No good hay in SA

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 12sd replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 6 months ago by Sirius&Luna.

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- 10/01/2017 at 9:58 AM
  Danika
  Participant
  29 posts
  Hi…So, my bun is about 3 months old. Jersey wooly doe. She is healthy and happy – loooooots of binky’s! But I can’t seem to get her to eat hay. In the beginning I bought some from our local pet supply store. But even I could see it wasn’t the best quality. Very thin strands, although green and fresh, it said ‘Mountain hay’ on the package. My bun doesn’t even aknowledge the hay. I now use it to cover the litter in her litterbox, she loves rolling in the hay. She would eat like maybe one strand per day, I watched her closely, and I know it’s supposed to be 80% of their diet. See, the thing is – I live in South Africa and no one grows timothy here and I know that is supposed to be the best quality hay. I wanted to import, but as I am still a student, the shipping costs bust my budget… I recently got some great hay (well I think so) from a fellow bun-owner. It looks amazing. Greener than I thought possible, and nice long and thick strands. It smells amazing even to my human nose. When I first presented it to her in a bag on the floor she ran to it and started chomping away. I was SO HAPPY!! But soon as I started putting it in her usual feeding spot she again ignored it. I tried moving it around to places I knew she frequented. But in vain. I don’t know what to do…I feed her one small handful of pellets in the morning and at night. And I feed greens two to three times per day – accumulating to one cup. She also has unlimited access to alfalfa (we call it lucerne here) which she eats, but still not enough. She seems hungry the whole time and asks for food and it breaks my heart. I don’t know what oat hay or orchard hay is…I don’t even know what variety of hay this new batch is that I got from my friend. All I know is I need help. I reaaaaaaally love my bun. She’s my best friend and I NEVER want her to be hungry. But she refuses to eat hay.What do I do? Please… I am going to go see at our farm stores what they have available. But like I said I don’t even know what I’m looking for….
  
  Oh and also, her droppings are totally normal. She eats her cecals (with exception now and again) and she drinks a lot of water. So it’s just the hay…
  Thank you in advance!♡
- 10/01/2017 at 10:47 AM
  Carolyn
  Participant
  12 posts
  Hay from a pet store is usually not the best quality. I get timothy hay for my bun from Sweet Meadow Farm and it smells heavenly when I open the box. Second cut is soft hay, first cut it more stemy. It’s very affordable. I get the 9 pound box and store it in garage. You can find them here: https://www.sweetmeadowfarm.com/
- 10/02/2017 at 4:00 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  Why don’t you ask your friend what type of hay it is and where she gets it from?
  
  You can also try making toys with hay, by stuffing hay into an empty cardboard tube (like the inside of a toilet roll) with a couple of pellets. This will encourage her to eat hay to get to the pellets.
- 10/02/2017 at 4:19 AM
  joea64
  Participant
  1423 posts
  Timothy hay is the most frequently fed hay to rabbits in the US, but in fact it’s not the only kind of hay suitable for them – any good grass hay will do. Oat hay, for example, is recommended by several chapters of the House Rabbit Society for keeping bunny digestive systems in top form. Meadow/orchard grass, brome, and Bermuda are other grasses that produce good hay suitable for rabbits. Does South Africa have any feed-store chains that you could try? Feed stores commonly sell hay of various sorts for fodder; they might be marked as being intended for larger animals, but if they’re grass hays, they should be suitable for rabbits as well. For instance, in the US Standlee sells timothy hay in a big, compressed bale bundle; they market it as horse fodder but a lot of rabbit owners have used it with good results.
- 10/02/2017 at 6:40 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  Do you have anywhere close buy that sells hay and feeds for horses? Basically any grass hay that is good enough quality for horses is fine for your rabbit.
- 10/03/2017 at 12:54 AM
  Danika
  Participant
  29 posts
  Thank you for the replys…I appreciate all of them!! I have actually aske d my friend where she got it from. It is in a nearby city so I am planning to go there in the near future. But as I said my bun decided, after initially loveing the hay, that it was also not for her and thus ignores it now also. I drove around for 2 hours yesterday in my university town to try and find places that sell hay. All I could find was Teff bales? I don’t know whether you guys know this kind? So I will go buy some over the weekend and see how it goes.
  
  I will definitely try the toy thing. She loves her toys so maybe that will do the trick. If any of you know any good and affordable sites that I can order from over there, I am willing to pay the price at the moment. I am so desperate because I know she needs to eat hay!
- 10/03/2017 at 4:31 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  I found this SA website that sells good quality hay, but it looks like small expensive bags.
  http://pethabitat.co.za/ProductList/Page0/Size10/createddate/Desc/Category126/Event0/BestSeller0/Bargains0
  
  I often order hay on Amazon, I can’t work out how to sort it to see if it delivers to SA, but have you looked there?
  
  Are there any farms near you? In the UK we have lots of small petting farms for children, and they often sell good quality hay and food too.
- 10/03/2017 at 4:33 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  One other idea is grass. If there is grass near you that you know hasn’t been treated with pesticides/peed on by wild animals, then that is safe to feed her too. It provides basically the same function as hay. You could even grow your own pots of it, but I doubt you could grow enough to fulfill all of her hay needs.
- 10/03/2017 at 9:06 AM
  Elva
  Participant
  34 posts
  Has anyone use vadibed hay? Is it good ?
- 10/06/2017 at 4:27 AM
  Danika
  Participant
  29 posts
  Thank you I will definitely go and check this out!! I have actually checked on Amazon since I have ordered from them before, but I actually decides some years back that their shipping is insane and that I won’t buy from them again. The shipping is like twice or three times the amount of the items. It’s crazy. For instance if I want to buy 2kgs of timothy, the retail price is around $25, but shipping is like $400. I can’t afford that even though I can afford the hay itself. But yeah I will keep looking and go check that website out. Thanx so much!!
- 10/06/2017 at 4:29 AM
  Danika
  Participant
  29 posts
  Hi Carolyn! Thanx for your reply. I went to the website but unfortunately they do not ship to SA but thank you for the recommendation.
- 10/06/2017 at 4:30 AM
  Danika
  Participant
  29 posts
  So I tried the toy thing. It works somewhat – she nibbles at the hay but it looks like she is simply biting the strands off instead of actually eating them.
- 10/06/2017 at 4:36 AM
  Sirius&Luna
  Participant
  2320 posts
  I think you might need to be a bit mean, and leave her with only hay to encourage her to eat it.
  
  I noticed you said you feed her greens 2/3 times a day. Can you cut that down to once? Otherwise she might hold out for greens, knowing that there’s always some coming soon. If she knows she only gets greens and pellets once a day, she’s more likely to eat hay.
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