Bunny never eats hay!!! Help!!

[Grazzzie]

My bunny is a 3 years old mixed breed mini lop. He never eats hay at all all through these 3 years. I tried every kind of hay, including hay cakes. He never tries any of it. When I annoyed him and stick the hay near his mouth, he would scratch me with his forearm and maybe bite the hay and throw it away.

When I first got him, he was feeding with muesli-type food in the pet store and my vet told me it was very bad for rabbits. So I switch his diet to pellets, and he didn’t like it at all. I then mixed it up a little bit with the muesli, but he just picked out ones he like. It took me almost 2 weeks to get my bunny to start nibble on the pellets. Hay is there all the time and I renew them with fresh hay every morning. But everyday I just found those hay just has never been touched at all.

A couple of weeks ago, he went through GI stasis. He didn’t eat, he didn’t drink, and there’s no poop at all in the litter box. So I took him to the vet at midnight for god knows how long has he been not eating. The vet checked his blood glucose and teeth and said it’s not too bad, but it’s better for me to change his diet.

So I waited it out for him to recover again and started to force him to eat more fibre. Around a week later, I fed him with approx. 1 tablespoon of pellets, 1 cup of celeries, cilantro, parsley, and carrot mix, and lots and lots of hay. He always come beg me for more food but I ignored him. (He followed me everywhere! He followed me to the tv room and my bedroom and scratched my pajamas to get my attention… poor thing…) I even splash apple juice on the hay to encourage him to eat more hay. After 2 days, he showed some sign of stasis again!!!! He didn’t eat (not even when I try to give him pellets), and only pooped some flat, tiny, feces, and he was lying down in a way that made me worried. I was wondering, maybe cuz I’m not feeling him enough to eat and his intestines stop working??? So I force feeding him with mashed pellets, and at night he started eating pellets again. So I am really scared of trying to get him to eat hay now, cuz seems like he would rather starve himself, than to eat hay. What should i do? Any advice on how to get more fibre in his system other than eating hay?

I have 2 big pots of grass growing in the house now. (I live in an apartment, I don’t have a lawn) but it takes around 1 week to be fully grown and cut it for my bunny to eat. But even those fresh grass, he is willing to eat some, but not all of them. I also grow cilantro and parsley at home. But are those high fibre enough for him? He doesn’t grind his teeth also. It’s lucky that my vet said his teeth are fine for now… but what can I do more?
Please advise!!!

[tobyluv]

You have already done the things that are advised when a rabbit won’t eat hay, which is to try different varieties and brands and to limit his pellets, so I’m not sure how you can encourage him to eat any hay. Does he even turn down alfalfa hay? Adult rabbits shouldn’t have much alfalfa, but most rabbits love it and you could give him some small quantities.

You could offer more of a variety in his greens/veggies, to give him more fiber. Carrots should be limited, due to the high sugar content, but carrot tops are very high in fiber if you can find bunches of carrots with good, fresh tops.   Make sure that he drinks enough water too. If he isn’t a big water drinker, you can wet the greens before feeding him. Also, most rabbits prefer a bowl of water instead of a bottle. And make sure that he gets plenty of exercise.

Here are a couple of links regarding good veggies/greens for rabbits. Don’t try a lot of new ones at once. Introduce a new one every few days or once a week.

http://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables-and-fruits-for-a-rabbit-diet/

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINFO/VeggieList/tabid/144/Default.aspx

[Bunnyguy101]

Hi grazzie

I’ve had my bunny for since September, so I don’t know how much help I would be, my little Theo decided he didn’t like hay one day and I bought a hay ball which helped a little bit then eventually found a hay he liked but will only eat the soft version of the brand not the hard version. So everytime I go to the shop I have to feel the bags until I find the type he likes. Could it be this I know you said you treid lots of hay but are all of them hard?

Also at this time I did a lot of research and forum checking and a lady would provide fresh greens throughout the day, could this help at all?

[Grazzzie]

Thanks for replying. But no, he doesn’t like alfalfa either (( he had 2 or 3 bites when I got him alfalfa, but I have never seen him touching it again …. sigh…

For exercising, he doesn’t like moving much either. I never cage him, cuz my little bun bun is naturally litter trained (which is odd, but the first day I got him and ever since, he just go to the litter box for peeing and nowhere else). So he has the whole apartment to jump around. And I bought a very large rug so that he wouldn’t be running on slippery floor. However, he just like to lie down on the rug with his arms and hind legs all stretch out like a frog.

Is there any way that can encourage him to exercise more? Cuz I have a feeling that since he doesn’t eat much, he just want to reserve energy by lying down and not move at all :/

For water, I guess he have enough…(?) i have to refill his water bottle every 3-4 days approximately.

One more thing, he is not neutered. And he humps my arm twice everyday, one in the morning, one at night. Is it good or bad?

Today I went out for a pretty long time and came home late. He didn’t get to hump my arm. And he’s also not moving much (as usual), but not eating much either. Maybe he is not hungry? I thought, but no! He would eat the pellets if I hand feed him, but not touching those in his bowl. What is wrong? (

[Azerane]

This does sound like you have a very stubborn rabbit Have you tried offering the hay in different ways? For example, do you keep it in a hay rack, but have you tried putting some in the litter tray, or stuffed in toilet paper tubes, or just sprinkled around the floor of his area?

Fresh grass is a good alternative though, and if you can get him to eat more of that it would be good

[Grazzzie]

Hi bunnyguy101 XD

Nice to meet u, and my bunny Tigger.

What type of hay does your bunny like? Maybe he’ll try the soft hay too, I should give it a try. Can you give me the brand name of it?

Haha, it’s a good suggestion too to meet someone out there that has a lawn that has fresh supplies of grass everyday XD but first I need to know more people then. I’ll try to post something in forum asking for it.

I live in Huddersfield, England. Anyone here that lives somewhere close?

[Grazzzie]

I tried feeding him hay in different ways.
All those that you’ve mentioned, plus laying hay on top of his pellets so he have to dig through the hay to eat pellets. But none of it really works :/

Hay rack >> never touch it.

Lay grass everywhere >> not eating hen and he avoid stepping them even!

Paper roll stuffing >> he just ignore it totally

I tried those balls with carrot topping and hay stuffed in within. But he just eat all the carrots on top and once the carrot is gone, he didn’t want to touch that ball again x.X

[Author]

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