# How is it rabbits crap little round pellets. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 19, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516 "2011-05-19T23:40:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2011, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/1 "2011-05-19T23:40:30Z")
Do they roll the vegetation in balls when eating? Does the stomach or intestines ball it up. Do they have a magical butt? Why are rabbit pellets (smart pills) so spherical. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/2 "2011-05-20T01:47:01Z")
I was just wondering the same thing about my guinea pig, and also deer. Human waste tends to look more or less extruded, reflecting the shape of the large intestine. But these other animals shit little very regular-shaped pellets of one size or another. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/3 "2011-05-20T02:22:05Z")
You just know they do this, but never wonder how. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/4 "2011-05-20T02:56:34Z")
The pellets are formed in the large intestine. There’s no great secret to it. The intestines of all animals move the mass along by a series of contraction waves in the gut walls. In the case of animals like rabbits and sheep a lot of water is extracted during the process and the mass becomes ever smaller. Because it is also very fibrous the contraction waves pinch the ever decreasing mass into pellets. It’s probably easier to visualise if you [look at the diagram](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Anatomy_and_physiology_of_animals_Gut_of_a_rabbit.jpg). Humans don’t do this because our food isn’t particularly fibrous and we aren’t very good at extracting water from faeces, so the mass remains semi-liquid. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/5 "2011-05-20T03:02:52Z")
As to why they are spherical, it’s because the sphere is the default shape formed when you roll something along a tube. Animals like horses and sheep also produce round pellets, but because they get jammed together in the rectum before being released they become distorted. Rabbits release their pellets continuously as they pass down the tract, so they never become squashed and remain round. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/6 "2011-05-20T03:27:39Z")
Nitpick: in the morning, rabbits poop clusters of soft tiny round poop (cecotropes). Then they eat them. They they poop firm fibrous round poop the rest of the day. Rabbits are weird. [The Master speaks](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2128/why-do-some-animals-have-pellet-poop). In short, it has to do with the colon, the rectum, and the sphincter working in concert to produce neatly-formed feces. Not so much with the diet of the animal - most pellet poopers are high-fiber herbivores, but many high-fiber herbivores have unformed, soft, or even near-liquid poop. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/7 "2011-05-20T03:30:31Z")
Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Tabby\_Cat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tabby\_Cat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabby_Cat)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/8 "2011-05-20T03:42:07Z")
My cat pretty much poops spheres too, they’re just jammed up in a long string but you can clearly tell they’re spheres jammed up into a string. Come to think of it, you can tell human poop is made of little rounded pellets jammed up too. But damn if I’m going to google for pics. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 4:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/9 "2011-05-20T04:18:21Z")
My poop isn’t pelleted and never has been. See the [Bristol Stool Scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale) - there’s lots of ways for us to poop. ---
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/10 "2011-05-20T04:50:34Z")
> [@Tabby\_Cat](#): > > My cat pretty much poops spheres too, they’re just jammed up in a long string but you can clearly tell they’re spheres jammed up into a string. But cat dung definitely isn’t a long string of spheres. The carnivore gut doesn’t work that way. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/11 "2011-05-20T15:03:42Z")
> [@rhubarbarin](#): > > My poop isn’t pelleted and never has been. See the [Bristol Stool Scale](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Stool_Scale) - there’s lots of ways for us to poop. Never underestimate the power of the SDMB. You can find any kind of shit here. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/12 "2011-05-20T15:10:53Z")
You think that’s strange, believe it or not [wombat poop is square](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ik19YjW5uWQ/S_G9vTtLZDI/AAAAAAAAAN4/fSdIqK1yYCE/s1600/Wombatpoo.jpg) (or cubical, roughly, to be more exact). ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/13 "2011-05-20T16:12:05Z")
I asked a similar question some time ago; [here’s the thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=156726). ---
**Author:** ![Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/8edcca/32.png) [@Superfluous\_Parentheses](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superfluous_Parentheses)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/14 "2011-05-20T16:46:20Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > You think that’s strange, believe it or not [wombat poop is square](http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Ik19YjW5uWQ/S_G9vTtLZDI/AAAAAAAAAN4/fSdIqK1yYCE/s1600/Wombatpoo.jpg) (or cubical, roughly, to be more exact). Best fact of the day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/15 "2011-05-20T18:10:32Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > Do they have a magical butt? Yes. Yes, they do. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/16 "2011-05-20T22:19:32Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > Yes. Yes, they do. Now I’m thinking of the Trix rabbit with a magical butt. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [May 21, 2011, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-is-it-rabbits-crap-little-round-pellets/582516/17 "2011-05-21T00:37:28Z")
Silly rabbit - shits are for kids!