I’d gradually replace more of the alfalfa with the Timothy hay…sounds like they do prefer it over the Timothy, but eventually they’ll need to get used to the Timothy…I have a litter of 3 week old Holland Lops, and they are already nibbling on the Timothy hay

I can’t tell you too much but what I can tell you is, growing rabbits will utilize more calcium than older ones will. Just try to keep an eye on their pee and if it starts coming out milky consider reducing the alfalfa you give them and mix it into the timothy.

You may also try making a mixture of alfalfa and timothy week or so ahead of time so that that the smells have a chance to mingle. It might not trick them but it may make the timothy more appealing.

There really isn’t alot of known information on calcium excretion in rabbits and alot of conflicting information and I really do not think anyone really understand how rabbits excrete calcium. I have and have had multiple bladder sludge rabbits. From what I understand that calcium intake is not related to calcium excretion. Although many vets will try to decrease the calcium intake.

I had someone tell me that there have been instances where rabbits with sludge issues where put on low calcium diets and ended up with osteoporosis. The sludge in those instances was not related to the intake of sludge but rather to the rabbit used the calcium.

One article by a vet I read (and that my vet gave me) says that she (the vet) believes that diet alone is not the entire problem for sludge and stones. She also states that there have been several scientific studies performed where rabbits where fed huge amounts of digestible calcium for months (far more than a pet rabbit would ever get on a completely commercial diet) and these rabbits did not develop sludge or stones.

And at this point I would not worry anyway about the babies getting too much calcium with the alfalfa – they need this as they are growing rabbits. Eventually you will want to wean them off the alfalfa though.

We never want to attempt to remove all calcium either from a rabbits diet because bone, dental, and muscle disease can occur.

I was always told that babies need the extra nutrients in alfalfa for growing, but once you got 9-12 months it was time to think about switching over to timothy for their “adult” diet.

Are you feeding alfalfa or timothy based pellets?

Alfalfa hay is fine for young bunnies- but I would still offer the timothy hay.  I would be a little worried that when they are older and can no longer have the alfalfa hay that they might snub the timothy hay or other suitable grass hays for adult bunnies.

Typically if you are feeding a alfalfa based pellet for young bunnies- their main hay would be a timothy or other grass hay- although it is fine to offer alfalfa as a treat hay for underweight bunnies.

http://rabbit.org/faq/sections/diet.html#babies

That’s the perfect analogy… it’s kind of like the bunny version of catnip… ;o)

I adopted my mini rex when she was 4 months… so not quite as young as yours. But she’s the youngest bun I’ve ever had. I started her on a full timothy diet right away (pellets and hay). It didn’t make sense to me to give her all alfalfa, get her used to it, and then have to transition her off 2 months later. I did get a bag of alfalfa hay as well, and I would give her occasional handfuls of that as a supplement to the timothy hay, but she never got anything other than the tim pellets. It’s really not necessary to do both alfalfa pellets and hay. It is more difficult to switch them from alfalfa to timothy pellets in some cases, so you may want to finish up the ones you have now and go back to the timothy pellets… or offer just a few here and there as a treat.