is this too stressful for my bun??

[paige]

well, im a broke lil girly so i have barely been buying him the toys from the petstore and just making them at home now. i usually give him like oatmeal boxes, toilet paper rolls, paper towel rolls or papers to rip and play with. the thing is, i put a little treat in the toys, tons of hay and he has to work to get his food like figure out how the box opens or chew through it…do u think that’s stressful? that i make him work for his food everyday? i just don’t want him to be bored so that’s why i do it. but then im thinking, what if I had to figure out how to get my food everyday? that would suck!

[telken]

Your rabbit (and most pets, really) should always have access to both food and water without work. Putting more food, or different kinds of food, or even treats in boxes or toys is a great idea, though!

As an example with my parrot, he always has a water dish, pellet dish, and fruit/veggie dish. However, I’ll sometimes stuff blueberries (his favorite) or some other treat into a paper towel tube for him to go chasing. He’s still has the incentive to go for the treat (and thus engage in his enrichment), but still has easy access to sustenance.

[paige]

oh ok thanks!! yea i did feel bad for him last night so i just took all the hay out. poor little guy

[Bam]

You could give him some hay that he doesn’t have to work for, but in general, it’s good for an animal to have to work for its food. It’s the natural state of things-in nature, no rabbit gets his dinner served
This is of course if your rabbit is healthy, sick buns and the very young or old shouldn’t have to work for food.
You can switch between really simple tasks like scattering the pellets so your bun must search for them and more complicated things like hiding food inside toilet paper rolls like you’ve been doing.
A bun’s life is a lot about foraging, just serving the food straight up can lead to boredom.

[BunMum]

My mini Rex David is HIGHLY food motivated and usually snubs any toy that doesn’t allow for a treat. And I’m with you on not buying too many store bought toys. Usually I buy a pack of willow balls from Walmart/Petco and that’s about it. Make sure you’re free feeding hay as its really important to your buns GI tract. Other than that pellets aren’t necessarily needed in a Rabbits diet (rabbits will actually stop eating enough hay if they’re offered too many pellets) so as long as you give your bun baby some veggies and hay putting some pellets inside of a toy to encourage play isn’t a stressful thing. It will actually stimulate their mental health. OH and if you have a Walmart near you after 10 they give free boxes if you ask (any store will probably give you free boxes) and bunnies benefit greatly from renovation of their own little box homes and the ability to hide!!! ALSOOO (last thing I swear) look up diy bunny toys on YouTube there are tons using toilet paper tubes and such!!

[Author]

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