MouthHere the teeth cut and grind the food. Saliva is mixed in before it is swallowed.
EsophagusThe tube that carries swallowed food from the throat to the stomach.
StomachA simple, roomy stomach. A healthy rabbit always has some food in it.
Small intestineMost of the food is absorbed here. Its parts are the duodenum, jejunum and ileum.
CecumA very large, thin-walled blind sac. Bacteria in it ferment the fine plant fiber.
ColonIt sorts what is left. Coarse fiber moves on; fine bits go back to the cecum.
RectumThe short, straight last part of the gut. It lies inside the pelvis.
AnusDroppings leave the body here. A rabbit eats its soft droppings straight from this opening.
Small intestine and hindgut 8
DuodenumThe first loop of the small intestine. Bile enters it close to the stomach.
JejunumThe long middle part of the small intestine, thrown into many folds.
IleumThe last part of the small intestine. It ends at the sacculus rotundus.
Sacculus rotundusA round, thick-walled bulb that ends the ileum. The cecum and colon join here.
Vermiform appendixThe narrow, blind end of the cecum. Its thick wall is packed with lymph tissue.
Proximal colonThe pouched first part of the colon. It separates coarse fiber from fine particles.
Fusus coliA short, muscular stretch between the two parts of the colon. Soft cecotropes are shaped here.
Distal colonThe long last part of the colon. Hard, round, dry pellets take shape in it.
How this list was compiled: Every name was checked on 2026-10-01 in two sources, for facts only and with nothing copied: (1) the chapter Rabbit Basic Science of a veterinary textbook of rabbit medicine (second edition, 2013), read in the open archive at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7158370/; (2) B. A. Bensley, Practical Anatomy of the Rabbit (second edition, 1918, public domain), the digestive system and the dissection of the intestines, https://archive.org/details/practicalanatomy00bensuoft; (3) Wikipedia, Cecotrope, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecotrope; (4) a veterinary manual's page on the nutrition of rabbits, for what the soft droppings carry, https://www.merckvetmanual.com/exotic-and-laboratory-animals/rabbits/nutrition-of-rabbits. A name only one of them uses is not a part of this page. Licence: own work
The drawing: Drawn for this site on 2026-10-01 from plain geometry; nothing traced. Licence: own work
How it works
Here is a well labeled diagram of a rabbit digestive system in two views: the tract in place inside the rabbit, then the gut behind the stomach laid out flat. It is a plan, not to scale.
Read the full guide
The path of food
Mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, then a fork. Coarse fiber goes down the colon and leaves as hard, round pellets. Fine particles and fluid are sent back into the cecum, where bacteria ferment them.
The second time through
The fermented paste leaves the cecum as soft pellets called cecotropes, shaped and coated in mucus in the fusus coli. The rabbit eats them as they leave, and the stomach and small intestine digest them like other food.
The sacculus rotundus is the landmark: the ileum ends there, and the cecum and the colon both start from it.
Pouches mean proximal colon. The smooth, thick stretch after them is the fusus coli.
Questions and answers
What type of digestive system does a rabbit have?
A simple stomach, as in a pig or a dog, with a very large cecum behind the small intestine. Bacteria ferment plant fiber in the cecum, so a rabbit is called a hindgut fermenter.
Why do rabbits eat their own droppings?
They eat only the soft ones, called cecotropes. These come from the cecum and carry protein and B vitamins made by its bacteria. The hard, dry pellets are waste and are left.
What does the cecum do in a rabbit?
It is a fermenting chamber. The colon sends fine particles and fluid back into it, and bacteria there break down fiber the rabbit cannot digest by itself. Its contents later leave as cecotropes.
What is the fusus coli?
A short, muscular stretch of a rabbit's colon. It divides the colon into a proximal part and a distal part, and droppings are shaped as they pass through it.