Getting My Brats To Eat Hay

[bunnyvegmom]

Does anyone have any tips on getting my boys to eat hay? I bought orchard and oat hay, because they won’t touch timothy or the hay cakes. I haven’t been able to get them to eat hay in years & they are in their own cages separately also. My holland is 8 and my dutch is 5. TIA

[BinkyBunny]

They don’t eat hay at all?? Being that they are eight and five years old and haven’t had much hay means their digestive system is pretty darn strong. But as they age, it definitely would be beneficial to continue to try and get more fiber in them so it’s good you are trying to still solve this issue after all of these years.
What’s their diet like? What quantity of pellets do they get? Do they get greens and if so what’s how much of that do they get? Do you put hay in their litter box or in rack near their litter box?

[bunnyvegmom]

Posted By BB on 07/22/2012 01:57 AM

They don’t eat hay at all?? Being that they are eight and five years old and haven’t had much hay means their digestive system is pretty darn strong. But as they age, it definitely would be beneficial to continue to try and get more fiber in them so it’s good you are trying to still solve this issue after all of these years.

What’s their diet like? What quantity of pellets do they get? Do they get greens and if so what’s how much of that do they get? Do you put hay in their litter box or in rack near their litter box?

 

Nope not at all! I’ve even tried adding timothy pellets to their food and they move them out of the way of their normal pellets. I would say they get about a 1/2 cup of pellets a day or sometimes less. They are not overweight believe it or not. I’ve been trying to give them a variety of veg (I go by your list) kale, radish leaves, fennel tops, herbs, parsley etc. Now for the hay I put them in the litter boxes and the hay racks. My holland is my oldest and he usually bonks the hay rack around to toy with me I swear. I’m thinking of trying to add some hibiscus and other herbs flowers with the hay hoping that they will try it.

[blackfang]

I have same problem with my rabbit before when I adopted him.

He didn’t eat hay at all. He was on fiesta diet (I know it’s bad) and he refused to drink water. I tried so hard.. so hard.. very hard.. to make him EAT HAY!

I tried my last solution which was a great success, I stopped providing pellets in the mornings. He will have nothing etc to eat except hay next to him until at nights he will get less than 1/4 cup of vegetables (that’s way less than we are suppose to feed rabbits). He couldn’t handle to be hungry and ate hay right away. I slowly increase amount of vegetables everyday and I switched fiesta pellets to oxbow pellets. He still kept eating hay like there’s no tomorrow.
(don’t follow this method if your rabbit don’t eat any food for more than 12 hours)

That was happening in about 4 years ago. He is five years old right now and still love to eat hay (Timothy, Orchard, and Oat) with more than 3 cups of vegetables a day.

*Talking to myself* Wow, it’s been four years since I had my rabbit came into my life. Felt like I had him a week ago -_-

[Monkeybun]

Lower the amount of pellets and I bet they’ll eat more hay.

My buns get less than 1/8 of a cup a day each. Thats more than enough, and my largest bun is 4lbs. Switching over to timothy pellets would be good too.

[bunnyvegmom]

I will give that a go and see how it works. I’ve tried it with timothy pellets before and they wouldn’t eat at all and I gave in lol. Thanks for all your help

[bunnyvegmom]

I have some good news to report. I suspected my rabbits were started to eat hay and today I caught my dutch eating it! I’ve never been so happy lol. My holland is eating it too. I bought oxbow oat and orchard and my mixing it in their hay racks. It has taken some time, but maybe eventually they will eat way more. Thanks for all the tips you guys are awesome

[TH004]

My rabbit now is picky on the brand and how fresh the hay is (Oxbow only!). If you found the right brand, stick with it!
My first rabbit refused to eat hay– ever. I never tried different brands though, which may have worked since it did with our current buns. I did try the not feeding her for a day to make her hungry enough. It didn’t work. She just threw a fit. Sometimes rabbits can be like kids. You can say go to bed hungry or eat your veggies, and the stubborn ones will starve throughout the night.

[bunnyvegmom]

I think this is right on, because I used other brands & they would not touch it. You are right though they can be like kids. I’ve tried this too and would just give in lol. Next I need to try them on timothy pellets now that will be a challenge!

 

Posted By TH004 on 08/11/2012 04:11 PM

My rabbit now is picky on the brand and how fresh the hay is (Oxbow only!). If you found the right brand, stick with it!
My first rabbit refused to eat hay– ever. I never tried different brands though, which may have worked since it did with our current buns. I did try the not feeding her for a day to make her hungry enough. It didn’t work. She just threw a fit. Sometimes rabbits can be like kids. You can say go to bed hungry or eat your veggies, and the stubborn ones will starve throughout the night.

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