Disapproves Hay

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

After close observations, I don’t think that Pumpkin eats much hay.  To be more clear, I think she eas more pellets and veggies rather than hay. 

She doesn’t like Tomothy and Oat hay.  She seems to like Alfalfa but I’m afraid to give it to her.  I’ve tried the cubes and also tried incorporating hay to toys to encourage her to eat more hay.  On top of that, I tried giving her different brand of hay.  I tried fresh bales of hay, Oxbow to petsmart.  But so far, all failed.

How can i encourage her to eat more hay?  If I can get her to eat more hay, it would definitely help with her sensitive stomach.

[Lisa_43]

 

Found this in bunny info

Hope it helps

 

HAY TIP: A great trick that encourages more hay consumption is to offer a little handful a few times a day.  For some reason this entices them to eat more, even though they still have plenty of hay in their rack.  Maybe it’s the whole "newness" factor, I don’t know but it seems to work well

[Sarita]

How much pellets are you feeding her? How much veggies? Perhaps you will need to cut down on the pellets and veggies to encourage her to eat more hay.

[Scarlet_Rose]

Some bunnies will also eat more hay if it there is a layer of it in the litter box too, so you might want to try that if you don’t have it that way already.

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

I give 1/4 cup of pellets and 1-2 cups of veggies. My buns are both below 5 lbs so I’m giving them 1/8 cup for each of them. But then, I cant be sure how much each of them are eating. One could be eating more than the other.

Right now, I have hay in a hay rack against the wall where litterbox is. But I’ll try putting some in the box.

[Gravehearted]

I agree with Lisa – I never leave lots of hay sitting around in their house. Yesterday’s hay seems to be totally unappealing to my bunnies. They get a handful in the morning and another at night. I also put some in their litterboxes, since it’s good for them to munch all the time.

you might also try bunny brome or orchard grass, since they might like that better. my bunnies really enjoy the bunny blend from binky bunny, it’s very green. alfalfa is very tasty – but since it’s not a grass hay, it’s too high in protein to free feed to adult rabbits.

[Deleted User]

Thanks Lisa & Gravehearted…both tips worked for my first bun. But this little stinker is doing my head in with the hay. I have tried both brome and orchard grass…no dice. If I hold it for him, he takes a nibble and runs away. If I put it in his litter box he spreads it all over and pees on it. He is really subtle in his disapproval.

Gravehearted, should I just cut out the the alfalfa all together and leave him no other choices? I have cut down on his pellets, per his age and weight, and greens he just gets a handful mornings and evenings when I put him in.

[Gravehearted]

well – I’m not sure how often you’re offering him alfalfa now.

But it’s kinda like if your mom offers you cookies or an apple, which will you choose? I’d likely hold out for the cookie and it’s possible Pumpkin is too. 😉 Alfalfa just is a lot tastier, but has too much protein for adult bunnies.

You might try the binky bunny blend, my bunnies really love it. If that doesn’t work – I know my bunnies have really loved the hay we get from kleenmama’s hayloft in washington, since it’s VERY green and fresh. You might look into farmer dave’s since it’s closer to you.

[MooBunnay]

My buns are HUGE fans of the timothy hay – they can’t seem to get enough of it! So perhaps try that kind if you haven’t already.

Also, perhaps this is “tough love” but I always just give my buns the 1/4 cup of pellets, a couple cups of greens, and then hay, and pretty much figure that if they get hungry they will next eat the hay – which has been true so far. Its hard to keep an eye on a bunny at all times of the day, so they may be eating it when you just don’t happen to be there. I think a good gage of whether your bunny is eating enough hay is monitoring their poops. If your bunny is pooping regularly, then I think its quite likely that they are eating hay when you don’t see them, because a bunny that was only eating its pellets and veggies would probably have some weird looking poops! How are your bunnies poops doing?

Also, for picky bunnies – when I bought a hay rack and started putting the hay in there my bunnies went crazy and would eat it allllll day long. This would also prevent the problem of them spreading the hay around and peeing on it I’d highly recommend trying the hay rack and seeing if that improves things as well.

[poopy]

Ya that’s strange. I pile Medusa’s litterbox with tons of hay, and she’ll eat at least half if not 3/4 of it. They should be eating at least their weight in hay each week. And since yours are angora, they need even more protein and roughage since they are swallowing more hair. Not sure what to tell you….

[Toki+Pumpkin+Elmo]

I give Timothy as the ‘main’ hay. I mix it with some oat hay but hasn’t work yet. I’m going to try the mix.
So far, leaving a little bit at a time didn’t show much improvement. I’m thinking if I can add hay into their treats since I bake their treats. Maybe I can try to grind it or chop it into little pieces and mix it into their treats.

[BinkyBunny]

Is her teeth okay? Sometimes bunnies who do fine with pellets and chomping up soft greens have a harder time with hay, if they have teeth issues. Misalignments/malloclusions. Check her incisors(front) to see that they are growing normally.

[Spacehopper]

I never thought mine ate much hay at all, so i started putting some in their cage, as well as just their litter box. BIG MISTAKE!!! They seem to associate hay with P&P time, and now they have TWO toilets. I think I’ll just stick to keeping it in the litter box.

[MooBunnay]

Spacehopper – did you ever end up getting a covered litterbox? My buns are the same way as yours – so for the ones that don’t have a covered litterbox, I hang a hay rack right over the litterbox, that way, they can eat out of the rack, but still “P&P” at the same time.

[DustBunneh'sMama]

My bunny doesn’t seem to like his hay either, and it’s a nice green pasture mix that I got from a local dairy farmer here where I live. It’s clean and nice and a great mix, but he’s just not that into it. I ordered a small bale of the 6-in-1 from here and we’ll see how that goes. He is a very large rabbit, a Flemish Giant, and already weighs 9 lbs. at 2 months old, so I free-feed his pellets. He’s not very keen on many veggies yet either, so I am slowly adding them to see what he likes. I made a litte hay rack for the side of his cage in front of his litter box, and I put fresh hay in there every morning. His poops look fine, so he must be eating some of it, but the amount never seems to decrease. I even made hay toys, hoping he would eat more hay that way, but to no avail. So, we’re sort of in the same boat of bunnies who don’t like to eat hay. I will see what he does when he gets the other mix of hay. Good luck!

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Oooh ooh I was going to post about this…

MEadow Grass=magic bullet

Since it’s a grass hay it’s like timothy hay so you can feed it as the main hay, and mine are getting so excited about this meadow grass its as if it’s freash veggies!They are even snubbing their alfalfa treat hay for meadow grass!!!

[Scarlet_Rose]

Here is an article to check out for bunnies who are difficult and won’t eat hay that I posted to another thread:

If Your Bunny Won’t Eat Hay

It’s got some great tips to try and get your bun to eat more.

Moobunnay, speaking of meadow hay, my local HRS was out of the timothy hay when I went to buy some so I just got the meadow hay.  My bunnies are picky and *may* not eat it so I will probably be using the techniques in the above-metioned article for my two, so I am amazed your two love it!

[Author]

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