Weird fur chewing

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PulpFaction

PulpFaction

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Apr 29, 2010
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Location
Alaska
I have one "special" doe that has suddenly started fur chewing for no reason I can discern! She is on a balanced 18% diet of Manna Pro Gro (almost all of my rabbits were pregnant or nursing or molting, so I just switched the herd over.)

This rabbit has to have her teeth trimmed because she is a chronic cage wire puller and pulled her teeth out of alignment. (Didn't start out like that, and has never thrown bad teeth, so it's just an annoyance.) I suspect that somehow her digestive tract is "off" because she has had a very sensitive stomach since I got her last spring and will get soft stool at the drop of a hat. Could her system have been damaged by not having her teeth trimmed regularly prior to me getting her? She was in a pet home for a long time. Grr. Anyway, all of a sudden she starts chewing her fur out of the blue a few days ago and has soft stool again. I've given her hay, and realize now I need to keep it available for her, but do you think this will help or do I need to do something else? Should I throw a mineral spool in there or try something in her water to give her a boost? I don't understand why she would all of a sudden be deficient of something, unless rabbits chew fur when they need more fiber.

Haven't run into this before, it's mystifying and upsetting. The last thing I need is a naked rabbit going into winter.
 
Could it be behavioral rather than nutritional? Pulls on wire, chews fur... sounds like boredom to me. By all means give her the hay to head off the soft stools, but try some toys and a good willow branch for extra chewing.
 
Good thinking, many of my rabbits have toys but she is in one of my new cages that I haven't rounded up toys for. I'll get her something ASAP. And, heck, I'll throw a mineral spool in there too just in case. I guess it can't hurt, right?
 
No, it won't hurt. Do try to get her a good branch too, with the bark on. Willow, for preference, or poplar, apple etc. It may help her teeth and I am a firm believer in the benefits of the trace nutrients in bark, just based on how much of it the wild bunnies eat.
 
More often than not
fur chewing/eating is due to the lack of
a proper amount of fiber in the diet.
Though there is fiber provided by the pelleted
rabbit feed it is ground too finely to be of much assistance.
I would provide a goodly amount of grass-hey fed in a hay-rack.
This will aid in the correction of loose stools.
Ottersatin. :eek:ldtimer:
 
Hmm, I can get small diameter willow branches pretty easily, but anything a good pair of garden shears or hedge trimmers can't cut will be more difficult.

Otter, hay is incredibly expensive up here (more costly than a bag of feed by about $5) and it's difficult to find any of good quality that isn't imported in chopped and compressed bales, which makes it wasteful to boot. So, I mostly feed it only to litters through weaning and then taper off. I've never had an issue with the others, but I was afraid that might be the problem with this girl. I'll watch the others carefully too and maybe feed hay to the whole group at least once a week just as a precaution, and keep it available for her at all times.
 
Small diameter willow should be fine... Say half an inch in diameter. It's the gnawing and the bark that they seem to love. And it helps keep them busy. If you have good access to it, you might want to treat all your rabbits to some twigs. It's good fibre too. :)
 
Cool, maybe I can find some time to go cut a big bundle to use through the winter this weekend. It grows like a weed up here.
 
Rachel, just a caution. As far as I know all types of willow (salix spp.) are perfectly safe for rabbits, but Alaska is a long, long way from Ontario and I would hate to be inadvertently the cause of a rabbit problem. So I suggest you feed it to one rabbit first for a while... just to be sure the willow you have up there is safe. Do the wild rabbits or hares use it for winter food?
 
question is... why do you want to keep a doe with a compromised immune system? won't you risk breeding that into your herd?
 
I think all of her issues were caused by problems from less than ideal previous homes. She has been passed around quite a bit, some homes were better than others, and has become something of a nervous nelly. I think neglect from not having her teeth cared for probably caused some malnutrition at some point along the way that did permanent damage to her gut that makes her especially sensitive to stress. When she was in a good home with someone that knew what they were doing, she produced beautiful and very healthy babies. I just want to get her to that point again. I'm learning to trim her teeth better and now realizing she needs a constant supply of hay and something to gnaw on...hopefully this will get her in good shape. :) She has a lot to offer to my breeding program and as isolated as I am up here, it's not like I can easily find a replacement. If she doesn't produce a litter for me in the next six months or so, though, I probably will cull her. She is very difficult to manage compared to my others.
 
Rachel-- is the cost of hay any less in Palmer or the smaller townships along the State route headed north?( Like Willow?)I can possibly find out whee my MILs Alaskan Dairy farn is-- Iam sure her huby would sell high quality hay
 
Fur chewing and wire pulling are all behavioral, it has nothing to do with fibre. The fibre in pellets is just that: fibre; soluble and insoluble, it does not need to be "large" or visible to the naked eye to "work". If the tag says 20% of the feed is fibre then 20% of the feed is fibre.. period. We had a doe chew her fur like that, took it all off her legs first.. gave her a simple ball toy and it stopped immediately. She was so happy to have the toy, she would carry it around and show it to anyone who looked at her lol. The hay or willow is a good idea just to occupy her and cause a distraction to stop the fur chewing. Are hay cubes any cheaper? They are nice and hard and I know our rabbits like chewing on them as well.
 
Lauren, I think the reason Rachel wants to increase fibre in this rabbit's diet is because of its delicate digestive system and tendency towards soft stools. The hay and willow should help with this, while occupying her at the same time.
 
I understand about the soft stools but I was referring to fur chewing being behavioral and NOT related to fibre intake at all.I was addressing the fur chewing only and not the stool problem. The stool thing would be a separate issue, which may even mean too much fibre actually! It could also be related to stress possibly being brought on by boredom even! I would also check out the condition known as "Mega-Colon" and see if that matches the doe's stool problem or not.Hopefully not.

Sorry(reread my other post lol); the part about pellets.. a rabbit can do quite well on pellets alone for fibre intake, so in part I was referring to another post that says they don't have the necessary fibre at all! This doe here seems to have been subjected to other issues in her life that caused a behavior pattern that doesn't really have much to do about fibre intake at all!
 

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