Why Do Rabbits Eat Their Fur and How to Stop It

1 Why Do Rabbits Eat Their Fur and How to Stop It

Causes of Fur-Eating in Rabbits

1. External parasites on the body.

2. Feed too low in crude fiber or too low in sulfur amino acids; also, swinging temperatures can trigger it. Fur-eating is most common in late autumn, early winter, and early spring.

3. The rabbit may be in a shedding phase, or it may have a fur-eating louse.

Fur-eating mostly affects 1–3 month old kits. It splits into self-eating and mutual eating. Self-eating means the rabbit chews its own coat—everywhere except the neck and head it can’t reach may be stripped bare. Mutual eating is between cage neighbors, where any body part can be chewed. This leads to weight loss, low spirits, and easily causes hairball disease.

How to Handle Fur-Eating

Medication: feed 0.25 g methionine and 25 mg cystine daily for 3–5 days. Or add 0.5% gypsum powder to the feed for 5–7 days, and raise the amount of fresh greens.

Prevention:

1. Keep the hutch well-ventilated and lit; stay warm but avoid dampness.

2. Lower stocking density, and clear shed fur during molting so it can’t mix into feed or water and trigger fur-eating or hairballs.

3. Improve the feed formula and add enough animal and plant protein (bone meal, bean cake), plus sodium, calcium, and vitamins.

4. Deworm on schedule: use ivermectin for external parasites and albendazole for internal parasites.

That covers the causes and fixes for fur-eating. A reminder: rabbits groom to self-clean, but swallowing too much fur causes bloating, so brush and clear their coat often.