Bunny owners love their furry friends, but the poop they produce can become a problem. If you keep them indoors, a rabbit can quickly fill a litter box, and rabbit owners wonder why bunnies poop so much. For rabbits kept outside in cages, the same applies. Whether your bunnies use a litter box or poop in the bottom of their cage is irrelevant.
Table of contents
- How much do bunnies poop?
- Your bunnies digestive system
- Why is my rabbit leaving cecotropes everywhere?
- What does rabbit poop look like?
- How often do rabbits pee?
- How you can encourage your rabbit to drink more
- Food that will keep your bunny healthy
- Bunny poop is excellent for your garden.
- Is baby bunny poop different from adults?
The sheer amount of rabbit excrement you must deal with from soft, lovely rabbits can be overwhelming. In addition, the poop problem with rabbits can be bothersome if you are not expecting them to poop everywhere.
Rabbits have a digestive system similar to humans. Even though they are herbivores and we are not, we comparably digest food. However, even though we have similar digestive systems, bunnies must constantly eat to get food through their digestive system.
The result is constant pooping. Thankfully, bunny poop does not smell too bad unless there is a lot of it, and even one bunny can make a lot of poop.
How much do bunnies poop?
Bunnies poop a lot. They can produce 100 to 300 hundred pea-sized pellets per day. That is a lot of poop. The breed of rabbit and its size is not a factor in the amount of poop it produces.
Poop is a part of the equation from small to large rabbit breeds, whether you keep one, two, three, or a dozen bunnies as pets. Even though a rabbit’s poop is not smelly, too much of anything is not good.
However, bunnies are bright, and you can train them to use a litter box. If you don’t teach them to use one and let them roam in your home, they will think the entire house is theirs to poop in.
For bunnies that you keep in a cage, you will find that they tend to poop in a corner. Even in outside cages and free-range rabbit habitats, a litter box will keep your rabbit’s cage cleaner. It will also make cleaning rabbit poop easier for you to do.
Your bunnies digestive system
It is important to understand how your bunnies’ digestive system works, and their diet needs. Then you will understand why do bunnies poop so much. This knowledge will enable you to adjust what your bunny needs to eat or not eat when their poop or pee has the wrong appearance or smell.
Because of your bunny’s digestive system, it must move large quantities of fibrous food through it every day. So, your rabbit will need a constant supply of hay because that is its natural food of choice.
It takes constant greens to give your bunny the nutrients it needs throughout the day. Your bunny may eat only grass and greens, but they still need protein, carbohydrates, and a balance of vitamins and minerals, just like you and I do. The way their little bodies strip these nutrients from the foods they eat is quite interesting.
How does your bunny digest its food?
From teeth to tail, a rabbit is very efficient at consuming and processing large quantities of grass, hay, greens, and fruit throughout the day. Their teeth are made to grind and require constant use to stay worn down enough for use. In addition, this is where their digestion starts. A large amount of saliva produced specifically for the task is mixed with a bunny’s teeth grinding. The grinding and salivating of its food begin the rabbit’s digestion process.
Like humans, rabbits have a monogastric digestive system, which means they have one stomach. Cows, horses, and goats have four chambers and more in their stomachs, which enable them to break down the grass they eat.
The rabbit shares another organ with humans called the. Cecum. However, by comparison, it and the small intestine are larger than those of a human. Because they are larger, they can process the bulky fibrous food they consume. The cecum of humans processes fluids and salts for reabsorption. However, the small intestine and cecum of the rabbit are developed to do what they do, which is strip the nutrients from fibrous plants.
This process is accomplished by mixing enzymes from the saliva and stomach of the rabbit in the cecum. This process strips the nutrients from the fiber so the rabbit can use them as fuel.
Rabbits eat their poo – Really, they do!
Not completely digested food is passed in a pellet pack called cecotropes, another type of normal rabbit poop. The tiny clusters of droppings are soft and packed full of nutrients. They look a lot like little brown clusters of grapes.
After dropping them, the rabbit immediately eats them. Then, they go back to the stomach, where they are processed further for the nutrients they hold; after being fully digested, the waste is passed again, as poop this time.
That’s weird, right? Well, it may be, but that is how a bunny digests food, and although it may seem disgusting, it is really quite efficient if you think about it.
Why is my rabbit leaving cecotropes everywhere?
Cecotropes, also known as caecal pellets, night feces, and caecotrophs, are rarely seen in the cage of a healthy rabbit. They may be present occasionally; however, they are usually consumed as quickly as dropped. This usually occurs early in the morning or late in the evening. If you want to see rabbits perform this odd bodily function, you will need to put a game camera in their cage or catch them in the act. If, however, its cage becomes littered with cecotropes, your rabbit may have a dietary issue that you may need to address.
A rabbit needs a lot of fiber, and if it does not get enough, its digestive process may speed up and produce more cecotropes. A diet with too much sugar can cause a rabbit to produce too many cecotropes. On the other hand, too much sugar can come from a diet too high in fruit and sugar-rich vegetables.
The best diet for bunnies is quality hay, with a few rabbit pellets and fresh greens as an addition, not a mainstay.
What does rabbit poop look like?
The poop of a healthy rabbit is light to dark brown and ranges from a green pea to a chickpea. A rabbit’s poop should all be about the same size and color, and unless it is a cecotrope, it will be fibrous.
Suppose your rabbit’s poops are a lot different in size. In that case, your little friend may have a problem that requires a professional opinion. The appearance of your bunnies’ poop can tell you a lot about their health. Knowing that they have two healthy poop types is also essential information about their habits.
The oddest thing about your bunnies’ poop
There are two types of rabbit poop, and you need to know the difference. As mentioned above, rabbits poop out pea-sized light to dark brown pellets of poop. However, every 10 to 12 hours, they drop cecotropes, which they eat and re-digest to get every bit of nutritional value possible from their food.
Cecotropes look different from regular poop, as the pellets come out in clusters of smaller, darker, shinier pellets. The clusters can be several inches long or be only a few pellets grouped.
Unlike regular rabbit poop, which is somewhat fibrous, cecotropes are soft and mushy.
Why is my rabbit’s poop runny?
There are several reasons your bunny may have runny poops or diarrhea. Common reasons your bunny may have runny poop include carbohydrate overload or insufficient digestible fiber to provide essential nutrients. Other reasons for your rabbit to have runny poop can include toxins in its water, food, or environment.
Misused antibiotics, which are an irritant to the bunny’s digestive system, can cause diarrhea.
Why is my rabbit not pooping?
Even if it is healthy, a rabbit will not stay healthy for that long if it is not pooping. Dehydration is the most common cause of constipation in rabbits. Therefore, making sure that it receives enough water should quickly remedy this issue.
Suppose water alone doesn’t get your baby’s bowels moving. In that case, a little olive oil or a laxative from your veterinarian should get things moving again.
How often do rabbits pee?
Fortunately, rabbits do not pee all the time, or you will have a mess indeed. However, they do pee two to eight times a day. How often they pee depends on how much they drink and eat. What they eat is also a factor, as some vegetation has a higher water content than others.
Rabbit urine colors
The color of a rabbit’s poop and its pee are indicators of good health and can tell you if something is amiss with your bunny rabbit.
Clear
Clear urine is expected for bunnies. However, if you have a rabbit whose urine has been yellow or orange and is now very clear, keep an eye on it. It could be consuming more water due to a kidney problem, so be aware that this issue could occur with your bunnies.
Yellow
Yellow urine or amber is the normal color for a healthy rabbit.
Orange
According to diet, Orange can be the expected color of a rabbit’s urine. However, if you have a rabbit with orange pee, try to get them to drink more water.
Red
Don’t get alarmed if you have a rabbit that pees red on occasion. Think about what you have fed it first. A rabbit’s diet can color its urine red. So, don’t get too excited if this happens only occasionally or after you have fed it something that might color its urine red.
Brown
Tea-colored or brown rabbit urine can be a sign of dehydration, and you should address this issue immediately.
Cloudy
Cloudy pee may indicate a bladder or kidney problem with your rabbit. Cloudy pee could be a sign of kidney stones or a urinary tract infection. They will need to see the vet as soon as possible.
White
Okay, here is the strange occurrence because your rabbit’s urine will occasionally be white. But, this is how they purge their body of too much calcium, which is a regular occurrence, and you shouldn’t get excited when it happens.
Spotted with red
If your bunnies’ pee is spotted red, it could be from their food, or it could be blood, and if this happens with your rabbit, it needs to see a veterinarian for a diagnosis.
How you can encourage your rabbit to drink more
The easiest way to get your bunnies to drink is to make water available from more than one source. Please give them a water bottle and a water bowl and make sure the rabbit’s water is fresh.
Like many other animals, rabbits are prone to kidney issues, and being sure they drink plenty of water is the easiest way to prevent ailments. When you feed your bunnies, their daily greens leave them a bit wet, and your babies will get a little hydration from their diet in this manner.
Being sure they get enough water will help keep them from having problems with digestion or urinary and kidney issues.
Food that will keep your bunny healthy
Your rabbits are built to eat fibrous grasses, and hay should be the mainstay in your bunny’s diet. Good quality hays such as timothy and alfalfa are best for your furry friends. However, legume hay is an acceptable alternative.
The addition of peanut hay during pregnancy and lactation can help female rabbits stay healthy due to its higher protein level.
Bunny poop is excellent for your garden.
Bunny poop is rich in nitrogen and magnesium. Both of these minerals are beneficial to gardening, and a good way to dispose of bunny poop is to add it to your mulch pile. However, if you use litter boxes for your bunnies, be careful of the litter you use. The clumping and scented varieties of cat litter can be harmful to your bunnies.
You can dispose of the litter you use for your rabbits in your compost pile. Disposing of your rabbit litter in this way is efficient and turns it into something useful.
Is baby bunny poop different from adults?
It looks the same but is smaller, and baby bunnies can have the same problems with digestion as adults. Baby bunnies live on milk alone for the first two weeks, and they can have a little hay at this time.
Be sure to make plenty of water available, although they will still need milk until they are eight weeks old. Baby rabbits that are not getting enough milk can be given kitten formula as a substitute.
Some breeds of rabbits have large litters, and the mother may not have enough food for everyone, so you will need to step in. Since it has less fat than rabbit milk, adding a little cream to the mix will give baby bunnies the fat and protein they need. As with an adult rabbit, keep an eye on the baby’s poop during this transition from food to food. You will correct any dietary needs before they affect the baby’s health if you do.