Don’t mess with my alfalfa

[Elrohwen]

I’ve been trying to get Otto used to hays other than alfalfa, so I’ve been mixing it in with timothy and other grass hays. I put a blend of alfalfa and orchard in his hay rack (the one in the BB store) and he’s been munching for a day or so. I come downstairs this morning and fiance is pointing at the cage and laughing and says “Otto says ‘Hay goes on the floor. Not in the hay rack.”” I look in the cage to see that Otto has dumped all of the hay onto the floor (neatly and in one corner) and dragged the empty hay rack out into the middle of the cage

When I go to put the hay back in the rack, I realized that it was 100% orchard and all of the alfalfa was eaten . What a spoiled bun. They do have their ways of getting their points across. I’m hoping there isn’t hay thrown all over the place when I get home.

[Sarita]

Why don’t you just try to give him the orchard one day and no alfalfa at all – rabbits are very smart this way and will eat around what they don’t prefer.

[Elrohwen]

Now that he’s eaten all of the alfalfa, I’m going to leave the orchard in there so he’s stuck with it. Haha. There’s plenty to get him through probably another day and a half before I need to top it off again. We’ll see what he does.

Part of the problem is that he’s still free feed with the pellets (he’s only 4 months) so I think he just eats more pellets if he doesn’t like the hay of the day. I have started to wean him down a little bit, but I think he’ll be a better hay eater once his pellets are more restricted.

[Sarita]

I bet you are right about the pellets, the little stinker :~) Rabbits love those darn pellets! I think it is a good time to start weaning him down and introducing veggies too if you haven’t already.

[Elrohwen]

I’ve started on the veggies, but he’s a picky little eater about those too. So far, the only things he’ll eat are romaine and green leaf lettuce, and he once ate some rosemary. Luckily we’re huge veggie eaters, so I just keep buying new stuff and if he won’t eat it, we will, but it frustrates me that he won’t try anything. I try pushing it in his face, but he usually runs away and flicks his feet. Lol Oh well. It took him quite a few tries to eat a craisin, and he still won’t try banana or any other fruit. At least he likes his lettuce enough that I know he’s getting enough volume of veggies, and we’ll keep cycling through the HRS list to find other stuff he’ll tolerate. Hopefully he’s like a toddler who’s picky, but then grows out of it and learns to like new things

[Sarita]

All my rabbits love love love Basil – give that a try. I bet you are right about him being a picky eater too – I guess rabbits are just like humans, some will eat anything and some will snub everything.

It might be a blessing if he snubs the sweets though.

[Elrohwen]

I’ll grab some basil next time I’m at the store! I bought cilantro just for him this week, and it’s probably the only herb I can’t stand … at least I can make some nice Italian food with the basil if he won’t eat it 😉

[katie, max & penny]

elrohwen, my bun is the same way with his veggies. only romaine lettuce for him. i will try the basil, too, though. sometimes i can trick him into eating kale or spinach, since it kinda looks like lettuce (or he’s just surrendering).

good luck with the hay!! i bet when he’s hungry enough, he’ll give in to the hay!!

[Author]

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