Hello,

When my boy was younger he typically didn’t prefer hay for the first year or two, he did eat it but just not too much of it. I found just swapping brands of Timothy hay helped as he seemed to get bored with the same.

Adding dried forage to his hay aslo helped.

The best thing to be honest I found was just to reduce his pellet intake to allow him to become hungry enough to eat his hay. Many bunny owners can unknowingly feed to many pellets, particularly if you have a mini breed. After feeding less pellets, overtime my bun began enjoying the hay and now regularly eats it out of preference and eats enough of it. I now only give 8 pellets if science selective a day  (i mentioned the brand as different pellet types are different sizes). You will need to decrease the pellet gradually though to be sure to prevent stomach problems and possible stasis issues.

Often rabbits don’t actually need that many pellets in their diet if they are fed an enriched diet of hay, veggies and forage.

I would always recommend discussing it with a vet first though as every bunny is different but this is just what works for us and our vet gave us the okay due to his lack of hay intake.

It is important to also note that young bunnies generally need more pellets for growth and development so I would onlu suggest reducing pellets if your bunnie is fully grown.

Good luck!

I think you hit it on the head with his teeth. It’s not that he’s fussy, it’s just that his mouth hurts.

I think you will need to schedule regular filings to see if you can get his teeth back on track. He may never wear them down properly if they are misaligned, but if they are filed properly he should be able to eat his hay more easily.

If there is fresh grass available near you, you can try offer that. Usually softer cuts of hay are more popular with dental buns. It would be helpful to know the rest of his diet as well. I would be careful about reducing pellets too much in a bun with dental issues, because you need to make sure he’s getting enough to eat.