Reframing Rabbit Nutrition Through Caecotrophy: Hindgut Resilience, Functional Feed Additives and Meat Biofortification

Rabbit nutrition is moving beyond conventional nutrient-supply models toward functional feeding strategies that support hindgut resilience, reduce post-weaning digestive disorders and improve meat quality. Rabbits are unique hindgut fermenters because caecotrophy allows recycling of microbial protein, vitamins and potentially microbial lipid metabolites. Therefore, caecotrophy can serve as a central framework linking diet structure, caecal fermentation, microbiota, fusus coli function and functional meat production. Recent literature suggests that digestive disorders in rabbits may arise not only from pathogens but also from nutritional and physiological disturbances such as excessive fermentable starch or protein, inadequate structural fibre, altered digesta passage and caecal microbial instability (van der Sluis et al., 2024). Probiotics, prebiotics, macroalgae, phytogenic additives, antioxidant-rich feeds and lipid supplements are promising tools, but many studies still lack direct measurements of cecotroph production, cecotroph composition, fusus coli function and caecal microbiota dynamics (Al-Soufi et al., 2022; Adli et al., 2023; Siudak & Kowalska, 2024). This review integrates recent advances in rabbit nutrition and proposes a caecotrophy-centred approach for improving digestive health and meat biofortification.