While dogs and cats have been the most popular pets for a long time, rabbits are not far behind, and those big-eared furry hoppers are just too cute to resist.
Even their droppings are adorable, being chickpea-like balls and quite compact. Mind you, they can make a lot of those chickpeas in a day, so you’d better be prepared.
The good thing is that rabbits are generally clean animals that don’t have a very strong odor beyond their natural one, and being creatures that love to be indoors, if it smells bad the source may be in their environment.
However, there are more complex situations that will cause your rabbit’s poop to smell bad. Of course, droppings always have an unpleasant odor, but that of rabbits is usually almost dry and with a very discreet odor.
That is why when you come across their droppings with an irregular smell, it means that something is wrong.
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How Does Healthy Rabbit Poop Smell And Look?
For this point, it’s important to remember that rabbits have two types of feces: normal and cecotropes.
If your rabbit is healthy, its feces should be round and firm in shape, composed of unprocessed food that can be easily crushed.
The insides basically consist of chewed-up hay, check that from time to time along with the amount of droppings they make. Also, their feces vary in color from green to brown.
On the other hand, we have the cecotropes, which are much more misshapen, slimy, dark, and above all, smelly.
But that’s not the most surprising thing, and that is that rabbits usually eat them back. I know it sounds gross, but it’s a great source of nutrients that were not well digested in the first ingestion.
Still, if you find too many cecotropes in your rabbit’s area, it wouldn’t hurt to rethink their diet, as it may be too high in sugar.
Why Does Your Rabbit’s Poop Smell Bad?
Rabbit poop can smell bad for a number of reasons. Cecal dysbiosis is unformed poop that can have a bad odor due to diet, sickness, or stress.
Primarily, your rabbit’s diet is the first place to look if you wish to correct the problem. If it’s unbalanced, the odor of their stool will make it clear.
If this is the case, stop feeding your rabbit too much starch, sugar, and pellets, as these are the main causes of foul rabbit poop smell. Instead, focus on a diet with hay, fresh vegetables, and some pellets, but not too much.
However, other, more serious issues may cause your bunny droppings to smell bad. Let’s take a look
Poopy Butt
We start with the mildest case of all, and that is the poopy butt. As the name implies, this is when your rabbit keeps his butt dirty all the time, accumulating multiple feces from different times.
it’s in that case that you must come to the rescue and clean it frequently no matter how many times it goes to the bathroom, especially because of the flies that will not hesitate to pile up around its stinky butt.
Cecal Dysbiosis
This disease occurs when there is an imbalance of organisms in your furry friend’s digestive tract. Proof of this can be found in the cecotropes, which will be more deformed and smelly than normal. To stop this, try to lower the sugar and increase the amount of fiber in their diet.
Obesity
Overweight rabbits tend not to move like other rabbits, so their gut is much slower and prone to generate too many cecotropes that end up trapped in their fur.
Diarrhea
If your rabbit shows a lack of appetite, weight loss, sluggishness, and overly wet feces, it could be infected by parasites or ingested a poison, as diarrhea is a rare disease in rabbits. This causes a bad smell but beyond that, you should take your pet rabbit to the vet because if not treated properly it can even be fatal.
Stress
Finally, let’s not forget that it can be due to excessive stress. That’s right, rabbits also need peace of mind or you will be sorry.
How To Prevent Bad-Smelling Rabbit Feces
As mentioned before, keeping your rabbit on a balanced diet focused is the best prevention and cure.
As for hygiene, it is usually not recommended to bathe your bunny unless they are heavily soiled, and you might find traces of fecal matter stuck in their fur. From time to time, you can rub pet-safe wet wipes in that area to mitigate bad odors.
Regularly clean poops and pee from your litter box and empty the litter daily. I know it sounds very basic but many take it lightly and then don’t know why their rabbit stinks. Combine this with fresheners, an air ionizer, and good ventilation.
If you have applied all these suggestions and still your rabbits poop smells so bad, go to a veterinarian, a visit that never hurts even for healthy rabbits.
Bye-Bye Poopy Odor
Rabbits are very cute at first glance, but when you see the huge list of requirements to take care of them, you may think twice… Nah, I still want one of these little furries.
The most important thing is to pay attention to their rabbit droppings, both in shape, consistency, size, and any strong smell since most of the time they are the evidence of how their digestive system is doing.
I hope these tips have helped you keep your furry friend happy and hopping all over your house and leaving cute brown berries all over the place. Happy rabbit, happy life.
