Different hays, question

[Mikey]

So at the end of this month, I am moving to another town with my partner and our buns. We drove around the town yesterday to find pet stores and vets office, just to scout around and prepare. Well, one of the pet stores we went (about 5 minutes from our soon to be home) to has an entire aisle dedicated to hays! They have small bags, big bags, HUGE bags! Timothy, orchard, alfalfa, oat! They also had hay baked treats with ingredients that were just banana, honey, and hay! They had all sorts of hay based pellets, too! It was hay heaven in there, and I never thought I would be this excited over hay, lol  So, my bunnies have never tried anything other than alfalfa and timothy hay, and I kind of want to have them try the other types of hay. How would I go about having them try them? Would I just buy one of their small bags and mix it with the timothy theyre used to and see how it goes, or is there a slower introduction I need to use with their hay?

[Dface]

I get so excited over new hay too!

For mine I have always just added some into their regular hay with no issues. It doesnt seem to be the same as pellets, which cause tummy upset, maybe because the composition of grass is closer to other types, or maybe it’s just because their digestive system is designed to eat roughage like this?

Im not really sure but I’ve never really had to think twice about adding in new hay types for them! I do say add one new at a time, so if nothing else you can see which ones are hits and which arent

[DanaNM]

So exciting!!! Mine LOVE oat hay. Orchard is really similar to timothy, but a bit richer and I think slightly lower fiber. I noticed Bertha’s poops got darker and a bit smaller when she was eating orchard, so I switched back to timothy and oat. The oat makes their poops large and golden, it’s lovely. The only annoying thing is they’ll dig through it all trying to find the oat seeds, which makes a huge mess and a lot of wasted hay.

I’ve had no problems just adding the new hay in over a couple days. I don’t really have storage for more than one type of hay at a time, so I have ended up just fully transitioning to the new type over 2 or 3 days. I think since orchard, oat, and timothy are all grasses, it’s pretty easy on them to switch between them. I would just make sure they actually like to eat the new one before you buy a large amount!

. . . 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.  

[joea64]

I give my own buns mixed farm hay that I buy from the rabbit rescue, but I have to confess I don’t know exactly what types of grass are in there. The buns like and thrive on it, though, which is what counts. The poops they produce from this hay are very abundant, medium/dark brown, small, round, dry and hard/crumbly.

[Mikey]

I saw oat hay and it was the first one I wanted to try when we move out there. All three are pretty picky about the hay they get (only the crunchy bits, no leafy bits, dark/medium in color, ect) but I think branching out a bit will be good for them, atleast to try it Im super excited for their wall of treats too! I have never seen so many hay based treats! I will definitely try small amounts of everything first to make sure they actually like it. Thanks guys

[Deleted User]

Mine have both enjoyed all types of hay that I have given them! They have timothy as staple (of course) and I occasionally order some oat, orchard and I have alfalfa since I have a young bun under 6 months still. They go NUTS for oat hay, but as Dana said they only eat the yummy oat bits and end up stringing hay all over the place! At one point I literally plucked all the oats off and just mixed that into a bin of timothy lol. I think the transition can go fairly quickly, although I haven’t transitioned them off of timothy- I just give them a variety because I love to see them excited about new hay

[Wick & Fable]

Wick mainly enjoys the seeds from oat hay. Generally, I stay away from oat hay now because it decreases Wick’s hay consumption (he looks for the seeds, then stops eating).

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.

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