Introduction

The rabbit digestive system works start with the initial stages of rabbit digestion are the same
as most mammals. When a rabbit eats, the food travels from the mouth, down the
oesophagus, into the stomach, and on to the small intestine. The small intestine is responsible
for absorbing the nutrients from the food. As food travels along it, enzymes break the food
down into individual nutrients that are small enough to pass through the lining of the intestine
and be absorbed into the blood stream. Enzymes can't breakdown fibre, so in most mammals
the fibre portion of the food would travel on through the colon and be excreted as waste.
However, in rabbits the colon sorts the fibre into two types, digestible and indigestible.

Digestible fibre has nutrients locked away inside it, so the colon diverts it to the
caecum for processing. The left over indigestible fibre doesn't contain any useable nutrients,
but it is still essential to the digestive process, as it has helped carry the food through the
digestive system. Its job is now complete, so the colon forms it into the hard round droppings
your rabbit leaves in his litter tray and it passes out of the body as waste.

Meanwhile, in the caecum, a colony of special bacteria ferment the digestible fibre,
breaking it down to release the stored nutrients. The caecum can absorb some of the nutrients
but most need to go back through the small intestine to be absorbed. To achieve this, the
fermented fibre moves back into the colon, where it is coated in protective mucus, before
being excreted from the body as special droppings, called cecotropes or cecal droppings. The
rabbit eats these droppings (a process called cacography) so they pass through the digestive
tract again. In their new format, the small intestine can easily absorb the nutrients.
Cecotropes

The digestion of rabbits and several other mammals has a unique aspect, and that is
the formation of cecotropes. Through this special mechanism, these animals can receive more
nutrition from what they eat. This special digestive process has been referred to as
'cecotrophy,' 'hindgut fermentation,' 'coprophagy,' or 'pseudorumination.'

Cecotropes, also known as cecotrophs, caecotrophes, caecotrophs, cecal pellets,

cecals, caecels or night faeces, are a second type of rabbit poop produced by the cecum.
These are different than the dry faecal pellets that a rabbit more commonly produces and
leaves in litter boxes and around their area. Cecotropes are not commonly seen by the rabbit
owner unless there are rabbit healths or dietary issues, and rabbits commonly eat them
directly from their anus as they are produced. Cecotropes have twice the protein, and half of
the fiber of the typical hard faecal pellet. Cecotrophs contain around 28-30% crude protein
and up to 30% of the total nitrogen intake of rabbits. They are high in nitrogen, short-chain
fatty acids, microbial protein, B vitamins, sodium, potassium, water, lysine, the sulfur amino
acids, and threonine. The short-chain fatty acids in their cecals provide an additional source
of energy, and the B vitamins provided can be in excess of the rabbit's needs. It is estimated
that B12 is synthesized 100x the daily requirement. Cecotropes also aid in the replenishment
of cecal microflora, and thus the products of bacterial growth are made available to rabbits
either by direct absorption in the cecum and colon or the small intestine by consumption of
the cecal contents.

Cecotropes produced same with humans, animals with hindgut fermentation have an
esophagus that leads to the stomach. From there, food enters the small intestine, where
absorption of the nutrients takes place. The food then passes to the colon. Little, if any,
absorption of nutrients occurs in the colon. In animals that have coprophagy, the large fiber
particles pass quickly through the colon and are excreted as typical faeces. Through special
muscle contractions (reverse peristalsis) in the colon, the nutrient-rich portion of the food is
moved back into the cecum, a sac-like structure between the small intestine and colon. This
food remains in the cecum, where it is broken down by special bacteria into absorbable
nutrients, such as simple sugars, starches, and amino acids. At a certain time of the day,
depending upon the species of the animal, the material from the cecum is moved into and
through the colon and passed out through the anus. The animal then ingests this material and
it moves through the digestive tract a second time, and the nutrients formed in the cecum are
absorbed in the small intestine. Without this process, many of the nutrients in the food would
be lost and passed through the colon, and out as typical faeces. If rabbit, are not allowed to
eat the cecotropes, they will suffer from malnutrition. The physical characteristics of
cecotropes, for size are smaller, softer, and moister than the hard faecal pellets. They are
covered with greenish mucus, which makes them stick together. Cecotropes and the typical
hard faeces are passed at different times into the colon. Depending upon the species, some
animals pass the cecotropes at night, others at dawn, and others throughout the day. This
allows animals to ingest the cecotropes during periods when they are not normally feeding.

Cecotropes
String of poop

String of poop – especially common in long haired rabbits, if they ingest too much fur, the
fecal pellets can occasionally come out strung together like a necklace. The “string of pearls”
is often found from rabbit. This is a sure sign that rabbit is ingesting a lot of his (or his
partner’s) fur and this issue will usually go away to rabbit by combing him. Rabbits cannot
throw up fur balls, like a cat can. In fact, they cannot vomit at all and so once they have
swallowed fur while taking one of their many daily baths, it must pass all the way through
their system. Generally, their system was designed for this, but they can get blockages if they
swallow too much. This is especially true if they have low motility in their gut, which is
slower than average movement or speed at which things move through. Low motility in a
rabbit’s gut makes them more prone to fur blockage.

String of poop