Rabbit feces are an important indicator of the animal's health. Depending on how he feels, his feces also change. Any deviations from the norm can tell the rabbit breeder what is happening to his ward.
Types of rabbit feces: a) feces of a healthy rabbit; b) feces in the form of straw peas; c) caecotrophs; d) peas in a chain of grass; e) feces in a chain with wool; e) small peas; g) bowel movements due to constipation; h) feces with mucus; i) diarrhea.
A healthy rabbit's stool is drop- or pea-shaped, hard in consistency, and contains the remains of digested food. The color of the feces is dark, the size is small. Rabbits sometimes eat it and this is not considered a deviation. Soft balls covered with mucus contain a lot of digested substances. Repeated consumption of waste products normalizes digestion. A healthy animal leaves up to 300 peas per day.
Straw pea-shaped stools are larger in appearance, lighter in color and contain a lot of undigested hay. Its appearance indicates the scarcity of food for the animal. Farmers often purchase cheaper grains or feed to save money. The content of difficult-to-digest substances in their composition has a large proportion. The consequences of such a diet can be constipation and intestinal damage.
Caecotrophs have the shape of a bunch of grapes. They smell unpleasant and have a shiny shell called mucin. They are not a deviation. On the contrary, the rabbit should eat such feces. If he is prohibited from doing this, vitamin deficiency may develop. Rabbits usually eat the caecotroph immediately after it comes out. If a grape-shaped stool is found by the farmer, this indicates that the pet’s diet is sufficiently saturated with the necessary vitamins.
Peas in a chain of grass are considered a sign of dental problems. When a rabbit is unable to chew grass, it swallows it whole. In the stomach, the food is not completely digested and comes out together with the fecal matter in the form of beads.
A chain of feces with fur is formed during shedding. After licking its own skin or the skin of a neighbor, the fur ends up in the stomach. In the rectum, where feces are formed, undigested wool remains in the form of spaces between peas. The appearance of such stool in this form is not dangerous to health. But if during shedding there are no bowel movements for more than 8 hours, this means that the intestines could be clogged with hair.
Constipated stools have a very small appearance. The balls are hard, dry, with pointed ends. Such feces indicate a lack of fluid in the pet’s diet. If constipation is not prevented promptly, feces of this shape can damage the animal's colon and anus.
The types of feces described are most often encountered when breeding rabbits. Along with them, more rare discharges can be distinguished:
Porridge-like peas are a sign of impending diarrhea. There is no need to worry if your pet’s diet has been changed the day before. This is how addiction to new food can manifest itself.
Worms in feces are visible to the naked eye. Most often, they leave the body already dead. You can drive them out using anthelmintics without the participation of a veterinarian.
Unnaturally colored feces are not dangerous. Their shade can vary from white to pitch black depending on the foods eaten by the animal. For example, after eating beets, rabbit feces take on a reddish tint.
Why does a rabbit eat its feces?
The rabbit does not eat all of its feces. He eats only caecotrophs, grape-shaped feces that contain a large amount of useful substances. Healthy rabbits eat feces unnoticed by their owners, so inexperienced rabbit breeders may not notice this process and may not even be aware of it.
If the rabbit looks healthy, does not have problems absorbing food and does not lose interest in it, the cause of the remaining caecotrophs is considered to be stress, the introduction of new food into the diet, or a lack of fiber.
Loose stools: diagnosis of diseases
Particular attention should be paid to liquid feces. Diarrhea can not only be a symptom of a complex disease, but also cause the death of the animal. This is due to the fact that during diarrhea the body loses a lot of fluid. This leads to dehydration. Diarrhea is most often observed in adults. Rabbits do not suffer from this disorder, since mother's milk normalizes the functioning of the stomach and intestines. But when young animals are transferred to “adult” food, intestinal problems often appear. High-quality food products will help the offspring switch to a new diet without health consequences.
The causes of diarrhea in a rabbit can be the following:
- stress due to problems with teeth, urination, lung infection, or head tremors;
- poor-quality food leads to processes of rotting and gas formation in the intestines, which lead to the appearance of excess weight;
- bacterial enteritis. After constipation, the alkaline environment of the intestinal tract changes. The microflora weakens and E. coli begins to multiply in the body.
First aid for loose stools
- Eliminate berries, vegetables and fruits from your food.
- Add a decoction of oak bark to the sippy cup. If this does not help, give 0.5 tablets of activated carbon.
- Eliminate dehydration by injecting 10 ml of saline solution per 1 kg of live weight. Repeat the procedure up to 4 times a day.
- If gas formation is observed, use 1 ml of Espumisan per 1 kg of pet's live weight.
- If your health does not return to normal within 24 hours, contact your veterinarian.
The best treatment for diarrhea is to prevent the situation. Do not feed mammals low-quality foods or rotten vegetables, wash them before feeding and keep their cages clean. Vaccinate your herd against common diseases and avoid creating stressful situations. A rabbit's calmness is a sign of its health.
Worms in a rabbit
Signs of the presence of worms are as follows:
A blood test will help determine the presence of worms in the body as accurately as possible.
How to get rid of worms
Medicines for worms most often take the form of a suspension. Their dosage is determined based on the concentration of the drug and the weight of the animal. The suspension is administered orally. To reduce the likelihood of your rabbit becoming stressed, ensure the process is gentle. Take a syringe without a needle and draw the drug into it. Hold the patient firmly in your arms and open his mouth with the syringe. Start administering the drug through the edge of the mouth. Once the medicine is inside, do not rush to close the patient's mouth. Pat the rabbit's throat to make sure the medicine doesn't linger in the mouth. Only then release the animal.
Video - Treatment of helminths in rabbits
How to check a rabbit's stool
In the process of monitoring the health of a rabbit, it is necessary to pay attention to its feces daily. To avoid missing important indicators, pay attention to:
- size and color of peas;
- Do peas crumble easily?
- whether the animal’s diet was changed on the eve of the test;
- How long does stool remain abnormal?
If the food has not been changed for a long time, and the peas are of normal size, crumble easily and do not smell strange, the rabbit is healthy. In all other cases, it is worth observing the animal’s behavior for about three days. If the feces are liquid or contain helminths, this is a reason to contact a veterinarian for help.
Rabbit Urine Guide
Like feces, urine can tell a lot about your health. With its help, you can diagnose some animal diseases without involving a veterinarian.
Cloudy discharge – a sign of healthy urine. The rabbit's body excretes calcium through urine, and not through feces, like humans. This means there may be sediment in his stool. As the urine dries, the shade becomes more saturated and acquires a milky or white color. Healthy urine is orange or straw-colored. During lactation, a rabbit's stool may have a transparent appearance. This is not a pathology and means that her body requires more calcium to feed the young.
Red urine is the result of certain foods in the diet. Most often, it acquires this color in winter, when farmers, due to the lack of fresh grass, increase the amount of feed and vitamin supplements. The red color may be caused by increased amounts of beta-carotene. Sometimes this color appears after eating spruce branches. This feature is not common to all pets on the farm. Most often this is one or two individuals for the entire herd. If red urine occurs in combination with other symptoms, it is most likely an indicator of poor health and requires veterinary intervention. In all other cases, red urine is not dangerous.
Blood in the urine may indicate the presence of kidney stones, an infection of the genitourinary system, or the presence of polyps on the walls of the bladder. Upon examination, urine is usually homogeneous. The blood in it does not mix with the general mass and most often remains in the form of separate drops or clots. Such symptoms should be an urgent reason to visit a veterinarian.
Dark urine with sediment in the form of sand indicates urolithiasis in the animal. This phenomenon is common due to the fact that in rabbits the process of calcium accumulation in muscles and tissues is quite active. They consume little liquid, which means it is quite difficult to remove the mineral. It settles in the kidneys, turns to stone, and when it tries to leave the body, it clogs the ducts. If sediment is visible in your rabbit's stool for several days in a row, contact your veterinarian to prevent the consequences of the disease.
The rabbit's genitals (perineal pockets) should also be examined. They secrete a secret by which members of the herd determine the sex of the rabbit, its membership in the group and its desire to mate. This discharge is yellow in color and has a sweetish odor. Excess of them can lead to inflammation of the mucous membrane around the genitals. Thickened discharge should be removed with an ear stick previously soaked in baby care oil.
Thus we see that feces and urine are important indicators of the health of a mammal. With their help, you can diagnose problems in the functioning of internal organs and determine the general condition of the animal. Feces may indicate poor quality food and unfavorable living conditions. Using a simple method of diagnosing rabbit feces and urine, you can protect the entire herd from possible problems and diseases in the future.
In order for a hare hunt to be successful, an experienced hunter must study their habits in advance. Finding places where they prefer to roost and roost is an extremely exciting activity, which is the key to future hunting success.
Knowing what a 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 shy away from 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 hare even eat such poisonous plants as buttercups and larkspur.
From children's books we know that big-eared rodents absolutely love cabbage. However, this myth is akin to stories in which mice go crazy for cheese, and hedgehogs adore apples, collecting them on their thorns. Hares would rather profit from a field sown with cereals, potatoes or beets.
The feeding areas of white hare, hare, and tolai vary depending on their habitat.
- Whites prefer small clearings, thickets of bushes, and ravines. Accordingly, their diet includes most forest plants: from spring sorrel (aka hare cabbage), mouse peas, yarrow, to berries. Sometimes the hare eats horsetails and some types of mushrooms.
- Tolai like to feed in open places. The basis of their summer diet is horse sorrel, tamarisk, sedge, wormwood, chingil, tubers, and bulbs of herbaceous plants.
- Rusaki are even more omnivorous. They can feed both away from people and insolently approach the outskirts of settlements. They eat dandelions, clover, tansy, chicory, and other wild species. They willingly feast on sunflowers, cereals, and everything they find in the gardens. There are known cases when gray thieves dug up young potato tubers directly from the ground and gnawed shoots from melons.
What do 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 get closer and closer to human habitation. Particularly popular with them are the outlying fields with winter crops, which they dig out from under the snow, and distant haylofts with ready-made hay.
During heavy snowfalls, hares prefer to remain lying down for several days, eating their own dry droppings. Little hares feed on dry grass, which the mother generously lines the nest with.
- Whites gnaw the bark of almost all trees: willow, maple, rowan, birch, juniper, oak. With strong paws it digs out green blades of grass from under the snow.
- Tolai migrate from places with high snow cover to valleys, closer to populated areas. They feed on the remains of corn, grain crops, and tree bark in the fields.
- In winter, meres turn into a real disaster for gardeners, gnawing the trunks of fruit trees to the height of their growth. They also feed on seeds, dry inflorescences of herbs, and gnaw the bark of maples, hazels, and oaks.
Hares (like all herbivores) experience a deficiency of mineral salts in the body. Traces of hare teeth are often found on the antlers shed by elk and the bones of dead animals.
Therefore, experienced hunters lure hares with salt water, watering 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.
Baits also include thin branches 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 low hare numbers.
Over the many years of its existence, the hare has never been tamed by humans. But sometimes it happens that a wild, defenseless hare ends up in people’s homes, and a person needs to feed it. The food that hares eat in the forest and at home differs significantly.
Description of animals
Typically, a wild animal of the hare family gives birth to offspring in the last month of winter. After the appearance of the little hares, the female first feeds them, then leaves the hole so as not to attract predatory animals with her smell. After a while she returns again with the intention of feeding them and leaving again. The female behaves this way until the hare’s teeth appear. Young animals begin to erupt their first teeth at one week of age. Then the mother drags grass into the hole for the young. The first complementary feeding begins on the tenth day of life.
Young hares eat grass and after reaching the age of one month they no longer need the help of their mother.
Varieties
Several varieties of this furry herbivorous animal live in the wild. They all differ in fur, size and behavior. On the territory of Russia you will be able to meet representatives of each of the breeds.
Belyak
This animal lives in the forest-steppe zone of our country, in the southern part of the USA and Mongolia. To camouflage itself in winter, the animal changes its natural gray fur to a snow-white coat. Only the ears at the end remain black. In summer, wild animals living in the forest eat mushrooms, cereals, dandelions, rowan fruits, blueberries and herbs. In the fields, cabbage becomes food for wild rodents; in the garden, the animals gnaw onions, carrot tops and root vegetables. In autumn, the mountain hare survives by eating young branches of bushes. In winter, when food supply is tight, a hungry animal feeds on the bark of aspen, willow and birch.
Hare
This is a large hare with brown fur with white, black and gray fibers throughout the coat. The animal lives in the Far East, Kazakhstan, Iran and Turkey. Hares eat dandelions, chicory and cereals. These forest animals cause great damage to melon, vegetable and fruit plantings. In winter, the animal gnaws tree bark, stems of young seedlings and shrubs. It prefers to eat maple and oak bark and pull out seeds of fruits and plants from under snowdrifts.
Tolay
Representatives of this species, which are small in size with long legs and ears, live in Russia mainly in the steppe zone, as well as in the territories of Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In nature, the basis of their diet is green vegetation. In early spring, individuals eat tubers and roots of herbaceous plants. In summer they feed on cereals and sedge, in autumn - barley, wheat and corn. In winter, when there is a lack of green food, the hare eats the bark of trees and shrubs and young shoots.
Manchurian
The largest population lives in the Far East, on the Amur coast and in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. Externally, the variety is similar to a wild rabbit - it weighs about 2.5 kg, has a short body, short and stiff hair. With the arrival of another season, the fur does not change. These hares eat the same as white hare; in the cold season they feed on tree bark and young stems of plants and bushes. During the spring-autumn period they eat fruits and berries.
Eating in nature
The feeding of hare in the wild depends on the season. In the summer, in the forest, the hare feeds on young branches of fruit trees. The animals love to gnaw on stems and leaves; sometimes they eat roots, but only young ones.
In the second half of summer, wild hares feed on the seeds of herbaceous plants. The most favorite are dandelion inflorescences and shoots, clover, chicory, alfalfa, tansy and rapeseed. Among cultivated plants, preference is given to cereals and sunflowers. Young and mature hares love watermelon and melon.
In winter, in nature, hares feed on seeds of cereals, meadow and steppe plants, eat garden crops (fruits, root crops), digging them out from under the snow.
In harsh winters, wild animals are unable to extract food for themselves and their families from under the thick snow cover, so they feed on woody vegetation - tree bark and shoots. The most favorite trees: oak, apple, maple, pear, willow and aspen.
With a lack of minerals and nutrients, the animal even eats soil or small stones. It is a herbivore, but there have been isolated cases when a hungry hare ate the meat of partridges stuck in hunting nets or traps.
Feeding rules
It is problematic to bring the nutrition of hares at home closer to natural feeding. It is worth feeding them at home at least twice a day, and in small portions, to eliminate the risk of indigestion. A single serving for a small bunny is 5-10 ml.
A one-month-old bunny begins to feed on its own. The young hare eagerly eats fruit tree leaves (cherries, cherries, plums), berries, vegetables (cabbage, carrots, beets); apples are their preferred fruit. Juicy food is the basis of nutrition in the summer. Young and adult individuals are given dried meadow and steppe herbs.
Store-bought food is introduced into the diet from the age of two months. If fed earlier, such food can cause problems with the gastrointestinal tract. With the arrival of winter, individuals are fed hay from meadow grasses and twigs of fruit trees. Procurement of feed for the winter is carried out in the summer.
A hare that lives in a forest or steppe zone travels hundreds of thousands of kilometers throughout its life, so keeping such an animal at home is contraindicated. A spacious room - an aviary or a cage - is suitable for its temporary maintenance. Some breeders keep free-ranging animals in residential premises. But it is worth considering the fact that individuals will leave their excrement everywhere, and you will have to periodically collect their droppings.
Young hare need certain care:
- the optimal thermal regime for young animals is 20 °C;
- After each feeding, the animals are given a belly massage to improve the digestion process;
- Use a cotton sponge dipped in warm water to wipe under the tail.
These wild representatives of the lagomorphs have unique features:
- Hares have increased endurance and are able to cover long distances in a day, developing high speeds (about 50 km per hour). Chasing a hare during a hunt requires large energy expenditures from sniffer dogs.
- The animal's ears are a kind of temperature regulator - excess heat escapes through them.
- During the rainy season, the animal presses its ears to its head so that water does not get inside and cause illness.
Brave hare, owner of the forest :)
What can and should be fed to rabbits in winter!!! Feeding nursing rabbits with peas!!!
Conclusion
Wild animals require conditions that are as close to natural as possible. If a person had to raise little bunnies on his own, they are provided with everything necessary for full growth and development.
Almost every day we come across such an animal as a hare. Lovers tenderly call each other this word, children are given toys in the form of this cute eared animal, and cartoons featuring all kinds of bunnies often flash on the 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”
Even at school, during a biology lesson, children are told that two people live on our territory - the hare and the hare. Although in the summer these animals are similar to each other, they still differ from each other in several ways. Even in hot weather, the difference in their color is noticeable. The white hare is somewhat lighter than the brown hare. The photo shows that the last fur is brownish-gray, and the tail is black with white fluff underneath, while the white hare's tail is always light. Also, adult hare are usually larger than their counterparts. They have longer ears and tails. With the arrival of winter, they do not change their color, and whites acquire a fur coat the color of snow.
Habitat
Before you find out what hares eat in the wild, it’s worth finding out where their habitat is. If we talk about white hare, they are more often found in the tundra zone and forests, which are diluted with meadows and streams. Of course, if these are densely overgrown with trees, you won’t find the hare, since he chooses places where shrubs grow or near agricultural areas. In such areas it is easier for them to find food, regardless of the time of year. You will hardly find them in the southern parts of the country. But the brown hare chooses open places - the outskirts of fields, steppes and meadows. If it is found in a forest, there is likely a large area nearby. The lifestyle of these two species is different.
Brown 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 the fall they still molt in order to “dress” in a warmer coat. Also, in the new robe, his sides have a slightly lighter tint, but in appearance the same brown hare remains. The photo above shows that, despite the arrival of winter, the long-eared ones retain their gray-brown color. This color stability is explained by the fact that hares are found in areas where snow can suddenly give way to thaw. On snowy days, these hares usually sit back and try not to even run out for food, so as not to flash their dark color in front of their enemies. In addition, this animal is a nocturnal species, so during the day it hides in bushes or in deep places.
Whites
Although these hares are slightly smaller in height than hare, they are still considered large. The length of an adult white 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 its territorial residence, its fur ranges from reddish-gray to gray with brown hairs. The tail is rounded. If the 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 be easily answered by observing its lifestyle. These animals try to stay in forest areas, since here they can eat the bark of young trees and the berries of bushes.
What do hares eat?
It is worth noting that these long-eared animals are true vegetarians - they do not even eat insects. In biology textbooks, hares are called herbivores, but their diet includes not only various but also
twigs of bushes, leaves, roots, tubers and berries. Since they do not store up for the winter, the question arises of what the hare eats in the forest during severe frosts. When snow falls, the animals choose young trees with soft bark, stand on their hind legs and gnaw it. At this time of year, hares try to stay close to fields where there are remains of grain crops or winter varieties have already been sown. Some individuals move closer to rural areas because they can profit from hay here.
During 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, when they enter the digestive tract, are digested like regular food.
Some people believe that the favorite delicacy of hares is cabbage, and they are even surprised: what does a hare eat in the forest if there are no heads of cabbage there? In fact, it is a myth that the “eared” have a special love for this vegetable. Rather, the hare will give preference to beets, cucumbers and potatoes. There are even known cases when “oblique” devastated fields with these crops.
Bunnies
With the onset of cold weather, the mating season begins for hares, and already in February
offspring appears. Since we have found out what a hare eats in winter, it is worth finding out how young hares survive at 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). A couple of days later she returns for another feeding - and runs away again. Babies usually have enough thick hare milk to last for many hours. After just seven days, the babies begin to develop teeth, 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 fluffies, try to tame them. But in order to provide him with proper care, you need to know what a hare eats in the forest when free. 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, you should not “mock” the herbivore. People who breed these animals have noticed how long-eared animals love corn. Thanks to this product, the bunny grows up quickly and is not prone to illness. If you keep this animal at home, in the summer it is worth stocking up on grass that you can dry in the sun and give to your pet in the winter.
A few facts about hares
We learned about how the hare (brown and hare) lives and what it eats, but many will
It’s interesting to know a few facts about these cute animals.
- Hares are very common inhabitants of our planet; they are found in every part of the world except Antarctica.
- The animal's long ears help it escape from overheating. Through this “channel” heat is removed from the body. Also, when it rains, the animal presses its ears to its body, otherwise if water gets inside, it will get sick.
- This animal is very hardy. It can maintain a speed of 50 km/h for a long time and still continue to make turns.
- There are 45 species of hares in total, which are divided by zoologists into three groups: rabbits, tree hares and true hares.
- Only relatively recently did scientists assign these animals the species lagomorphs. Before this, they were considered a type of rodent.
- Males live 5 years, females - 9. In captivity, some can become long-livers and live up to 13 years. In the wild, hares die young from the paws of predatory animals and rarely live to old age.
- In winter, the animal grows fur near its nose - protection from cold air.
- It is known that the hare is popularly called “squint”, but he is by no means cross-eyed. The hare received this nickname because of the way it moves, because the animal constantly confuses its tracks.
- The “oblique” ones communicate with each other by knocking their paws, stuffing them, as if
- These animals share territory, and even when being rescued from a predatory animal, the hare will not run into someone else's territory.
- Since long-eared animals constantly gnaw on bark, their teeth wear out, but new ones grow to replace them.
- There is a case in history when a hare had all the habits of a dog, since he was fed and raised by a dog. The bunny attacked other people's dogs and bit.
We continue the practice of answering questions that was so successfully started in the last article. And today we are looking at another interesting question from Irina (Irina, thank you!).
A small quote from her letter:
“And I have a new question and, accordingly, a new topic: “Caecotrophs. Is this "ugh" or is it still..."
...The girl writes in horror that her beloved pet rabbit eats his kaki, but she does not allow him to do this. Every time he sees such a disgrace, he picks out the caecotrophs from his mouth...
...Here's another case. The girl, having apparently read about caecotrophs for the first time, exclaims: “Ugh! Will mine really eat this too?”...
Do you recognize yourself in these stories? Or is this the first time you’ve heard about caecotrophs? Then it’s time to understand this issue thoroughly. And we’ll start with a question →
Features of digestion of decorative and dwarf rabbits
You all know that they eat often and almost constantly chew something. This is due to the fact that the stomach muscles are very weak and cannot simply push food into the intestines. Therefore, pushing occurs due to the arrival of new food. And so on ad infinitum.
Moreover, the intestines of rabbits work in such a way that feces are ultimately divided into two types: soft and hard.
Solid feces are the same peas that the rabbit leaves in the pot. And soft feces - feces of the cecum - is. The rabbit will definitely eat them, since caecotrophs contain a huge amount of beneficial microorganisms and vitamins.
Look at the diagram below. The digestion process is shown very clearly:
I think we have figured out the digestion process. Let's move on.
What do caecotrophs look like?
If you have never seen caecotrophs - soft, nocturnal feces - then you are extremely lucky. does not cause concern and his digestion is correct. However, just in case, I recommend that you take a look at the picture below.
.jpg)
Peculiar bunches of grapes that smear very easily and smell very unpleasant.
As a rule, the rabbit eats them while sitting right in the pot. Have you ever seen your pet picking at its groin for something while sitting in a litter tray? It is he who eats the caecotrophs.
But since this usually happens at night or in the morning, you might not notice.
Of course, in no case should a rabbit be prohibited from eating caecotrophs. And there is no need to pick them out of his mouth either.
Another thing →
If there is too much cecotroph
This is already a problem. If caecotrophs are constantly in the cage and the rabbit simply does not have time to eat them all, then there may be two main reasons for this:
1. you are overfeeding your rabbit
It is necessary to immediately exclude food from food for 3-4 days and leave only water and hay. Remember that it is hay (well, twigs and leaves) that serves as the main food. The food is just a supplement.
After 3-4 days, you can start giving food again, no more than 2 tablespoons per day. And reconsider the composition of the feed - an excess of caecotrophs usually means an excess of grains.
2. the rabbit has worms
And this is very dangerous. Read the article immediately
Loading...
