Diet & Care

[Kaitlyn Mantle]

I would have researched this question, but the search is down for now. This is also my first forum post 

I’ve had my boy for a little over a month now (first time bunny owner! ), and I tried using a large hay feeder for his free-eating hay. He was making a huge mess over his litterbox, and wasting anywhere from a third to half of the amount in the feeder. 

So I decided to get an old trashcan (sanitized and filed) and put a third of a five-pound box of hay in there. He was neat until about a week ago. He pulls out a lot of the hay, and I know he’s been peeing on it, so it’s not salvageable. I put a paint stir stick in the holes to try to prevent some of it.

 I don’t have a compost pile or anything like that because I live in a basement apartment, and my landlords don’t keep a garden. 

Any suggestions on how to prevent him from wasting, or keeping a different kind of feeder? This is expensive hay…  

[ThorBunny]

Welcome  

Agreed, bunnies tend to waste a lot of hay! Everyone seems to have their own way of dealing with it, but here’s my strategy. Picture of Thor’s area:

I’ve put down a towel so that they hay mess doesn’t get everywhere. This is awesome for us, some bunnies chew on towels and eat the fibers so you have to keep an eye on them. Thor just gets a handful of hay on the ground and a handful in her litter box. When she’s picked through the ground hay I scoop up the leftovers and put them in her box. That way I can recycle old hay and it’s fine if she pees on some  

I’ve found that putting out a small amount of new hay a few times a day encourages the most hay eating and the least waste. 

Once a week, I wash the towel and clean up any reject hay. 

What kind of hay are you buying? I know petstore hay can get really pricy, but there are many places that sell good quality hay for quite cheap! 

[Kaitlyn Mantle]

I have it set right in front of his litterbox so he can eat and do his business, as I know he does at the same time. How can I still encourage good litterbox behavior if I try it your way?

I purchase a 5lb box of the second cutting hay off of smallpetselect.com about once a month.

[Rio and Buns]

Wow I love how creative that trashcan idea is!! I might have to do something similar. The store bought hay racks don’t hold much hay at all, I have to fill Nora’s three or four times a day.

Anyway! I’m not sure that there’s any kind of workaround to the hay wasting. I don’t think it’s the feeder, he’s probably just picking out and eating the yummy pieces, but leaving the rest on the ground because they aren’t yummy enough to his liking. Mine do the same and seem to waste a lot more hay when it’s timothy, and maybe only eat like 50% of it, if even that. However, when I give them orchard grass they waste a LOT less and eat most of it. Maybe you can try a different kind of hay, or mix them?

[Kaitlyn Mantle]

Thank you! The internet can be a very helpful place! I’ll try a different kind of hay and return to the forum if there’s any change. Thank you!

[ThorBunny]

Oh I also buy SPS. But I get the 20lb boxes of 2nd cutting timmothy hay. It works out to a much better price per pound

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