“Unlimited” Hay?

[Marissa & Louie]

Hi everyone! I was wondering if anyone is able to define “unlimited” hay? I normally feed Louie handfuls of hay throughout the day as he goes through it, but I’m wondering if I should take the more unlimited approach and just give him access to his hay all the time without limits. I buy my hay in a 10 pound block, so would he get too fat if I gave him access to that 24/7? He spends the day in his playpen while I’m at work/school, then I usually let him out in the evening when I’m home until bedtime, so he gets normal amounts of exercise but I’m just concerned he will get too fat if I leave the hay block in his pen all the time.

[Bam]

Unlimited hay means that there should be some hay available to the bunny at all times. That said, many bunnies will only eat their hay if it’s served in small portions throughout the day. My bunnies always have hay, but they more or less only eats it right when I replenish their hay-boxes.
The reason for the unlimited
hay rule is that bunnies’ tummies must never be empty. If they f ex want a midnight snack, they should have hay to snack on.

[Eepster]

Hay is only fattening if you are feeding alfalfa hay. As long as you are giving him timothy, meadow, or orchard he can eat it all day and all night and it will not make him fat.

Hay is fairly low calorie, but takes a lot of energy to chew and digest. It provides several things that are more important to a bunny than calories though. It gives them plenty of fiber to keep things moving; it gives them something tough to chew and grind up so they can wear down their constantly growing teeth and maintain good dental health; it fills their mental need to graze and forage.

[Bam]

Yep, totally agree, Eepster makes many good points here. Hay is grass, and grass is the most important food-sorce for a rabbit. Rabbits are “designed” to eat grass all day long, a little bit here, a little bit there. Their whole digestive system incl teeth is adapted to that type of eating/foraging.

A bunny gets fat from pellets and treats and fruit/carrots, not grassy hay.

[Marissa & Louie]

Thank you everyone! I’m going to put the hay box in his pen and see how he likes it

[LBJ10]

Unlimited is unlimited, so I suppose however much he would like to eat (the more the better). Bam is right though. Some bunnies are picky and like to feel like they’re getting something “new”. So replenishing the hay is smaller amounts is sometimes the way to go.

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