Super Picky Hay Eater Coco

[Coco the Lionhead Bunny]

Coco is still not eating any hay unless I wrap a treat around the hay. I have tried different brands and types of hays. I have tried All Living Things, Kaytee, VitCraft, One Ear Up, and of course Oxbow. He does not want to eat any of the hay offered. If I cut a fruit in half and then put some of that juice on the hay, he will sniff and dig through the hay to find the actual fruit. He even does that with fruits he has never had before. I am trying everything to get him to eat at least some hay. I tried first cut Timothy, second cut Timothy, Orchard, Western Timothy, and Brome hay. I even tried hay toppers but he always digs through the hay without even nibbling a little bit of it. Should I try some Oat hay ? How about Bermuda hay ?

[Sr. Melangell]

Have you tried Hay cookies? If you find next day one all broken you know he has had a little, my Olly loves them, the ones I get him have little goodies for bunnies, like dandelion, oat grass and red clover.
Olly only eats hay at night in his cardboard box, maybe this is what your bunny is doing, hiding and eating it.

[Coco the Lionhead Bunny]

Are the hay cookies available in the U.S ? If not, I will make my own hay cookies from some recipes online. Do you think that homemade hay cookies mah cause my bunny a stomach ache ?

[Sr. Melangell]

Ask in your pet shop, I’m in the UK so it maybe slightly different, ask in the store for hay cookies, they look like small bails of hay, I’ve never made homemade cookies for Olly because my oven isn’t good and it can take a while to cook anything, have you tried hay in a bowl? It might sound silly but when Olly has no hay cookies I put Timothy hay in one of his bowls and he eats it, same with fruits and veg, he likes everything put in a bowl, also I was told to leave hay in his cage and leave it he will eat it eventually.

[Coco the Lionhead Bunny]

Unfortunately my pet store does not have any hay cookies But, I will try to not feed him any pellets for 2-3 days and then adding some Timothy hay into his treat dish and I will see if he eats any hay. Coco currently has 5 different types of hays and he does not seem that interested in any of them. Yesterday I DID see him toss around his Orchard hay and he might have nibbled on a little bit of it.

[hiskatey93]

I had the same problem with Speckles. And it drove me nuts. I think I purchased every brand, and flavor combo they had. Even tried the floppers mix they sold here, and she refused to eat it.

My solution? I went to a farm and bought a 50 pound bale for her. It’s sitting in crates in a spare closet, and she LOVES the fresh stuff! And it’s dirt cheap! $2-10 a bale.

Eats it to no end literally. I guess a lot of the bagged stuff is older, in a range of years, so it’s flavor is not as great, and neither is the smell to them. Try getting your hands on first or second cut of this year. You can find it mainly on Craigslist.

[lorree]

I agree, I did the same thing with my bunnys hay recently, I was buying bagged oaten hay and she wouldn’t eat it, I found a stock feed place and bought a fresh bale of oaten hay instead and she eats it, she’s still not eating as much as I’d like her too but she’s actually eating at least a large handful a day so that’s progress

And judging the quality of look, feel and smell I can tell that the bag stuff is terrible compared to the fresh bale. My guinea pigs actually smelt the fresh stuff I was giving the rabbit and they went nuts at me, like why does she get the good stuff lol
So I gave them some and they think it’s the best hay ever

[Coco the Lionhead Bunny]

Posted By hiskatey93 on 8/16/2015 7:59 PM
I had the same problem with Speckles. And it drove me nuts. I think I purchased every brand, and flavor combo they had. Even tried the floppers mix they sold here, and she refused to eat it.

My solution? I went to a farm and bought a 50 pound bale for her. It’s sitting in crates in a spare closet, and she LOVES the fresh stuff! And it’s dirt cheap! $2-10 a bale.

Eats it to no end literally. I guess a lot of the bagged stuff is older, in a range of years, so it’s flavor is not as great, and neither is the smell to them. Try getting your hands on first or second cut of this year. You can find it mainly on Craigslist.

I actually bought Coco first and second cut Timothy hay online from One Ear Up hay. They are a hay farm in Vermont. But, my little picky ball of fluff will not eat it either. He seems to kind of play and nibble on the Oxbow Orchard hay but he is eating barely any hay. Also, since I live in California and we have a drought, it’s hard to get some high quality hay bales around here. Also, I am bringing Coco to the vet for a checkup soon and I will see what she recomends. I will also try my best to look for some farm that sells fresh hay online. Since there are no hay farms around locally.

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