Having fed many, many carrots to my rabbits and guinea pigs (I am defending the computer cables against Sniffy and Paddy O’Bunny even as we speak; thank goodness, the guinea pigs are in cages), I have to wonder why rabbits and guinea pigs don’t turn pink (or orange, or yellow, or red) the way flamingoes do, or salmon. As far as I’ve ever been able to tell, the bunz’ skin stays the same color regardless of whether they pig out on carrots, or on parsley, or only on timothy hay. No color changes. Ditto on the cavies. Why don’t they turn colors the way 'mingos do? (And why isn’t it spelled flamingoes?)
that this is in reference to the column which appears this week, at least in my local weekly, entitled “Pink Flamingos.” I don’t happen to have the electronic reference handy - Arnold, where would I find that? Muchas gracias. A free pillow knitted of fur shed by my bunnies (if you want it) to you for your help.
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The article is Are flamingos pink because they eat shrimps?
Well, when you say “pig out” on carrots, just what kind of quantities are we talking about here? When people eat a lot of carrots, or consume too much beta carotene, their skin turns orange.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/003243.htm
I went looking for how many carrots a person would have to eat to get orange skin and found this.
http://ww2.mcgill.ca/chempublic/Previous%20Q&A.htm
So, five bunches a day, for a guy? What’s the rabbit equivalent?
This website says to only feed very small amounts of carrot to your rabbit, but it sounds like the problem is diarrhea, not orange skin.
http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Lane/4661/care.html
Rabbits don’t normally eat carrots (root vegetables) in the wild.
Ah ha! Google comes through. “Rabbit carotene skin”.
http://www.rabbitweb.net/health-problems.asp
“Rabbit red urine”.
http://www.rabbit.org/journal/3-1/red-urine.html
So it looks to me like the reason why rabbits’ skins don’t turn orange if they eat too many carrots is that their metabolisms are different and they excrete the excess carotene instead of storing it under the skin like humans do.
…and Colibri didn’t need to aggravate his bursitis by hoisting the Cambridge Encyclopedia of Ornithology down off the shelf. He could have just looked up “canary color feeding”.
http://www2.upatsix.com/faq/canary.htm#COLOR
http://www.petcraft.com/docs/redcan.html
I love the Internet. I love knowing that somewhere out there are people who are seriously concerned about cheating at a canary show. Suspiciously, “What did you feed your birds?”
How would they check something like that? Do they have blood and urine tests, like for racehorses? 
Flamingos’ metabolisms are set up to sequester the carotenoids in their feathers. Many animals consume lots of carotenoids without displaying them externally. For example, some kinds of penguins eat lots of krill (basically shrimp) but they sure don’t turn pink.
BunRab, what color are the rabbits and cavies? I expect the effect would only show up in white individuals, if it showed up at all. After all, in humans (AFAIK) only pale skinned people of northern European ancestry will manifest orange color on overfeeding with carotene.
Bah! Who says I hoisted it off the shelf. I was quoting from memory.
George Angehr
Straight Dope Curator of Birds
Hey, DDG, you forgot: If you eat too many carrots will you turn orange?
and Can you tan without sun by taking carotene pills?
For shame! - Jill
[Edited by JillGat on 05-18-2001 at 08:37 PM]
That second quote in my post was from DDG of course, not BunRab.
DDG What a sneaky way to bring up an old thread!
Does the carrotting process turn a beaver orange?
Hey, Jill, how did you know what color Edith’s tapeworm was?
:eek:
Nix that! I don’t want to know!
As for why it’s spelled “flamingos” instead of “flamingoes”, my WAG is that it’s because historically speaking, American English has always tended to simplify by leaving out unnecessary letters, for example, the difference between the British “programme” and the American “program”, or “colour” and “color”.
There are other words that end in “o” that have “oes” as the plural, like “dingoes” and “fungoes” and there are other words that end in “o” that don’t, like “dittos”.
“Motto” can go either way, according to Merriam-Webster.
M-W Online says flamingo’s plural is both -os and -oes. I guess the birds go both ways… (ducking and running)
Spirulina, the blue-green algae mentioned in the article, considered by some sources to be the primary reason flamingos are pink, is a regular part of my diet. Why don’t I turn pink? That would rule…
Odd. While I am writing this post, we are watching Animaniacs… just saw a short bit about someone turning orange from eating too many carrots.
Erin
Sorry I’m late on this, and I hope it isn’t too off-topic, but I’ve looked at Slug’s magnificent illustration several times now, and I can’t quite figure out the bunny. She is obviously “tan”, and I guess the objects between the carrot and her harms (fore legs?) are her little bunny boobies, but are the little bumps on her harms elbows, or the busness ends of the mammaries?
Nice Flamingo, by the way…
sford:
The bumps on her narrow arms are pretty clearly her elbows – and her bunny boobies are anything but little. 
Since we’re discussing the illustration, is it just me, or is Slug’s depiction of the carrot and bunny a little too suggestive? Or have I been spending too much time on the wrong type of web sites?
I thought they were nipples, not elbows. I had to look a long time (shesh, I’m a preevert) to even see arms in all that boobiness.
Whether or not it’s an accurate picture of a bunny- and I don’t think it was meant to be - it ceertainly isn’t an accurate illustration for the column, since we’ve established, above, that bunnies quite specifically DON’T turn orange, but excrete the excess beta-carotene.
BTW, as far as whether it would show up only in white bunnies and guinea pigs- there are actually two different “white” fur colors- an actual white color, and then albino, the absence of color. I guess we might say this is the equivalent of pale pink skin in humans, vs. actual albino, which is much paler in humans. In rabbits, both white colors look the same to the naked eye, but the eye color, coloring on the ears and nose, etc., differ for whites vs albinos. (Hey, there’s another one of those words. Albinoes?) Rabbits don’t come in too many colors anyway, but neither white turns orange when fed lots and lots of carrots. (This usually happens when ignorant people buy pet rabbits from ignorant pet stores.) Likewise guinea pigs come in both white and albino. And both species can come in mixes of colors, of course, where some of their fur is white, and some other colors. Guinea pigs do come in several shades of orange naturally, most of which are referred to as red. (I didn’t say there was any logic to this.) But the orange hair color in guinea pigs has no basis, as best anyone can tell, in diet; it’s strictly genetic. Neither white nor albino guinea pigs turn orange when fed too many carrots.
Anyway, for anyone following all this, a note that while a mini-carrot a day is fine for your rabbit or guinea pig, the vast majority of their diet should be timothy hay, and as far as veggies, greens are better than carrots, with parsley being a big favorite. Much more available on any reputable rabbit or guinea pig web site; ignore most books on pets, as they seem to be inaccurate about exotics about 95% of the time.
Whew. Gonna go munch some carrots to calm down. (I’VE never quite eaten enough to turn orange, but I sure do love carrots.)
Alas, as Dave Barry is so fond of saying, we males have an entire brain lobe devoted to the female nutrition suppliers.
Back on-topic, I’m not sure that too many carrots would cause BunRab’s fur to turn orange. I know a woman who went through a period of excessive carrot consumption, and it was her skin that turned a little orange, not her hair.
(Actually, now that I think of it, this wouldn’t be a very good data point since her hair is naturally dark, and it’s already been established that an existing strong pigment would “drown out” the orange. But I still don’t think that it necessarily follows that skin discoloration would naturally lead to a change in hair/fur color. Maybe I’ll start feeding my blonde daughter carrots on the sly…)
Yes indeedy. I imagine going back to, say, 1960, and finding one of the great science fiction authors. “Mr Clarke, I’m here to tell you about the future, so you can write even more and become famous for your prescience!” Clarke asks what’s the big thing, and one replies, computers. There’s more computer power in the den of most homes, or the spare bedroom, than the entire world has right now. And they’re all networked together via the Internet!
Clarke asks, “So, what is all this computing power used for?? Do you have control over world weather?” Well, no…
“Do people vote instantaneously on issues before the world government, from their homes?” Well, no…
“Well, what DO the computers get used for?” Well, mostly to display photographs of people’s pet ferrets dressed in Halloween costumes… oh, and to sell pornography. “Ferrets? You mean weasels?” Well, yes- but don’t worrry, Mr. Clarke, there’s lots of useful stuff out there too! For example, people are MUCH better informed about cheating at canary shows!!