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Rabbit wont eat pellets

22 10:37:09

Question
QUESTION: Hello, I have a 10 month old rabbit who just doesn't eat many of his pellets.  These are Timothy-hay based.  If I feed him some alfalfa pellets, he will eat more, but only about 1/16 of a cup.  

His poops have been about half of his normal size for about a month.  He eats a ton of fresh vegetables and hay.  The vet gave his cisapride which made him poop more often, but the poops are still small.

He has never stopped eating or poopoing completely, and like I said, he has a great appetite, just not for pellets.

Should I be doing something else?  He gets plenty of exercise.

Thank you!

ANSWER: Dear Callista,

I would not worry too much if he eats only a small amount of pellets.  As long as he gets a few, he's probably getting any trace minerals he might otherwise be lacking, but pellets are actually the *least* important part of the diet.  As long as he eats lots of fresh veggies and timothy hay, he'll do fine.  He also requires a good deal of fresh water daily, preferably in a heavy crock so he can drink in a natural "head down" position.

For an overview of healthy diet, please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/diet.html

Hope that helps.

Dana

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Great!  Thank you!

Should I be worried that his poops are smaller than normal even though he acts like his normal self?

Answer
Dear Callista,

Smaller than normal poops are never a good thing.  His picky habits *also* could be due to molar spurs, since those can result in strange picky, behavior.  Please see:

www.bio.miami.edu/hare/dental.html

and find a good, experienced rabbit vet here:

www.rabbit.org/vets

who can examine his back teeth and file any problematic molar spurs.  If he has spurs, then filing them will very likely get his eating and his poops back to normal.

Hope that helps.

Dana