It’s often difficult to tell when rabbits are sick because they tend to hide any major symptoms, so you’ll have to watch your rabbit’s behavior very closely. If you know your rabbit ate a lot of plastic, continue to watch their behavior over the next few hours to make sure they don’t show any signs of GI Stasis. To encourage your rabbit to drink more water, make sure they have access to water in a bowl instead of a bottle since this is a more natural way for rabbits to drink.Ī rabbit in a hunched position will use their front paws to keep from pressing their belly against the ground. Make sure they have plenty of hay available and consider giving to orchard hay or oat hay in addition to timothy hay.ĭrinking plenty of water helps keep the digestion moving and prevents clumps from forming within your rabbit’s digestive system. Hay helps to keep the rabbit’s digestion moving, which will help them to pass the plastic through their system quicker.
The best thing you can do if your rabbit has been eating plastic is to encourage them to eat more hay and drink more water. If your rabbit shows a decreased appetite and is struggling to poop, you should bring them to a rabbit veterinarian to make sure they are not seriously ill. If your rabbit ate a large amount of plastic, you’ll want to keep an eye on them over the next few hours to make sure they don’t show any signs of illness. So, even if eating a small amount of plastic now doesn’t cause a problem for your rabbit, you want to watch them and prevent the behavior in the future. But eventually, he ate enough plastic that it caused him to get very sick because his digestion wasn’t working properly anymore. We didn’t think too much of it, and he was fine for several months. We had a bunny who kept chewing and plastic, especially his litter box.
Sadly, this is what happened with one of my family’s rabbits growing up. This kind of plastic-eating behavior is more likely to lead to problems in the GI tract, potentially causing GI Stasis, a common and deadly rabbit illness. Maybe they will not stop chewing on the side of a plastic litter box, or they eat the leaves off of plastic plants. This is especially a problem if your rabbit is notorious for eating plastic. However, there is always the possibility that a piece of plastic will cause an impaction in the intestines or cause their digestive process to slow down, making the rabbit very sick. The plastic will pass through their system and manage to come out the other end. In most cases, if your rabbit ate a small piece of plastic, they will be fine.
Small plastic pieces: Tinsel, zip ties, small buttons, any small plastic object a rabbit can easily fit into their mouth.Thin plastic: plastic bags, bubble wrap, food packaging, etc.Soft plastic: erasures, rubber bands, remote control buttons, etc.These are plastics that are easier to chew pieces off of and accidentally ingest.Īvoid any toys or plastic objects that have these characteristics: Bottle caps: You can wash out bottle caps and give them to your rabbit to toss and play with.Įven for rabbits who are not crazy about eating plastic, there are still some types of materials you should keep away from them.Stacking cups: Many rabbits like playing with baby toys, like stacking cups, by tossing them around.Treat balls: something like this ball rabbits can roll and toss around to get food out of.These toys will either be meant for your rabbit to have fun tossing around, or you can hide treats inside of them for your rabbit to find.Įxamples of acceptable plastic toys for rabbits include: Generally, it’s best to give your rabbit toys and accessories that are made with sturdy, thick plastic, because it’s less likely a piece will break off. If your rabbit is only chewing, and not eating, their plastic, then it’s common to provide them with plastic toys to play with. For example, I give my rabbits their daily pellets in a plastic treat ball. It’s okay to use plastic toys as long as your rabbit isn’t eating them.