I don’t have a hay rack as I just put lots of hay at one end of my bun’s litter box and I’m home regularly enough to keep adding hay if she’s eating it quickly. I have thought about getting a hay rack just for days when I know I will be out for long days at work.

When I scoop out the litter box at the end of each day, I just toss out the pieces of hay that look like they have pee on them or have been stepped/sat on while she was in there. Even if you don’t pick out the pieces that have been soiled every day, from what I’ve read buns won’t eat the ones that are soiled. Apparently they can smell the difference

Also, when I spot clean her cage at the end of the day, I regularly pick up whatever poops might have missed the box and toss them back in. It’s not a problem at all, I just try to do it when she’s out of her cage in case she feels like getting moody about me having my hands in her space. So hopefully either your bun doesn’t mind or I would do this when your bun isn’t looking. I figure, they might get upset but cleaning up after them is better for them in the long run

i go through every couple of hours and put any stray poos in the box. rue’s cage has a hay rack now, that’s hung over her litter box. nut puppet doesn’t have a hay rack, i just put some in his litter box. i only put a little bit in at a time, two or three times a day, to minimize waste. i dump the entire box, including any leftover hay, every morning. i figure that if it’s left in the box, it’s nasty and needs tossed.

There are lots of different ways that people use to dispense hay…some just put handful in the litter box, some use a hay rack like you said, and some people have a hay box. The rack does keep most of the hay out of the litter (though some hay will still fall in)…I would use a hay rack myself except that Milo doesn’t have incisors, so he wouldn’t be able to pull the hay through. I just put some hay in the litter box; my bunnies really only do their business in one corner of the box so I put the hay in the opposite to keep it from getting soiled.

My personal opinion you really don’t need a hay rack. I just put the hay all over her litterbox she really doesn’t eat the hay that is soiled or pooped on and everyday I just scoop out the soiled stuff and most of the poop and the hay.

I’ve done both. I found that a hay rack does greatly cut down on wasted hay. For whatever reason, both of my boys like to sit on the hay while they eat it and thus, end up pooping and peeing all over it. Doesn’t matter what corner of the litter box it’s in. Hehe.

I don’t do hay racks-I think they are so cute and I wish mine would use them! Beka has a great setup that hers use well-like metal baskets holding the hay-very nice. Mine just won’t eat the hay that’s in the loo after a day and I just add more each day. I know what needs ‘refreshing’ as I buy mini bales so I give ‘flakes’ and once the flake is pulled apart (even if not completely eaten) -they want more. So I add another flake and they make toilet on what was there while eating the new hay

I love using a hay rack since as Tate mentioned, it does cut back on hay waste. I don’t actually use a rack meant for hay or anything though. I find those from pet stores to be too small. A plastic bag dispenser from Ikea does the trick for my bunnies.

This is what I have… It is one of those plastic “CD storage” boxes that you can get at Wal-mart/Target for $1.  It’s attached to the pen and angled using a dog-clip and a ziptie.  It stays in place, the buns can BOTH fit in that litterbox and eat.  I put all the hay in there and they eventually pull some out, but for the most part, all the hay stays clean.  It gets refreshed everyday.  I have the second litterbox on the side, so the ONLY way they can eat hay is by being in a litterbox.  If I have hay available anywhere else, they will have accidents.

This was my set-up before.  I had the hay rack in between the litterboxes and it didn’t work because they’d sit outside the box and potty.

Beka- I definitely just saved that picture to my computer. I’m so doing that with the CD case!

I’ve tried hay racks before where the hay was “caged-in” and they had to pull out individual strands. Their hay consumption plummeted. My buns need an open top hay box because they like to bury their faces in to get all the “good bits”. This was the simplest solution I could come up with and it’s been like this for a few years now.

 I’ve tried Hay Racks but my rabbit sticks his head in and he gets stuck but when I put a bowl in he poops on his hay everyday so the old hay from everyday I just throw away.

Billy, have you tried a willow basket for hay?

I tried a hay rack with Dutchess, and she just didn’t eat hay. So I nixed that. I put a fresh handful of hay in a tuft right next to her her litterbox everyday. She likes to spread it all out and munch away. There are lots of stray poos in there, I scoop up most that are easy to grab and toss them. I don’t put them in the litterbox, but I suppose that’s my choice, I see no reason why you couldn’t do that. I do leave the ones that are stuck down in her hay and such, and my theory is, it’s her habitat, and if she wants to poo there instead of the litterbox that’s like three inches away from her bum, she obviously wants the poo there =p

I just put hay in the litterbox. They pick out the bits they don’t pee on.

We tried hay racks and we have tried using a willow basket but our rabbit just ripped off the entire basket. Then we tried to but his hay in a small bowl so that our rabbit can’t sit on his hay.

Pooping on the hay is fine, their poop is dry, not icky and messy like cats/dogs/humans/etc. Don’t worry about pooping on it, and hay is cheap anyway

I have a hay rack in Rory’s current cage (the crappy small store-bought one), and his litter pan is a corner-pan of considerable height, so I have his hay hung on the closest opposite bars, such that his butt has to be parked in the box to pull the hay out.

But sometimes I feed my rabbit oxbow so we cant put that in a hay rack.

 The oxbow hay falls out of the hay rack?

Are you talking about the Oxbow pellets? If so… they aren’t hay. They can’t take the place of hay, he’ll need hay in addition to the pellets.

But when you put oxbow in the hay rack it falls off so I just put his food on the floor since there is a catcher for poop.

which kind of oxbow are you talking about?

The pellets.

But I don’t know why my bunny eats the oxbow pellets more than the alfalfa hay? No he is getting really fat.

Both my buns eat pellets over hay, you should be limiting his pellet intake by weight (1/4 a cup per 5lbs of body weight is recommended, though some feed less if their bun tends to get chubby on that). Pellets should go in a bowl, or on a plate. If your bun is over 7 months of age, he/she should be on timothy/oat/orchard not alfalfa, as that can also make them fat.