Why Does My Rabbit Have Calcium in Its Urine?

1 Signs of Calcium in the Urine

Normal rabbit urine ranges from light to deep yellow. If the urine turns milky white or cloudy with sediment, and leaves a white residue after it dries, your rabbit most likely has calcium in its urine (calciuria). The main causes are below.

2 Eating Alfalfa

This is the leading cause in young rabbits because alfalfa is rich in calcium and is their staple food, so they take in a lot of it. Young rabbits cannot fully absorb all that calcium, and the excess leaves the body through the urine, forming calciuria.

Alfalfa is a daily food for growing kits because they develop fast and need plenty of nutrition, so occasional calciuria is hard to avoid and usually short-lived. Feeding a small handful in the morning and evening is reasonable. Once a rabbit is adult (over 6 months), it no longer needs daily alfalfa; switch to timothy hay as the main food and pellets as a supplement, since growth has slowed and too much calcium causes calciuria or over-nutrition.

3 Other Causes in Adult Rabbits

Besides too much alfalfa, adult calciuria can come from not drinking enough water, eating too many pellets, kidney problems, urinary tract abnormalities, or reproductive-system disease.

For adult calciuria, first adjust the diet to low-calcium foods such as timothy hay and observe for 2 days. If it continues, suspect urinary stones and take the rabbit to a vet to prevent more serious harm.

Tip: an adult rabbit’s staple should be timothy hay, with pellets second. Unless the rabbit is weak or undernourished, there is no need to feed alfalfa.