Bunny refuses to eat hay??

[TheFunBun]

My bunny for the last almost year has been refusing hay! I’ve tried leaving it out instead of other veggies and fruit and he would rather starve. I posted on here a few days ago and was told to try oxbow orchard hay and she seemed somewhat interested in it for the first hour now back to ignoring it. She’s hungry because she’s trying to get into the dog and cat food to eat(always did) and she still won’t eat it. I’ve also tried Timothy, alfalfa hay and oat hay and she just flat out will NOT eat it! I tried putting pieces of fruit in it with hopes she would eat some and she just digs around the hay and will only eat the fruit! I don’t know what to do anymore!

[Bam]

Don’t take away all other food than hay, this method works with dogs because they will eat when they get hungry – bunnies are different. If they don’t eat, their gut slows down and the rabbit loses its appetite alltogether and this is the start of GI stasis, a very dangerous condition that’s deadly if not treated.

Did she eat hay a year ago? She may have a teeth-problem that makes her avoid hay, hay is tough and chewy. How is her poop? If a bunny doesn’t get enough fiber or doesn’t chew it’s food properly, it often shows up as sticky poop or gas.

I had to search for a long time before I found a hay that my buns would eat. I tried lots of hay. What worked out was an organic third cut meadow hay that’s locally produced. They ignore other hay. It can be very frustrating. You should serve hay in smallish wads throughout the day rather than fill the hay-rack to the limit. Some bunnies only eat “new” hay.

[TheFunBun]

I tried switching out the hay every 4 hours or so because I thought maybe that was it as well, and still nothing. I don’t know what other types of hay to try I have 5 different bags of it all different types and she doesn’t want it. When I first got her in 2013 she loved hay, then I think I may have spoiled her a little in fruit and veggies and she just decided she didn’t want the hay anymore. Her poops are hit and miss, sometimes there regular sometimes there a little sticky. Is there any other way to get the fiber she needs from hay in anything else? She is so stubborn!

[Bam]

Fresh grass if you have a place were you can pick some that’s not been treated with pesticides. Apple twigs, likewise not treated with pesticides. Willow. Stick celery cut up into inch-long pieces. Those are the things I come to think of. And have your vet check her molars for spurs (enamel spikes). It’s common in bunnies.

[Rhian]

I would second the advice to get her teeth looked at if she used to eat a lot of hay and just stopped.

My other advice would be to see if you can find any fresh horse-quality hay to offer her. Try something in the second/third cut range, try and make sure that it’s a grass hay with either very little or no alfalfa (which can be a pain to find, everywhere around here has alfalfa in their hay!). I haven’t found that any of my pets liked the first cut hay too much(especially timothy, as it’s really stem-y) and that’s typically what a lot of the bagged pet store hay is. Ask farmers, horse stables, animal rescues, feed stores and sometimes pet stores will carry the odd bag of local hay (I know some pet stores around me do this, too bad it’s terrible hay). You don’t necessarily need to buy an entire bale in the case of farmers, some may be willing to sell partial bales and some may even have surprisingly small bales they’re willing to sell.

[Author]

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