I am trying to determine the "normals" for a genetic charlie (too white) and the best way to help them cope with their health issues.
My experience with charlies is a whopping three rabbits, so I thought I'd tap into the RT metamind for more information. I have had a NZR charlie doe (Chili), a NZR charlie buck (Tino), and a NZR charlie buckling (Snow Golem). I have heard that 7 out of 10 charlies do not live past 6 months due to genetic compromise.
Charlies have super soft poop issues stemming from a gene compromised gut issue. Both the doe and the buck had poops that are best described as 'spackle-like' consistency. It cakes the floor wire and needs to be scraped off every other day. The content of the spackle poop has the requisite fiber of a normal bunny berry, but is extremely wet and pasty.
The doe Chili lived to be two years old and produced many litters before perishing of unknown causes. As a kit she didn't have bloat issues or noticable spackle poop. By the time of her death, she was at my sister's rabbitry and I saw her only every few months. My sister and I talked about the spackle poop and how it never firmed up. Chili was a very grumpy rabbit when kept in a full roofed hutch with no direct light, but when she was moved to a cage that exposed her to sunlight most of the day, her temperment improved considerably and became a pleasant rabbit. (Do they have problems regulating body temp?) As an adult she was fed pellet when having kits and otherwise on forage.
The buckling, Snow Golem, was a nephew of the above doe. His intestines were sloshy and he struggled with bloating and spackle poo. He gained weight up to a certain point and then became very bony and wasted looking, except for his giant swollen belly. He was culled at ten weeks due to being the wrong shade of red and his ongoing health issues. The buckling was fed hay, 16% pellet, and forage.
The buck, Tino, is nine months old and came from a NZR breeder with the understanding that Tino may not make it to six months old. Tino had been fed a very high protein pellet as a kit with no hay or forage in his diet. When he came to me at 11 weeks old, I switched him to my 16% pellet and started him on hay and forage. As summer progressed he grew slowly and had a tendency to become bloated. I experimented with taking away the hay, the pellet, putting him on just forage to see which affected him adversely the most. Tino is now on an oat and BOSS mix, supplemented with canned pumpkin, and a twice weekly probiotic of Bene-Bac plus. He does have access to timothy hay and pellet as desired. The bloating is gone except when I am late getting the probiotic into his food. He put on weight and filled out with the oat, BOSS, and pumpkin diet in the last two months. The spackle poo almost firms into a ball shape with the probiotic but has a tendency to be more turd-like. I leave straw on the bottom of his cage which makes the poops less likely to smear all over the wire, drains the fluid away, and protects him from becoming feces encrusted. And he eats the straw. Tino also likes to be in the sunlight. He has a voracious appetite for any green forage I will give him, so I worry the diet I'm giving him is not complete. The reason I have him is because I need his genes to make better broken NZRs.
Does anyone else have experiences with charlies? The gut issue is a given because it's genetic, but I wonder if being too white affects their ability to regulate body temperature. What have you done to help manage the genetic issues?
My experience with charlies is a whopping three rabbits, so I thought I'd tap into the RT metamind for more information. I have had a NZR charlie doe (Chili), a NZR charlie buck (Tino), and a NZR charlie buckling (Snow Golem). I have heard that 7 out of 10 charlies do not live past 6 months due to genetic compromise.
Charlies have super soft poop issues stemming from a gene compromised gut issue. Both the doe and the buck had poops that are best described as 'spackle-like' consistency. It cakes the floor wire and needs to be scraped off every other day. The content of the spackle poop has the requisite fiber of a normal bunny berry, but is extremely wet and pasty.
The doe Chili lived to be two years old and produced many litters before perishing of unknown causes. As a kit she didn't have bloat issues or noticable spackle poop. By the time of her death, she was at my sister's rabbitry and I saw her only every few months. My sister and I talked about the spackle poop and how it never firmed up. Chili was a very grumpy rabbit when kept in a full roofed hutch with no direct light, but when she was moved to a cage that exposed her to sunlight most of the day, her temperment improved considerably and became a pleasant rabbit. (Do they have problems regulating body temp?) As an adult she was fed pellet when having kits and otherwise on forage.
The buckling, Snow Golem, was a nephew of the above doe. His intestines were sloshy and he struggled with bloating and spackle poo. He gained weight up to a certain point and then became very bony and wasted looking, except for his giant swollen belly. He was culled at ten weeks due to being the wrong shade of red and his ongoing health issues. The buckling was fed hay, 16% pellet, and forage.
The buck, Tino, is nine months old and came from a NZR breeder with the understanding that Tino may not make it to six months old. Tino had been fed a very high protein pellet as a kit with no hay or forage in his diet. When he came to me at 11 weeks old, I switched him to my 16% pellet and started him on hay and forage. As summer progressed he grew slowly and had a tendency to become bloated. I experimented with taking away the hay, the pellet, putting him on just forage to see which affected him adversely the most. Tino is now on an oat and BOSS mix, supplemented with canned pumpkin, and a twice weekly probiotic of Bene-Bac plus. He does have access to timothy hay and pellet as desired. The bloating is gone except when I am late getting the probiotic into his food. He put on weight and filled out with the oat, BOSS, and pumpkin diet in the last two months. The spackle poo almost firms into a ball shape with the probiotic but has a tendency to be more turd-like. I leave straw on the bottom of his cage which makes the poops less likely to smear all over the wire, drains the fluid away, and protects him from becoming feces encrusted. And he eats the straw. Tino also likes to be in the sunlight. He has a voracious appetite for any green forage I will give him, so I worry the diet I'm giving him is not complete. The reason I have him is because I need his genes to make better broken NZRs.
Does anyone else have experiences with charlies? The gut issue is a given because it's genetic, but I wonder if being too white affects their ability to regulate body temperature. What have you done to help manage the genetic issues?
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