when we got a little crazy with the greens. :x
All this is just for information to you, I don't think there is anything to worry about with your buns...I have been following your journey and you are doing a great job! :D
 
I have not opened a new bag of pellets. We're halfway through the 50# bag. When I feed only hay I don't have these.

Here's a picture of what concerns me--is it concerning?? Granted, there are 24 little feet smashing the poos, but you get my drift.
 

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Kits can make a mess... I wouldn't be too worried about that. It's a little soft, but not in the diahrea range.

Unless you see mucous mixed in. Mucous is bad.

Just out of curiosity, what brand/protein level are the pellets?
 
I had no end of trouble with manna pro with my area, and I can see we aren't too far away from each other.

The adults always could handle it pretty well, but I had occasional mucoid enteritis deaths the whole time I fed it, and not a single case since I stopped a year ago.

I'm not saying yours is bad, but if you pull the pellets and they improve, and you re-introduce it and they make a mess, it kinda points to the pellets.

Keep in mind though, it's also like Maggie j says. If they are off for a while it becomes like a new food, and they need re-introduced slowly.
 
EnglishSpot":2wnmfhnw said:
What feed are you currently using?
Click to expand...

Purina complete. :|

Don't wince.
I trust the purina corporation about as far as I can throw it.
I know it's ingredient list isn't quite as good as manna pro's (especially the SHO feed.)

I just tried it out of desperation because I HATE losing babies, and it's worked for my herd.
 
They act the same whether they're on pellet or pellet & hay, no bunnies looking or acting suspiciously. There is no mucus in the poo.

Now I'm in a conundrum--I can't really switch feeds on them. I think I may up the hay ratio even further and minimize the pellets even more with even more oatmeal mixed in. The kids are going to be fed something when they go to new homes in a few weeks, so I can't have them completely off pellets. Heck, people around here don't know the difference between straw and hay!!
 
EnglishSpot":3lmodwr7 said:
They act the same whether they're on pellet or pellet & hay, no bunnies looking or acting suspiciously. There is no mucus in the poo.

Now I'm in a conundrum--I can't really switch feeds on them. I think I may up the hay ratio even further and minimize the pellets even more with even more oatmeal mixed in. The kids are going to be fed something when they go to new homes in a few weeks, so I can't have them completely off pellets. Heck, people around here don't know the difference between straw and hay!!
Click to expand...

No, you really can't switch pellets on weanings.
 
It might be a good idea to give them a little probiotic powder to help their digestion.

Probios is what I used, Bene-Bac was also suggested as very good.

Again, I would offer caution after having a kit aspirate and, if it's safe, might suggest adding a bit of moisture to that mix to prevent the powder from being inhaled.

Someone mentioned wetting a bit of cilantro and sprinkling some of the powder on that... but I don't know if it's safe to do that considering they may have never had any cilantro yet. I've also read that if mom has a healthy digestion, it's critical for the kits to be able to eat some of her healthy poo for their digestion. Maybe if you were to crumble some of that up in their feed?? I dunno though... just some suggestions.
 
I've been putting some their mom's poo in their litter pan daily so they have access to it, but I don't know how often at this point they munch on them.

I'll look into getting the probiotics.

Thank you everyone, for your comments and suggestions!!
 
I found some soft poo, cecotropes?, in my cages this morning and cleaned it off of the cages. Should I have left it in there for them to eat?
 
cecotropes look like little clusters of grapes and they're smelly.

I honestly don't know if a person should leave uneaten cecotropes in the cage or not... in my experience (so far), if the rabbit doesn't eat them when they come out, they won't eat them at all.

I usually don't clean them up immediately if I see them, but I like to keep track of who might be leaving them. My 8 week old kits have been leaving some and I really don't know if it's fairly normal for kits to do this or not. I've read up on it a bit and it seems like it's fairly common (as long as it's not turning into poopy butt) for kits to do this. Right now, I'm just cutting back on the pellets and giving them lots of hay and water, to see if the issue goes away.
 
They were clusters. I was thinking it could of been from stress, by being in a different atmosphere and different food. They are a little over 13 weeks now, (13 weeks last Fri). It kind of had me wondering, beings it's my first time with rabbits, well, I had one about 40 years ago, but that doesn't really count. I have noticed that one of them isn't really eating any hay, but the other has it everywhere, ( I'm using the suet feeders for it). I'll keep a watch on them to see how they are acting, but so far, they seem to be doing really good. They're even starting to greet me already!! <br /><br /> -- Mon Mar 30, 2015 2:00 pm -- <br /><br /> Well, so far, everything is back to normal, poop wise. I guess just being ignorant on them got me a little worried when I was reading the posts. According to my plastic 'shield' runoff tray, they are rock hard again!!
 

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