Coprophagy in rabbits: autoingestion of hard feces

The rabbit is a representative animal species that conducts coprophagy, i. e. the production and reingestion of soft feces. We, however, encountered a maternal rabbit eating its own hard feces. A detailed investigation was performed on coprophagy in the rabbit to elucidate whether rabbits actually r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inJikken dōbutsu Vol. 42; no. 4; p. 611
Main Authors Ebino, K Y, Shutoh, Y, Takahashi, K W
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Japan 01.10.1993
Subjects
Animals
Central Nervous System - physiology
Colon - physiology
Coprophagia - etiology
Feces
Female
Male
Rabbits - psychology
Rectum - physiology
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Summary:The rabbit is a representative animal species that conducts coprophagy, i. e. the production and reingestion of soft feces. We, however, encountered a maternal rabbit eating its own hard feces. A detailed investigation was performed on coprophagy in the rabbit to elucidate whether rabbits actually reingest their own hard feces. It was found that young adult Japanese White rabbits reingested their hard, as well as soft, feces directly from the anus. It has been reported that rabbits reingest only soft feces because of their high nutritive content, but the present study demonstrates that rabbits also reingest their hard feces despite their low nutritive content. It seems possible that coprophagy may be initiated by the colonic or rectal wall expanding effects of the fecal material itself.
ISSN:0007-5124
DOI:10.1538/expanim1978.42.4_611