Why do rabbits eat their droppings? Woke up early and went to put in fresh food, and saw that several individuals were eating their droppings. This is fine? Maybe they are missing something?
This is totally normal. It's not okay if rabbits never eat their droppings. To begin with, the body of these animals produces two types of feces - hard and soft. Hard balls are pure waste and animals will not eat them, don't worry. But soft is another matter. This is not completely digested food (not fully digested coarse and juicy feed), which contains a huge amount of vital proteins, vitamins B and K, nitrogenous substances, amino acids and microorganisms.
The digestive system of these animals is designed in such a way that they cannot get everything they need from the feed during the first digestion cycle, so the rabbits let them be digested in the second circle, so as not to miss anything important.
Outwardly, this soft feces, scientifically called cecotrophs, look like bunches of grapes and are covered with a shiny shell. Formed in the cecum at night. It is usually released in the early morning and has a specific odor.
The fact that you have not found them before, just speaks of the full health of the eared, because this "delicacy" healthy rabbits eat for themselves completely. But if you start to find such cecotrophs uneaten, this is a sign of health problems: you either overfeed the animals, or they have worms and should be worm-driven. It happens that some individuals eat other people's cecotrophs, this suggests that not everything is in order with its digestion.
Almost every day we come across such an animal as a hare. Lovers affectionately call each other with this word, children are given toys in the form of this cute eared animal, and cartoons with all kinds of rabbits often flash on monitors. But what about real animals? Where, and most importantly, how do they survive? We know that in the wild they live in groves, taiga and steppes. But not everyone knows what a hare eats in the forest and what helps it survive in the wild. Therefore, it is worth examining this topic in more detail.
Types and differences of "eared"
Back in school, during a biology lesson, children are told that two live on our territory - a hare and a hare. Although in the summer, these animals are similar to each other, they still differ in several ways. Even in hot weather, a difference in their color is noticeable. The white hare is somewhat lighter than the brown hare. The photo shows that the latter has brown-gray fur, and the tail is black with white down, while the hare's tail is always light. Also, adult hares are usually larger than their counterparts. They have longer ears and tails. With the arrival of winter, they do not change their color, and the white hares acquire a fur coat the same color as the snow.
Habitat
Before you find out what hares eat in nature, it is worth finding out where their range is. If we talk about whites, they are more common in the tundra zone and forests, which are diluted with meadows and rivulets. Of course, if these are densely overgrown with trees, the hare will not be found, since he chooses places where bushes grow or near agricultural areas. In such lands, it is easier for them to find food regardless of the season. You will hardly find them in the southern parts of the country. But the hare chooses open places - the outskirts of fields, steppes and meadows. If it is found in a forest, it is likely that there is a large area nearby. The lifestyle of these two species is different.
Hare
An adult reaches 50-70 cm in length, and weighs on average 6 kilograms. Although this species does not change its color by winter, in autumn they still shed to “dress” in a warmer fur coat. Also, in the new outfit, his sides have a slightly light shade, but in appearance the same brown hare remains. The photo above shows that, despite the arrival of winter, the "eared" ones retain their gray-brown color. This color stability is explained by the fact that hare are found in areas where snow can be abruptly replaced by a thaw. On snowy days, these hares usually sit out and try not to even run out for food, so as not to flicker a dark color in front of enemies. In addition, this animal belongs to the nocturnal species, so during the day it hides in bushes or in recessed places.
Belyaki
Although these hares are slightly shorter than the hares, they are still considered large. The length of an adult hare is 44-65 cm, and the weight can reach 4-6 kilograms. His ears are about 9 centimeters. The color of the fur changes to white in winter. Only the tips of the ears remain dark. In summer, depending on the territorial residence, its fur is from reddish-gray to gray with brown hairs. The tail is rounded. If a white hare lives in a more southern area, where snow does not last long in winter, its fur retains its summer color. The question of what the white hare eats can easily be answered by observing its lifestyle. These animals try to keep to forest lands, because here you can eat the bark of young animals and berries of shrubs.
What do hares eat?
It is worth noting that these long-eared animals are real vegetarians - they do not even eat insects. In biology textbooks, hares are called herbivores, but their diet includes not only various, but also
shrub twigs, leaves, roots, tubers and berries. Since they are not stored for the winter, the question arises of what the hare eats in the forest in severe frosts. When the snow falls, the animals choose young trees with soft bark, stand on their hind legs and gnaw at it. At this time of the year, hares try to stay closer to the fields, where the remains of grain crops remain or winter varieties have already been sown. Some individuals get closer to the farmland, because here you can profit from hay.
In heavy snowfalls or rains, the animals remain in shelters and do not go out in search of food. In order to nourish themselves with protein at these moments, they pick up their droppings, which, getting into the digestive tract, are digested like ordinary food.
Some people believe that cabbage is the favorite treat of hares, and they even wonder: what does a hare eat in the forest if there are no heads of cabbage there? In fact, the fact that the "eared" have a special love for this vegetable is a myth. Rather, the hare will give preference to beets, cucumbers and potatoes. There are even known cases when the "slanting" ravaged fields with these crops.
Hares
With the onset of cold weather, the mating season begins in hares, and already in February
offspring appears. Since we figured out what the hare eats in winter, it's worth finding out how young hares survive this time of year. After birth, the mother feeds them and immediately leaves for several days, so as not to attract a predator with her smell (babies do not emit aromas). After a couple of days, she returns for the next feeding - and runs away again. Babies usually have enough thick rabbit milk to hold out for many hours. After seven days, the little teeth appear in the crumbs, and after another three they begin to chew the grass that the hare has lined in their hole.
Hare and man
Some, looking at cute pussies, try to tame them. But in order to provide him with proper care, you need to know what the hare eats in the forest in freedom. It is better not to give the animal food that is unusual for it by nature. Although it is possible to train a hare to eat meat, it is still not worth "mocking" a herbivore. People who breed these animals have noticed how long-eared people love corn. Thanks to this product, the bunny grows up quickly and is not prone to disease. If you keep this animal at home, it is worth stocking up on grass in the summer, which can be dried in the sun, and in the winter - to give to your pet.
A few facts about hares
We learned about how the hare (hare and white hare) lives and what it eats, but many will
interesting to know a few facts about these cute animals.
- Hares are very common inhabitants of our planet; they are found in any part of the world except Antarctica.
- The animal's long ears help it to escape from overheating. Through this "channel" heat is removed from the body. Also, during the rain, the animal presses its ears to the body, otherwise, if water gets inside, it will get sick.
- This beast is very hardy. It can maintain a speed of 50 km / h for a long time and at the same time continue to make turns.
- In total, there are 45 species of hares, which are divided by zoologists into three groups: rabbits, tree hares and real hares.
- Only relatively recently have scientists assigned the species of lagomorphs to these animals. Before that, they were considered a species of rodent.
- Males live 5 years, females - 9. In captivity, some can become long-livers and live up to 13 years. In freedom, hares die still young from the clutches of predatory animals and rarely live to old age.
- In winter, the animal grows wool near its nose - protection from cold air.
- It is known that the hare is popularly called the "scythe", but it is by no means cross-eyed. The hare received such a nickname because of its manner of walking, because the animal constantly confuses tracks.
- Between themselves, the "oblique" communicate knocking with their paws, stuffing them, as if
- These animals divide the territory, and even during the rescue from the predatory beast, the hare will not run to someone else's territory.
- Since the long-eared ones constantly gnaw the bark, their teeth wear out, but new ones will grow to replace them.
- There is a case in history when a hare had all the habits of a dog, since it was fed and raised by a dog. The bunny attacked other people's dogs and bit.
It's not just rabbits that eat their own droppings. Many animals, which have a digestive system in which food quickly reaches the stomach, are characterized by coprophagia, as this phenomenon is called in the scientific literature. Thus, food is digested twice.
Novice rabbit breeders often worry about why rabbits eat their droppings. It should be noted that these animals have two types of droppings, differing both in appearance and composition. Eating soft nighttime feces is the norm and feature of the digestive process. If the rabbit begins to eat hard "peas" - this indicates that there are not enough substances in its diet, or even that the rabbit simply does not have enough food.
Scientists have proven that coprophagia is especially important when rabbits consume roughage. "Double digestion" allows animals to maximize the release of useful substances from such feed, having previously fermented them to a state convenient for assimilation.
Rabbit droppings at night look different from daytime droppings. It is soft and has a specific smell. Cecotrophs, as the nighttime droppings of rabbits are also called, often look like shiny clusters of small soft balls. An excessively sharp unpleasant smell of cecotroph indicates a rabbit's digestive disorder, dysbiosis or an inflammatory process.
Cecotrophs are formed in the cecum, where semi-digested food is “processed” by bacteria. Thus, the night feces of a rabbit with a balanced diet are fermented fodder particles. Eating cecotroph provides the animal with the necessary amount of vitamins.
There is a misconception that by adding vitamins (in particular, group B) to the rabbit's diet, it is possible to wean the animal from coprophagia, which amateurs consider shameful.
Experienced rabbit breeders know that in the nighttime soft feces of animals there is a huge amount of useful substances (vitamins, trace elements, pantothenic and folic acids, riboflavin, etc.), which are easy to digest. Moreover, coprophagia is a natural feature of rabbits.
Hard "peas" or daytime feces are recyclable. So slags are removed from the rabbit's body, which no longer contain anything useful. If rabbits eat their droppings with peas, this indicates a deficiency in the diet. Most likely, the rabbit is hungry or suffers from vitamin deficiency. In this case, the animal's diet should be revised in terms of quality and quantity, and the presence of the necessary vitamins should be checked.
With dysbiosis, the fermentation process during the formation of soft feces is disrupted. This is the reason for the pungent smell of cecotroph. In this case, the rabbit should be examined by a specialist. In most cases, the situation can be corrected with the help of bifido-drugs.
Some breeders proudly declare that their animals are so well supplied with all the necessary substances that they do not need to eat feces. In asserting this, they refer to the results of observation of animals. However, in most cases, rabbits eat cecotrophs directly upon excretion. In this case, the animals bend, reaching with their muzzle to the anus. From the outside, the process resembles hygiene procedures.
The appearance of soft feces in the daytime indicates overfeeding. Excessive diet does not allow the rabbit's stomach to properly digest all the food eaten, as a result of which cecotrophs appear almost around the clock. Normally, their formation should occur at night or in the morning.
Rabbits eating their own feces is not an indication of illness or a "bad habit." Re-digestion of food pre-fermented in the stomach and intestines is a feature of the digestive process that allows you to effectively extract nutrients from the feed.
For a successful hare hunt, an experienced hunter must study their habits in advance. Finding places where they prefer to arrange fattening and lying down is an extremely exciting activity, which is the key to future hunting success.
Knowing what the hare eats, you can hunt it in all known ways.
Feeding hares in spring and summer
Hares are vegetarians. They feed on grass, young shoots, berries, tubers, and do not bypass agricultural fields. However, in summer, when there is a lot of food, they prefer places far from people.
Observations have shown that hares do not have "favorite" types of food. They willingly eat everything that grows in the forest and forest-steppe zones. In particular, Stavropol hares even eat such poisonous plants as buttercups and larkspur.
We know from children's books that eared rodents are madly in love with cabbage. However, this myth is akin to stories in which mice are crazy about cheese, and hedgehogs love apples, picking them on thorns. Hares would rather profit from a field planted with cereals, potatoes or beets.
The place of the white hare, hare, tolai differs depending on the habitat.
- Whites prefer small meadows, bushes, and ravines. Accordingly, most forest plants are included in their diet: from spring sour (it is also hare cabbage), mouse peas, yarrow, to berries. Sometimes the hare eats horsetails, some types of mushrooms.
- Tolai love to feed in open areas. The basis of their summer diet is horse sorrel, tamarisk, sedge, wormwood, chingil, tubers, bulbs of herbaceous plants.
- Rusaks are even more omnivorous. They can feed both far from people and brazenly approach the outskirts of settlements. They eat dandelions, clover, tansy, chicory, and other wild species. They readily feast on sunflowers, cereals, as well as everything that they find in the gardens. There are cases when gray thieves dug the tubers of young potatoes directly from the ground, gnawed the shoots of melons.
What hares eat in autumn and winter
Starting in October, hares become even more omnivorous. They eat the bark of trees and with the onset of cold weather they are getting closer and closer to human habitation. Particularly popular with them are the marginal fields with winter crops, which they dig out from under the snow, and distant hayloft with ready-made hay.
In heavy snowfalls, hares prefer to stay in bed for several days, eating their own dry droppings. Little rabbits feed on dry grass, which the mother plentifully lines the nest with.
- White hare gnaw bark from almost all trees: willow, maple, mountain ash, birch, juniper, oak. With its strong paws, it digs green grass from under the snow.
- Tolai migrate from places with high snow cover to valleys, closer to settlements. They feed on the fields with the remnants of corn, grain crops, tree bark.
- In winter, Rusaks turn into a real disaster for gardeners, gnawing the trunks of fruit trees to their height. They also feed on seeds, dry inflorescences of herbs, gnaw the bark of maples, hazel, oaks.
Hares (like all herbivores) are deficient in mineral salts in the body. On the antlers and bones of dead animals thrown off by elks, traces of hare teeth are often found.
Therefore, experienced hunters lure hares with salt water, pouring snow or soil in places of future hunting. According to some recipes, it is better to dissolve salt in a decoction of dry raspberry leaves.
Lures also include thin twigs of aspen, willow (best with buds), parsley (fresh or dry).
However, it should be remembered that some types of hunting that require bait are prohibited in areas with a low number of hares.
Those who are just starting to breed rabbits sometimes wonder why rabbits eat their droppings. Is it normal? Or they lack nutrients in the feed. Or maybe they got sick and they need to be shown to a doctor and treated. Coprophagia, or consuming your own stool, is perfectly normal behavior for rabbits. Read about why animals do it, what is it connected with and how the owner should behave, read our article.
Why do rabbits need two kinds of droppings?
In rabbits, food quickly reaches the stomach, does not have time to be completely digested, and comes out in the form of the first litter. Thanks to such a feature as coprophagia, animals can re-eat it and then assimilate it completely.
That is, in this type of animal, excrement of two types is formed:
- soft night;
- solid daytime ..
Hard "peas" are produced only in the second half of the day and are ordinary waste products. Rabbits don't eat them. The second type is soft feces, a kind of food "semi-finished product", which again goes into food.
Partially digested food comes out in a specific form of poop. They are called cecotrophs and look like clusters of small, soft balls covered with a shiny shell. Such droppings are excreted in the first half of the day. Basically it is fermented food processed with bacteria. This is what your pets eat.
Causes of the phenomenon
Let's see why the rabbit eats its droppings. The first reason is that it contains a lot of vitamins and other nutrients. Second, double digestion helps the animal to better absorb coarse plant fibers and get maximum energy.
Do not consider coprophagia something terrible and rush to remove cecotrophs. It is normal and even necessary if the rabbit eats its nightly poop. By depriving rabbits of the opportunity to eat soft feces, you risk depriving them of the necessary trace elements. This can lead to deterioration in their health and even death.
A healthy rabbit produces as much litter as it can eat. But if he has dysbacteriosis, he will easily borrow from the "comrade".
Sometimes breeders take pride in the fact that their pets get all the necessary substances from the diet, which is why they stop eating feces. In any case, the owners do not observe this.
Most of the cecotrophs are eaten by the rabbit at the time of excretion. From the outside, it may resemble regular body care.
Cause for concern
But if the animal begins to eat hard "peas", then this is a cause for concern for the breeder. Perhaps the animal has vitamin deficiency, or it does not have enough food. Pay attention to the diet, its composition and quantity, the content of vitamins.
When uneaten "clusters" are found in the cage in the afternoon, this may indicate that there is too much greenery in the food, which does not have time to digest.
It may also indicate that the animal has worms in the body. Change the composition of the feed and get tested. Treat your pet if necessary. All the details in the article "About worms in rabbits."
The pungent smell of cecotroph is one of the signs of dysbiosis, which disrupts the fermentation of the feed during the formation of soft feces. It can also be a sign of internal inflammation. See your veterinarian and follow their recommendations.
And remember, coprophagia is a natural feature of rabbit digestion.
Write in the comments how your rabbits behave.
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