You can do that, and it’s actually better if he eats by himself. You need to keep a close eye on his weight though, if he loses weight you have to intervene and add for example a syringed evening meal.

I had a bun who needed daily CC for a long time, and at the beginning of the pandemic, there was a Critical Care shortage – perhaps people stocked up on CC to be prepared, idk. Anyway, I had to grind normal pellets and use it the same way as normal CC, and that worked perfectly. I weighed him twice per week and he even gained some weight on the ground pellets =D (He ate by himself too, but he needed support-feeding  to not lose weight).

(Btw I asked a Canadian friend about the best pellets in Canada. She uses Sherwood and Cuni Complete sensitive, because they’re both grain free. She doesn’t know of any all-hay pellets in Canada though).

Oxbow is a good brand, it was primarily oxbow I ground to make the ersatz-CC. Science selective is very good too.

My bun had bad teeth, so he couldnt eat as much as he needed to keep his weight. His poops were surprisingly ok, he never had “poopy butt” i e sticky poop. But on two occasions, when he first became acutely ill and then a year later he got soft poop with firm, gel-like mucus in it, and was put on Flagyl (metronidazole) for 5 days on both occasions.

I managed to keep him at a good weight with syringed food, and he also ate some rolled oats every day plus his hay and veg.

I have pictures. They’re gross.

I’ve posted one on my Google drive. Here’s the link, I hope it works!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cWQiw6E1YXYQPywSzPjPF0nynAjxMTaW/view?usp=drivesdk