Poo Question

My two bunnies Truffle & Pickle are fed the same food. They have an egg cup of pellets in the morning, a bowl of veg between them in the evening and unlimited hay the rest of the time which I top-up twice daily.

Pickle has lovely golden poos, but Truffles are sometimes darker and slimier looking. Do you think this might be because Truffle is a bit of a food hogger (and therefore consumers more veg) or she might eat less hay or do you think it might be down to her longer hair (she is a lionhead). I haven't actually noticed her hogging food but she does chase Pickle like a lunatic before the food is put down so she might end up with more I guess. She seems to settle once I've put it down and shares nicely - while I'm there at least!!

She isn't on any medication so it's a bit of a mystery! Any ideas?

I suspect it may be the hay factor - our three pairs are all fed the same but the poos in Herb and Hollie's shed are much smaller and darker than the rest. I know for a fact that they get through less hay than the others.

(Sometimes the poos look dark and slimey cos they have been weed on in our litter trays. I am now an obsessive poo checker since BJ/Rosie had worms!)

I doubt it has much if anything to do with her hair but it sounds like she probably isn't as prolific a hay eater as your other rabbit. It's amazing how much they can vary between bunnies who supposedly get the same diet, it does make it easier to spot who is whose though

I agree that its probably a different hay intake that is making the poos different.
Lionheads are prone to Dental problems so it would be worth getting your Vet to check Truffles' teeth. Addressing any issues with molar spurs sooner rather than later is a good idea.

Have you tried giving them some dried grass ( eg readigrass ) instead of the pellet feed. Getting Truffles to increase her intake of long fibre will certainly help her teeth and her GI function.

Bella and Tarquin get exactly the same food, though how much of the veg T gets as Bell wolfs it down I'm not sure, but it's available for him and he does get a little bit of it. They have limited pellets, veg, loads of hay, one banana chip at bed time and their poos are completely different colours (they're also completely different sizes, but then that's not surprising when T is a diddy little thing and Bell is about three times his size ).

Since the last lot of hay I got from Dust Free Hay T's poos are very very light and Bell's are very very dark - like Sooz says, it makes it very easy to tell who is doing what

Caroline wrote:Pickle has lovely golden poos, but Truffles are sometimes darker and slimier looking. Do you think this might be because Truffle is a bit of a food hogger (and therefore consumers more veg) or she might eat less hay or do you think it might be down to her longer hair (she is a lionhead). I haven't actually noticed her hogging food but she does chase Pickle like a lunatic before the food is put down so she might end up with more I guess. She seems to settle once I've put it down and shares nicely - while I'm there at least!!

Just reading again, and Truffle and Pickle sound very similar to how Bell and T are. T has got lovely golden poos that are very dry, and Bell has very dark poos that are quite moist.

Bell is the greedy guts and though she does also eat a lot of hay, she definitely gets most of the veg, and she also chases T round until the bowls of food are down. She's then quite happy for him to join in, but she grunts a lot and bless him he's learned to go and hide in his log tunnel (though she's started chasing him through that too if she thinks I'm taking too long )

I know that T is eating plenty of hay, which is the most important thing, so I don't worry if he doesn't get so much veg, and I hand feed them their evening pellets so that I can make sure he gets his share, but I have thought how amazing that their poos are such different colours on the same diet.