eating just timothy seed heads?

[sarahthegemini]

Hi guys! Hope everyone and everybun is doing well. I have a little query – I give both bunnies unlimited orchard and unlimited timothy and small amounts of oat (maybe a handful or two every day, usually stuffed into toys, unless they appear to be getting a bit bored with their unlimited hays so then i’ll give them unlimited oat for a few days and re-introduce timothy or orchard etc. Gotta keep things exciting lol)

Anyway, recently, i’ve noticed that the rabbits eat primarily the seed heads from the timothy and not much else of it. They’re still eating plenty of orchard and oat. They had a blip last week where they weren’t eating as much but things are back to normal now. Apart from the timothy issue. I’ve tried giving them just orchard and oat for a few days and re-introducing timothy but once the novelty of it wears off, they’re back to mainly eating the heads. Should I just alternate between oat and timothy constantly? Along with unlimited orchard? My only concern with that is if they get bored of orchard, i’ve not got any other option to excite them lol. I’m planning on getting a mini meadow hay bale for them to try though.

It’s a bit annoying as I have an 11kg box of timothy (well, probably about 8kg left of it now)

[kurottabun]

Hmm could it be just a phase? How long has it been since they’ve only been eating the seed heads?

Kurotta has had some phases with his timothy hay. He started off eating the seed heads most of the time, then after a while he preferred the leaves, and after that he preferred the stems. So interesting to observe him choosing his favourite bits lol. Now he’s back to eating all of it.

[Wick & Fable]

The non-seed-heads of timothy are clearly their least favorite part, so the fact that they continuously/periodically have the oat and orchard hay is enough justification to only eat the seed heads. To promote eating the non-seed-heads, the only option would be doing solely timothy hay for longer periods of time so they eat their least preferred hay component.

Wick began doing this with Oxbow loose timothy hay, and that’s when I changed him to the hay stacks, which for a reason unbeknownst to me seems to be much better for him, because he eats all hay parts in the stack.

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.

[sarahthegemini]

Thanks guys.

This picky-ness has probably been going on for a couple of weeks now. Peanut used to eat the seed heads first, then eat orchard and then go back to the timothy but maybe because I’m constantly topping up the orchard, he doesn’t feel the need. It’s odd though because if I hand feed them (the timothy stems), they happily gobble it up.

Wick, do you think I should omit the orchard and oat then for a little while? I just don’t want them to be stubborn and refuse to eat :-/

[Author]

Messages