Copropha-ntastics

120 Copropha-ntastics – Instructor Guide

Instructional Guide

Learners will explore the uniqueness and importance of the rabbit cecum.

Intended Grade Level

This lesson is intended for students in grades 9-12. Students should be familiar with general digestive system functions and the concept of nutrient absorption prior to this lesson.

Learning objectives

Students will be able to describe the unique dental and digestive anatomy of rabbits and explain how it supports a plant-based diet.
Students will be able to explain the role of the cecum and microbial fermentation in rabbit digestion, including the importance of cecotropes and coprophagy.
Students will compare and contrast hindgut fermentation in rabbits with foregut fermentation in ruminants like cows.
Students will be able to summarize how microorganisms help both rabbits and cows extract essential nutrients from fibrous plant material.

Lesson Format

Student page

This can be done in any size group. The material can be printed and disseminated for the read-aloud. Activities require a computer and internet access.

First students will read about a rabbit’s GI tract, how their system is unique, and how their system compares to a bovine GI tract.(30 minutes)
Next, students will play a matching game, which is detailed in the activities section (5 minutes)
The assessment will focus on explaining their drawings to family members (5 minutes)

Lesson Background

Rabbits have a unique dental arrangement essential for processing fibrous plant matter. They possess two pairs of upper incisors—the larger first set and smaller second set called peg teeth—no canines, and continuously growing premolars and molars. They grasp food with their lips, cut it with incisors, and grind it with their back teeth before swallowing.

Once food is swallowed, it passes into the stomach, which has a strong sphincter preventing vomiting. In the small intestine, ingesta mixes with bile (from the liver and gallbladder) and pancreatic enzymes. Bile aids in fat digestion and vitamin absorption, while pancreatic enzymes help break down proteins and carbohydrates. Nutrients like sugars and amino acids are absorbed here.

At the end of the small intestine, ingesta is sorted. Indigestible fibers move directly to the colon, while digestible fibers are sent to the cecum—the rabbit’s largest digestive organ—for microbial fermentation. Microbes break down digestible fibers into volatile fatty acids (VFAs), vitamins, and amino acids. These are packaged into cecotropes, nutrient-rich droppings that the rabbit re-ingests through coprophagy. This second pass allows full nutrient absorption and is essential for the rabbit’s survival.

In contrast, cows are ruminants with a four-chambered stomach. Fermentation happens in the rumen, where microbes break down fiber into VFAs and synthesize nutrients. Cows regurgitate and re-chew cud before swallowing it for further microbial digestion. Unlike rabbits, cows absorb nutrients in one pass since fermentation happens before enzymatic digestion.

Both rabbits and cows rely heavily on microbial fermentation to access nutrients from plant material. In rabbits, this occurs in the cecum after initial digestion; in cows, it occurs in the rumen before enzymatic digestion. In both, we “feed the microbes, and the microbes feed the animal.”

Activities

Students will play a matching game, flipping cards over with a description, GI tract part, or definition and will try to find the proper match by flipping over other cards. Students should try to do this as fast as they can without using their notes.

Common misconceptions and challenge points

Students may not realize that cecotropes are not waste—they are nutrient-rich and essential to the rabbit’s diet. They often confuse cecotropes with regular feces and may think that eating them is unhealthy or abnormal.
Students might assume that since both animals eat plants, their digestive systems work the same way. In reality, rabbits are hindgut fermenters and cows are foregut fermenters, meaning they ferment food in different parts of the digestive tract and use very different processes.
Students may associate microbes only with illness and overlook their vital role in digestion. This lesson challenges that by showing how beneficial microbes are necessary for both rabbits and cows to extract nutrients from fibrous plants.