Hay racks

[mrmac]

Ok I know there have been soo many other posts on this and I have read them. My trio is going through hay like water, but it’s not that they are even eating it all. I have two hay racks above eack litterbox and a small cardboard box for hay too. The hay racks arent working anymore. They will put their fron feet up on the rack and dig at the hay. I will fill them up repeatedly during the day and before I go to bed, but when I come out in the morning the nitterboxes are just full of hay. They have never gone through it like this. The box I have it small because anything bigger and they sit in it and pee and po in it. Any ideas?

[KatnipCrzy]

Schroeder always digs his hay out of his rack- and since he digs it into the litterbox- I just let him eat it out of the litterbox- it is his choice to do it that way.  I just keep an eye on the litterbox to make sure there is enough “fresh” hay that he is still getting enough hay to eat- since he obviously does not eat the hay that gets mixed in with the wet wood stove pellets and poo mess.

I buy hay by the bale and it is about $4 for a bale that lasts me 4-6 months- so I don’t worry about wasting hay- and I give “treat” hay about a handful every other day to give them some variety so they don’t have to eat the exact same hay for 6 months.

Ironically enough Cotton was not much of a hay eater at all….until I got Schroeder and they were housed side by side.  Schroeder is such a food maniac that his enthusiasm for a refilled hay bin and a handful of treat hay has completely gotten Cotton to act the same way.  They both go crazy when they get more hay- no matter how much they already have.  Weird.  And of course it is the same overflowing excitement at pellet time and salad time….but hay time too.

[luvmybunny]

How about something they can not get into, like a ceramic chinchilla dust bath? Like this:
 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produ…atid=11190

They do sell them at petstores. People use them for chinchilla’s hay because they can go to the potty in their hay too. Hope that helps!

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Im with catnip, my hay rack is over their litter boxes and both my bunnies love digging the hay out. I just leave it in their litter box and they eat it out of the box. Plus if hay is wasted I am not too sad because the hay I buy is cheapo!

Haha I agree with You catnip about bunnies eating more hay when you get another bun. Fern is now a crazy hay eater like thistle, I feel happy and feel that she is more healthy, (She hardly ate any hay before I got thistle). I also agree with the fact that they both go crazy over their hay no matter how much they already have!

[mrmac]

Thats my issue. The only hay I have been able to find is sooo expensive, I cdon’t want drop 50 bucks just for hay, to last them 2 weeks, every two weeks. Dexter eats constantly! I swear everytime I look at him he is munching on hay or sleeping. They get so excited when I refill the hay racks.

[Deleted User]

If you can’t get hay at farm price and you have multiple rabbits to supply, I can see why you wouldn’t want to be wasting any.

Why don’t you get a small pkg. of NIC’s, a 3-cube set that has 13 grids and costs about $ 20. You can make a couple of dig-proof, climb-in-proof racks and use the rest for whatever (bunnyproofing your place, making shelves for the trio…)

Wire the grids real tightly to your pen walls on the inside of your pen. They can’t dig out hay through the squares.

[KatnipCrzy]

OMG- I love that photo of the bunnies!!!

[Barbie]

Katnip, me too! I love the two buns sitting side by side and sharing a meal

[mrmac]

I love that pic too! I found a feed supply store somewhat close to me. I think they sell bales of timothy hay, hopefully that place will be good!

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

I do what Katnip does and just put the hay in the front half of the litter box. It would end up there anyway! They love to munch and do their business at the same time anyway!

[jerseygirl]

Mine like to eat it from down low. I guess they can dig thru and find the choice bits. So I put small amounts in the litter box and refresh often. If it gets soiled, then it’s only a little at a time and usually it’s only the stuff they won’t eat by then. Good luck with the baled hay.

[mrmac]

I used to put some in the litterboxes to try and entice them into pottying and eating at the same time when they were having litter training issues but I would come out to their pen in the morning and hay and pee soiled bedding and poos were flung all over the cage. I still do occaionally put hay in the boxes though. They seem to like it if it is in the box or on the floor, they do not care for the hay racks I dont think.

[jerseygirl]

I want that chinchilla bath bunnymum posted about! I want one with a Chinchilla in it too!!

[mrmac]

I know! Its too cute! I love Chinchillas, I think they are adorable!

[Beka27]

With a trio, I know you have to always have A LOT of hay on hand… You could either feed a small amount several times a day so it doesn’t go to waste, or I like Petzy’s hay rack idea. If you did a hay rack like that, I would still suggest have *some* kept out… my buns eat more hay when they can dig their faces into it, they just get frustrated with “confined” hay.

[Deleted User]

My buns get a bunch of hay once a day just out on the floor in front of them . I usually give that when I know they’re hungry, before they have eaten their pellets, and I make the amount small enough that they eat it up right away. –Good point, Beka, ‘hay rack frustration’ must be avoided!

mac, I think we need a hay rack thread every once in a while as a refresher. Hay is too important.

[Beka27]

We *could* just start stacking up bales in the corners of our homes… the whole house could be the “hay rack”… It won’t matter if it gets everywhere… it’ll already be everywhere!!! ;o)

[Deleted User]

Beka, it’s called a barn, right? Barn-style living! Isn’t there another thread about hay storage problems (Holy Hay Something) ? –Cross post this great idea there!

 

[mrmac]

Hopefully this hay place comes through! There is hay all over the apartment anyway, why would a little more hurt?!

[Alicia]

Before I got the bale and had way too MUCH hay I always had this concern and issue too. Mine LOVE to put their feet in and dig out the hay into their litter box and then it would just get wasted.

What I tried with Thumper since he was the worst culprit was get this jumbo “treat” ball ..like those little round ones but it is HUGE like about 6 inches around I’d say and it holds a lot of hay.  I filled it up once a day for him but if I was going to have it in the cage with the other two I would have had to do it twice a day. 

Also, when I first got Drue and I realized how high my hay budget was going when having TWO bunnies I started giving them small dishes of hay three times a day.  This of course got really old really fast…but it will work if you need to.

[mrmac]

Of course the place that sells the bales, is out of Timothy hay and have been for the past few months. They said they should be getting more in int the next few weeks (HOPEFULLY!) so I’m just going to have to call every week till then. Ugh!

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