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Forum DIET & CARE How much hay does your bunny eat and where do you put the hay?

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    • JackRabbit
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        We need to change the way our bunnies are getting their hay due to some eye issues and could use your help! Two of our bunnies eat a ton of hay (more than the size of their bodies) and one barely eats half her body size in hay.

        How much hay does your bunny eat each day on aage (ex. about the size of his/her body, 1 1/2 the size of his/her body, etc.)?

        Also, where do put the hay? One end of the litterbox? All over the litterbox? In a hay feeder? A pile on the floor?

        Thanks!


      • Elliriyanna
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          I use a hay bag for my boy, it’s suppose to reduce hay dust in the air and it’s also really cute and keeps them from Using their hay as a potty. Of course it’s made of fabric so if you have a chewer it’s not a great idea


        • JackRabbit
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            That sounds really nice. Marlee is a major chewer though and for some reason thinks anything cloth must have plenty of chew holes!


          • Deleted User
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              Henry eats way less than half his body size in hay each day – he only eats hay as a last resort when he is starving!!! He’s been known to eat furniture, fabric and everything he isn’t supposed to eat including the dog food before he eats his hay – DAM bunny!

              We put in it a small round cane bowl (cause I literally can’t find anything else to feed his hay from???) that is now virtually non existent cause he’s eaten that too! So it ends up on the floor in his house. Henry has never eaten hay from his litter tray – he doesn’t like to eat where he poops!


            • So Fluffy Bunny
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                We use a high backed litter box with the screen from the binky bunny store which cut down on the digging in the litterbox and spreading it all over her pen. Laurana gets hay on top of the screen spread all across the screen and one side has more hay but she spread it out in her litter box however she wants and munches all day on it.

                She is still munching on a twenty pound box that we bought over a month ago from small pet select, but the hay pile that we give her is about more than several handfuls that my fiance gives her and more than her body size but she eats more of the hay than she does her pellets which is a good thing.


              • Hazel
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                  I know you love this picture, and it illustrates the amount he eats in regards to his body size quite well.

                   

                  I fill his hay rack once a day, usually there is a small handful left, just like in the picture. So he eats at least his own body size in hay each day, probably a little more. I also put a thin layer of hay in his litter box, not necessarily for him to eat but to protect his feet. He ends up nibbling on that a little bit too, of course.

                  He goes through 50 lbs of hay in 7-8 months.


                • Megabunny
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                    Gus only wants hay in his litter box (on one side) or from a Kleenex box stuffed with hay and set in the litter box. I don’t know if anyone has a rabbit that eats as much as they’re supposed to, but all we can do is keep trying. Sometimes, when they’re running around, if you have hay set up in another location, they enjoy eating it somewhere different


                  • JackRabbit
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                      Hazel — Yes! That’s my favorite Oscar piccie!!!! Love it, love it, love it!

                      To ensure bunny eats the recommended body size in hay each day, make hay feeder the size of the bunny, fill with hay, as hay empties, fill with bunny!!


                    • JackRabbit
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                        Megabunny — I’m actually on a mission to create the perfect “double seater” litterbox/hay feeder setup and I’m kindof leaning toward an open tissue box/shoe box concept at the moment!


                      • Megabunny
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                          I’ve actually only been doing that in his litter box on the porch. In his pen I just put it in the litter box but should probably Go to the same concept with a box in the box concept. I wonder if it would help with what goes to waste. Makes sense, I suppose


                        • Little Lion Head
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                            Let us know what you do JR! I still intend to take that picture of PumpRock’s but I want to clean it first and I’m exhausted from gardening!

                            I tried to put hay in a small little box just the size of Pumpkin’s body when she wasn’t eating enough. I set it in the living room thinking she’d sit next to it and eat. She managed to get her whole body in the box, which filled the box, and just pulled pieces of hay out from under her. Sigh. She peed and pooped in it too. The kleenx box might work though, they shouldn’t be able to get into a square one!

                            We have an XL litter box and fill half of it 3 times per day. They definitely eat their body sizes and then some. At least Rocky does, maybe not Pumpkin.


                          • JackRabbit
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                              LLH – we thought we had it figured out but decided to try something simple first. Right now we’re following your idea and have been putting hay down the long side of the litterboxes (two xl cat litterboxes). When we did half hay half litter in the other direction, they just sat on the hay side peeing, pooping, and eating — apparently my bunnies didn’t get the memo about a “bathroom” side and a “kitchen” side! Putting the hay along the long side has worked better, but even using two xl cat litterboxes, we still can’t get enough hay in there to only have to refill two times per day. They eat so much hay and poop so much!

                              We went out last night and bought different sized storage containers and had thought we’d try to rig up a storage box with hay compartments attached to one side but the angles of the sides of all the containers made it really complicated. We still might give it a try, but for now we’re leaning toward a 44 inch long under bed storage box with hay the length of the long side and the remaining water bottle hung at one end. This is going to take a little time because we’ll have to eliminate the dog crate (which has been helping the fleece covering the floor stay in place). We had the perfect least messy setup with the hay feeders, but cannot risk Moshi getting hurt since he insists on now stuffing his face into the feeders with his eyes open. I guess flat faced lops and hay feeders just don’t always mix. We’re also seriously considering a litterbox screen too but are waiting to see what edging BB uses so we can make sure it will work with Marlee.

                              Being owned by bunnies is hard work!


                            • Little Lion Head
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                                Isn’t it weird that it works better if you lay the hay the long way? With just Pumpkin we tried putting hay on one half the short way but she would sit on the hay instead of the litter too. For some reason they seem to understand it better when you lay it the long way!


                              • Sindri
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                                  I don’t know how much my rabbits eat daily. I go threw about 10lbs of hay a month depending on how much they like the hay. They have 2 big cat litter boxes where I put down some Carefresh and then spread hay all over the box on top of the Carefresh. I sometimes give them hay in other ways but that is what has worked the best and is where they eat their daily hay. I will clean out the old hay and add fresh hay everyday. Every other day I completely empty and clean their boxes.


                                • Sarita
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                                    I just dump mine on his litter and put a nice pile in front of the litter box on his carpet – yeah, he poops in the carpet, but he still urinates in the box – poops is what vacuum cleaners are for after all.

                                    I have no idea how much he eats.


                                  • JackRabbit
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                                      Sarita and Sindriona — do your bunnies eat the hay they’ve pooped on or peed on? Not really worried about pooped on hay because Marlee eats strat poops anyway!

                                      I would love to be able to add a like of hay outside the litterbox, but tried and failed — I put “special hay” (leftover little pieces) in a basket outside the litterbox and they loved it but stopped doing that after I found them standing in about 50 poops sopping up a pee puddle next to the basket, and the basket was *right next to the litterbox*!


                                    • Sarita
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                                        Bobby doesn’t…he poops and pee’s in the back of the litterbox and his hay is in the front.


                                      • MissGabbster
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                                          I’d say on average, Ox probably eats around 3/4 of his body size each day. He eats his hay out of a a Hefty trash bag box that I hang on one end of his litterbox. I absolutely hate that dang trash bag box but every time I try to switch it to something different he refuses to eat his hay. I even bought the Willow Hay Rack from the BB store and cut the opening to match the trash bag box and he still refused to eat out of it.

                                           

                                           

                                          This is an older picture, but the hay/litter box set up is still the same. 

                                           


                                        • Little Lion Head
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                                            Hahaha Ox cracks me up! Whatever will you do if you have to take him to bunsitter? He’ll boycott w/out his garbage container!


                                          • LBJ10
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                                              I usually put a blob of hay about the size of Leopold out for the two of them. They more or less finish it in a day. I guess it depends though. I use a separate cardboard box that is flat-ish (sides are only about 3 inches tall). I have to weigh it down though because Leopold will suddenly decide tossing the box, hay and all, across the room is a good idea.


                                            • steph
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                                                bun doesn’t seem to eat much hay but he has choices about where he snacks from, there is a rack above his litter tray so he can eat while he poops, there is a round ball of hay he loves, normally there is hay dropped on the floor and he has a paper bag filled with hay and the occasional treat which is apparently the best thing ever to lay in. He seems to eat about half his weight everyday.


                                              • JackRabbit
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                                                  MissG — the willow hay rack is the one the M&Ms peed and pooped in front of! I love that litte hay rack for “special hay” too! Darn bunnies!


                                                • MissGabbster
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                                                    LLH: It would have to go with him! To him, it’s the only suitable thing to eat hay out of. Every thing else is inferior. lol

                                                    LBJ: Ox will do the same thing. That’s why I have his hay box hooked to the NIC grid with a book ring and the metal hook that came with the water bottle he used to use. I also have to attach his litter box to the NIC grid as well or else he’d drag it around his cage, then go eat hay only to forget that he wasn’t in his litter box and do his business in front of his hay box as usual. smh

                                                    JR: I love the willow hay rack. Why can’t these bunnies appreciate nice things!?


                                                  • Deleted User
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                                                      Posted By MissGabbster on 5/17/2015 9:50 PM
                                                      JR: I love the willow hay rack. Why can’t these bunnies appreciate nice things!?

                                                      Henry does! He EATS it!!!  Lol!


                                                    • Sindri
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                                                        The rabbits usually poop and pee on one side and eat from the other.


                                                      • JackRabbit
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                                                          Seems that Bobby, Usagi, and Kilala all got the “memo” about the “kitchen” end and the “bathroom” end of the litterbox. Wish one of them would explain it to Moshi!


                                                        • gingerg
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                                                            I bought a nice, wide wood hayrack (from Leithpetwerks, I think) when I first got my buns, and hung inside the cage over their very large (24″ wide, 14″ deep) litterbox. This worked well when they were babies, but when they got to be teens, they (esp Gizmo) started pulling all the hay out of the rack before eating it, making a huge mess and wasting a lot of hay in the process. I decided to try the Binky Bunny rectangular willow basket to hold the hay instead, but unfortunately, they love the baskets a little too much, and would have it eaten to almost nothing in three days (as much as I love Binky Bunny, I can’t afford to keep the site going on my own!).

                                                            So, I gave up on rack/holders for my hollands and just place a clump of hay a little smaller than my doe in the corner of their litter box twice a day (sometimes three times). If I keep changing their litter every three days or so, the bunnies will keep their pee just to the ‘back’ corners of the box, so I can put their hay in one of the ‘front’ corners, which they will pull out and spread around a little bit, but mostly eat up without much waste. If I don’t keep the litter box fresh, though, they’ll start peeing in other areas and spread the hay all around, which makes a lot more waste (as they don’t eat hay they’ve peed on, of course). So, I now try to keep the litter fresh, as that wastes less hay and gives me a better gauge as to how much they are eating. They’re generally great hay eaters and will eat about their body size in hay per day.

                                                            My netherlands dwarf, OTOH, who lives in his own cage upstairs, doesn’t mind using a hayrack. He pulls some of it out and will eat that on the floor (and typically poop in it, too), but he will also eat a lot out of the rack itself. He definitely doesn’t eat his body size in hay every day (at least, not yet). He’s more of a dainty eater and doesn’t plow through his hay or pellets as quickly as my hollands do. That said, he’s only six months old, so perhaps he’ll get a bigger appetite as he gets heavier. He’s also just transitioned into bunny puberty, but seems to prefer spraying the walls (and me) to spraying his hay, so there isn’t too much wastage.


                                                          • AaronJ
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                                                              Our baby pulls all the hay out of the rack for some reason, so we’ve resorted to putting a little bundle/pile down in the corner on top of the little bunker that is part of the kennel. we just make sure there is always enough for a good size snack during the day / night, oddly enough hardly any hay goes to waste this way. like gingerg above me stated, I estimate around body size consumption.


                                                            • Troubledbunnymom
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                                                                My bunny hates any hayrack; she won’t eat any of it if it’s inside the hayrack. So I just put the hay on her litter box and she would eat fine. I wasted so much money buying willow hay racks and metal hay racks for her. Such a waste still at least I know my bun hates them.

                                                                Peanut sometimes eats more hay than her size actually, but in some days she its hay corresponding to her size.

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                                                            Forum DIET & CARE How much hay does your bunny eat and where do you put the hay?