not eating his caecotrophs

Question
hi there!

was wondering if you can give me some advice on my male neutered rabbit,he is not eating his caecotrophs.he seems to be healthy eating, drinking as normal and still his active self. i only feed my rabbits a handful of pellets a day then they eat as much hay as they want. Hes slim enough that he shouldn't have a problem getting round there!will this cause him problems if he carries on not eating them? what should i do?

kind regards
shona

Answer
Hi Shona,

from my own experiences with our six guys, only one has really ever had problems about not eating cecotropes.  She had gotten overweight and was having problems bending down to get them.  She'd leave them, and they'd get matted into her fur back there.  She is slimmer now back closer to what she should weigh.  Even with this change, sometimes she will leave a little cecal cluster uneaten.  Often if it is still moist, I will put it in my hand, and offer it to her to eat, and most times she will eat them.

However, you say your guy is not overweight.  He may just not have realized he passed cecal pellets.  If he only does this once in a while, I'd just offer them to him a few times if they are still moist.  If they have sat too long I'd just put them in his litterpan.

If it happens more regularly (once a day) I'd start cutting back on his treats (smaller portions) because this will encourage him to eat his cecal pellets.  They smell sweet to rabbits, but if you're giving him something sweeter, he may be passing on the cecal pellets and waiting for the sweeter treats.  Further, by cutting down on the sweets and high carb treats, he will be getting less hi-calorie food and will actually need his cecal pellets more.

If he misses a cecal cluster once in awhile, it's no big deal.  Food pellets give them lots of nutrition.  If he's doing it on a regular basis, his diet is too rich in high carb/hi sugar foods.  Reduce these and just give him hay, reduced pellets, and limited greens.

Lee