My rabbit eats greens but ignores the hay: should I worry?

Yes, this is an early sign worth acting on. Hay requires prolonged chewing, and an animal with dental pain chooses soft food because it costs less effort. A drop in hay intake lasting more than two days, even with no other sign, deserves a consultation with an oral examination, because dental spurs form at the back of the arcade and are not visible by simply lifting the lip.

How much is a five per cent weight loss in practice?

In a 900 gram guinea pig it is 45 grams, in a 120 gram hamster it is 6 grams. These are differences the eye cannot see and a kitchen scale measures without doubt. That is why weekly weighing is the single home check with the best ratio of time spent to information gained, and it should always use the same scale at the same time of day.

Can I take the animal to a dog and cat emergency service?

Only if nothing else is within reach. Practices without exotic experience often lack the anaesthetics, equipment and physiological references suited to an animal weighing a few hundred grams. Identify in advance a clinic that states it sees rabbits and rodents, save the contact and check the out of hours arrangements before you need them, not during the emergency.

How do I transport a small mammal without making things worse?

Use a rigid carrier with a dry cloth on the floor and some hay, cover the sides to reduce visual stimulation, and keep the car warm without blowing hot air directly onto the animal. Bring a sample of the droppings and the boxes of any current medicines. Drive without stops: in prey species every extra handling spends energy that is needed elsewhere.

Non conventional species15 minLevel: BeginnerUpdated on July 28, 2026

Spotting an emergency in rabbits and rodents before it is too late

Signs that cannot wait, normal values by species and an eight step check to know when a small mammal needs the clinic right now.

Audience: Pet owners
Species: Rabbit, Rodents
Scope: Valid everywhere

What you need before you start

Una bilancia da cucina con precisione di 1 grammo e un contenitore da usare come tara
Il recapito di una clinica che visita animali esotici, verificato prima di averne bisogno
Un trasportino rigido pronto all'uso, con fieno pulito e un panno di ricambio
Lo storico del peso degli ultimi giorni, se lo registri con regolarità

Rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, rats, mice and hamsters are prey species: in the wild, showing weakness means being singled out, so they hide pain for as long as they can. By the time an owner notices something is wrong, the problem has often been running for days and the window for action is measured in hours. Add a very fast metabolism: a rabbit that has not eaten for half a day is in a different clinical situation from a dog that skips a meal, and a dehydrated guinea pig can deteriorate overnight. This guide is not about making a diagnosis. It is about separating what can safely wait until morning from what needs a phone call now, and about preparing in a few minutes the information your vet will ask for first.

Why time is counted in hours in prey species

A dog with abdominal pain vocalises, seeks contact and changes posture visibly. A rabbit with the same pain hunches in a corner, stays still and still looks calm to anyone walking past in a hurry. This difference is not personality: it is a survival strategy, and it makes waiting for complaint useless. The useful signal is not the complaint, it is the change from that individual's own normal.

The second element is physiological. The digestive tract of rabbits and guinea pigs only works if fibre keeps arriving: when intake stops, motility slows, gut contents dry out and the picture worsens on its own, even when the trigger was as ordinary as a tooth growing at the wrong angle. That is why fasting is not a symptom to watch for a day: it is an event counted in hours. In small rodents the surface to mass ratio amplifies heat loss, so a debilitated animal cools quickly, and cooling further slows gut motility.

The signs that cannot wait

The table below lists observations that on their own justify immediate contact with a clinic. They do not describe a diagnosis: they describe an urgency threshold. The timing column tells you when to speak to a vet, not when to arrive at the practice.

Observable sign, common meaning and time window
Sign	Common meaning	Contact within
No faecal pellet produced for more than 12 hours	Slowed gut motility	Now, including out of hours
Complete refusal of food for more than 12 hours	Pain, dental problem or digestive stasis	Now
Open mouth breathing, noisy breathing or extended neck	Severe respiratory distress	Now, with minimal handling
Hunched posture, half closed eyes, quiet tooth grinding	Significant ongoing pain	Within one hour
Ears and feet cold to the touch in a heated room	Hypothermia linked to shock	Now, keeping the animal warm in transit
Persistent head tilt with loss of balance	Vestibular disorder	Within a few hours
Straining to urinate, no urine or urine in drops	Urinary obstruction or cystitis	Now
Watery diarrhoea in a guinea pig or young rabbit	Gut flora imbalance with rapid dehydration	Within a few hours
Weight loss above 5 per cent in one week	Disease already present but not yet visible	Within twenty four hours

Normal reference values, species by species

The values below are reference ranges for resting adults in a thermoneutral environment. They exist so you can compare during the phone call, not so you can decide alone. Respiratory rate is counted by watching the chest for thirty seconds and doubling the result, without touching the animal: handling alone raises the figure substantially.

Indicative physiological parameters in resting adults
Species	Rectal temperature in degrees	Breaths per minute	Heartbeats per minute	Typical adult weight
Rabbit	38.5 to 40.0	30 to 60	130 to 325	1.5 to 5 kg depending on breed
Guinea pig	37.2 to 39.5	40 to 100	230 to 380	700 to 1200 g
Chinchilla	37.0 to 38.0	40 to 80	100 to 150	450 to 800 g
Rat	37.5 to 38.5	70 to 150	250 to 450	250 to 500 g
Syrian hamster	36.2 to 38.0	35 to 135	300 to 600	85 to 150 g
Gerbil	37.4 to 39.0	85 to 160	260 to 600	60 to 130 g

The eight step rapid check

Look before you touch
Stay a metre away for a full minute and watch posture, breathing and response to sound. An animal that does not turn towards a new noise, or that stays still with its feet tucked under the body, is already giving you the most important information. Picking it up straight away would erase that comparison with its own normal.
Count the droppings on the floor
Look at how many faecal pellets have been produced since the last clean and compare with a normal day. Note shape and size too: very small, dry or irregular pellets point to a transit that has already slowed, even when the count still looks acceptable.
Check food and water actually taken
See how much hay has gone, whether the greens are untouched and how far the water level has dropped. If you have no baseline, weigh the morning hay ration and weigh the leftovers in the evening for the next two days: from then on the reference is your own.
Weigh the animal
Put the empty container on the scale, zero it with the tare function, place the animal inside and read the figure. Repeat at the same time every day. A drop of more than 5 per cent of body weight within a week is significant even with no other sign.
Count the breaths
Watch the chest move for thirty seconds and double the number. Report immediately open mouth breathing, nostrils flaring with each breath, noise audible from a distance or exaggerated abdominal movement: in rabbits, breathing through the mouth is always an emergency.
Assess temperature by touch
Feel the base of the ears and the feet. In a heated room they should feel warm. Cold extremities in a dull animal point to circulatory compromise and change the priority: from an appointment to be arranged, to immediate transport with the animal kept warm along the way.
Look closely at mouth, eyes and nose
Look for saliva wetting the chin and neck, watery or crusted eyes, nasal discharge, and crusts on the front paws caused by wiping the face. Salivation in rabbits and guinea pigs almost always points to a dental problem, which rarely resolves on its own.
Decide and write it down
If you found even one row from the signs table, call now. If you found none, still write down date, time, weight, droppings and food intake: a second check six hours later against written data is worth far more than a remembered impression.

What to prepare before you call

A useful phone call lasts three minutes and contains numbers. Have this information ready before you dial, and the vet will judge more precisely whether you should come in immediately or take an appointment in the next few hours.

Species, age, sex, today's weight and the weight from the previous measurement.
Exactly how many hours since it last ate and how many since it last passed droppings.
Amount and appearance of the droppings produced in the last twenty four hours.
What it has eaten in the last three days, including anything newly introduced.
Any medicines or supplements in use, with the name printed on the box and the start date.
Room temperature where it lives and any recent change of cage, bedding or companion.
A photograph of the cage floor and a short video of the breathing at rest.

Common mistakes that waste critical hours

Mistake, consequence and correct action
Mistake	Consequence	Correct action
Waiting for morning because the animal looks calm	Apparent calm is the rule in prey species	Decide on the signs table, not on appearance
Offering only palatable processed food to get it eating	Transit slows further for lack of fibre	Report the refusal and keep hay always available
Transporting the animal without keeping it warm	Cooling during the journey worsens the picture	Covered carrier, dry cloth and a warm car interior
Going to a clinic that does not see exotic pets	Time lost and a second journey in worse condition	Confirm the right contact before the emergency
Separating the animal from its companion without reason	Extra stress and loss of the social reference	Ask the vet whether separation is genuinely needed
Not weighing because a scale feels like a detail	The only objective figure that precedes symptoms is missing	Weigh weekly, always at the same time

Frequently asked questions

My rabbit eats greens but ignores the hay: should I worry?: Yes, this is an early sign worth acting on. Hay requires prolonged chewing, and an animal with dental pain chooses soft food because it costs less effort. A drop in hay intake lasting more than two days, even with no other sign, deserves a consultation with an oral examination, because dental spurs form at the back of the arcade and are not visible by simply lifting the lip.
How much is a five per cent weight loss in practice?: In a 900 gram guinea pig it is 45 grams, in a 120 gram hamster it is 6 grams. These are differences the eye cannot see and a kitchen scale measures without doubt. That is why weekly weighing is the single home check with the best ratio of time spent to information gained, and it should always use the same scale at the same time of day.
Can I take the animal to a dog and cat emergency service?: Only if nothing else is within reach. Practices without exotic experience often lack the anaesthetics, equipment and physiological references suited to an animal weighing a few hundred grams. Identify in advance a clinic that states it sees rabbits and rodents, save the contact and check the out of hours arrangements before you need them, not during the emergency.
How do I transport a small mammal without making things worse?: Use a rigid carrier with a dry cloth on the floor and some hay, cover the sides to reduce visual stimulation, and keep the car warm without blowing hot air directly onto the animal. Bring a sample of the droppings and the boxes of any current medicines. Drive without stops: in prey species every extra handling spends energy that is needed elsewhere.

What to do next

Put the scale next to the cage and weigh once a week, always at the same hour. Count the droppings every evening and treat twelve hours without droppings or without food as an alarm threshold, not as something to watch until morning. Save today the contact of a clinic that sees exotic pets and keep the carrier ready: in these species the advantage is built before the emergency, not during it.