New brand of hay, bun won't eat it

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This topic has 5sd replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 1 month ago by MelM.

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- 11/17/2021 at 10:29 PM
  Floydthebun
  Participant
  1 posts
  Hi,
  
  I have a very happy, healthy bun. He loves eating hay which is great. I usually buy oxbow Timothy hay and I know he prefers it because he gets very excited about it. Occasionally my pet store is sold out and I have to use a different brand. He doesn’t love other brands but usually eats it.
  
  This time the only hay in the pet store was a local brand and it was a GIANT bag. Now I live in horse country so Timothy hay around here if plentiful and quite good quality. I was stoked at how much was for sale for a reasonable price and thought my bun would love it.
  
  Nope. Lol. I come home everyday and his litter box is peed and pooped in but the hay looks Un eaten. He has other hay that he eats outside of his litter box – botanical and orchard and oat. So he is still eating but it really bums me out that I have all this fresh Timothy hay he won’t eat…. I don’t want to spend 60 bucks on a couple small bags of oxbow brand when i have all this fresh hay…
  
  How can you encourage your bun to eat a brand when they are being picky?
- 11/18/2021 at 9:05 AM
  martini
  Participant
  24 posts
  Unfortunately buns are picky animals and my experience is that if they don’t like, they won’t eat it. The only thing I can think of is maybe if you try to sprinkle some toppings on the hay to encourage him sniffing through and eat it… but in my case I just ended up using the hay Martini doesn’t like as a part of his bedding :))) and donated the rest to the shelter
- 11/18/2021 at 6:58 PM
  DanaNM
  Moderator
  9064 posts
  I have experienced this before, it’s so annoying! I usually end up using the less preferred hay to line their boxes with, and put the hay they like in their hay rack. Some things you just can’t force them on!
  
  . . . The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.
- 11/20/2021 at 10:40 AM
  MooseMouse
  Participant
  49 posts
  Oh! i did this too once and bought a 20lb box of hay that my guys didn’t like. I was able to get them to eat it over time by fluffing it around in a box of their prefered hay so their feeder would be 2/3 hay they like and 1/3 hay they didn’t care for. It was a slow process but eventually they ate it all
- 11/23/2021 at 10:07 PM
  Jonmar28
  Participant
  4 posts
  Rabbits are very picky eaters. One thing I was taught in college while getting my Animal Science degree is to smell the hay. If it smells sweet rabbits tend to like it. A lot of time you just need to fluff it and add some toppers to encourage them to eat it.
- 12/29/2021 at 9:13 PM
  MelM
  Participant
  17 posts
  Oohh boy this has happened to me a couple times, but I won’t make that mistake again LOL. When we adopted our bun, he was already on Oxbow orchard grass and I thought to get him some nice local orchard. So I purchased a half bale and even after I thought he liked the sample I was given, he totally rejected it. Like others have mentioned, I have been weaving it into the Oxbow that he WILL eat and using it as litter bedding at times…so getting rid of it slowlyyy. Big waste and lesson learned! 🙄
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