Picky bunny, WILL NOT EAT TIMOTHY.

[Bellasmummy]

She will not touch them, I’ve started with the pellets first, I started Monday so its been 3  days with no pellets and she isn’t budging,  I’ve pretty much gone cold turkey as i tried to swap her over a couple of months back and she would just flick them out of her bowl or eat around them. (cheeky bunny) Is she going to be ok without pellets for this long, I’ve been replacing them each day in hope she will go near them but she wont 

She is getting her hay and vegetables so she isn’t starving, i feel like she will eat them when she knows shes lost the fight.

I’ve also been adding a small amount of timothy hay to her hay rack with her alfalfa as i only wanted to do one thing at a time.At first she nibbled it but now she just turns away and continues to her alfalfa. 
Although tonight before bed i remembered i had a bag of oaten hay in the cupboard and thought id give it a go, i took it out not expecting much and she scoffed it down as though she’d never eaten before.

I’m curious am i able to give her the oaten hay instead of timothy as it is a lot more easier to access here in Australia and costs a fraction of the price. 

I am going to try buying a different brand of timothy in hope she just doesn’t like oxbow. but what do you guys think??

I really want her to eat her oxbow pellets, but if not what else is readily available in Australia for me to provide. I’ve noticed they have an awfully strong sent to them so im thinking maybe its that? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! 

[kirstyol]

I cant give you much advice, but I can tell you my experience with Bramble was similar when we moved him from his baby bunny food to his adult nuggets. He looked at them like they were the most horrific thing he had ever seen at first, and ate everything else apart from them just like your bun. He did eventually start eating them but in the end I had to cut out the old food completely before he would even consider them and it still took a few days. Actually he still quite often doesn’t eat all of his pellets, but he eats his veg and hay with no issue.

[JackRabbit]

Did you start mixing the two pellets to slowly transition? If not, you can start the transition over by going back to the alfalfa pellets for a few days and then slowly start replacing some of the alfalfa pellets with timothy pellets. We changed gradually over a month with our bunnnies by replacing 1/4 at a time each week. Some bunnies may require slower transition.

[Sarita]

Oat hay is fine, it does not have to be timothy – you could also try taking away the alfalfa hay completely forcing her to eat the other hay.

[LBJ10]

Slowly transition her pellets like JR suggested. For her hay, you could try other varieties of grass hay to see if there is something she likes. Oat hay is a favorite at my house. You could do orchard though too.

[Bellasmummy]

I’ve tried slowly transitioning her and she would just kick the oxbow out or eat around them. She won’t touch them.

So I’ve been giving her plenty of Vegis and hay.

When I checked this morning it looks as though she had tried eating them as some appeared mushy and spat out into the bowl. I really hope she starts eating them soon.

So Oaten hay is ok to substitute instead of Timothy?

[kirstyol]

Bramble did the same when I was transitioning, in the end I had to cut the old food out completely before he would eat the new one. I tried everything, mixing the two really well, putting just a tiny bit of the old food on the top then I tried putting the old food on the bottom so he would have to eat the rest to get to it – NOPE he just dug all the new food out of the way and made a mess! I tried giving nuggets at a different time to veggies because I was finding if I gave them at the same time he would just eat the veggies and leave the nuggets, that seemed to work in the end but it did take a few days.

[LBJ10]

Yes, oat hay is just fine.

[Deleted User]

You’ve probably already tried this, but I had a similar situation.
My rabbit refused to eat timothy hay and would only eat the pellets his original owners gave him (the kind filled with cereal bits and dried fruits/vegetables). I switched him to Oxbow timothy pellets but he still wouldn’t touch the hay. I eventually bought a small sampler bags of all the types of timothy hay Oxbow offered and let him choose on his own. Apparently he liked the super soft sweet hay, not the coarser hay I had been getting for him. He’s a picky, particular rabbit, maybe yours is too?

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