Help! My bunny won’t eat any hay!

[TacoBunny]

Help, my 4 months old Holland lop bunny refuse to eat any hay. I already tried 4 different kind of hay, he doesn’t interested in any. He eats pellets, greens and any green vegetables also once in a while a little bit of alfalfa hay (only soft part). Any advise on how to change his eating habits? I tries to withhold his food, but even when he is hungry, he would still not look at any hay…

[Wick & Fable]

Can you provide some information on the daily feeding schedule he expects? So what time(s) you feed him, the quantity of the foods, etc.

It is not unusual for a rabbit to not eat “enough” hay — there are some rabbits who are hay monsters and need no help with their hay appetite, but a good number do need a bit of encouragement. Hay, for many rabbits, is the least-preferred food, considering fresh veggies, pellets, and treats can be oh so tasty! So things like being aware of when you feed those non-hay food items and how much you feed them can really impact their hay eating.

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.

[Bam]

Since he is young still, alfalfs is appropriate for him. Young buns need the extra protein and calcium and will by instinct go for the richest food available.

Things you can try ito get him to eat more grass are: Change type of hay. There are many types of hay. Its not just Timothy that is appropriate for bunnies. Any grass hay that horses can eat is good for buns. Oat hay, orchard grass, fescue, meadow are good types. Palatability can also vary with different batches of the same type of hay.

You can try hay toppers, which generally consist of various dry herbs (chamomile, mint, dandelion and rose are examples) that you sprinkle over the hay to spark an appetite.

Withholding  food is never good when it comes to rabbits, so its rather a good thing that this hasn’t worked for your rabbit!  Some vets, who are not bunny savvy, will recommend this practice, but the risk is that the bun starves. A bun who isn’t used to eating hay is not capable of absorbing all the nutrients the hay contains until the microflora of the gut has adjusted to more hay. This takes a couple of weeks. Gut bacteria and yeasts are crucial for proper digestion of hay, for example in order to convert cellulose into energy-yielding starch and sugar. So even if a bun that’s unused to hay starts eating  the hay, it can still starve.

What you can do is decrease amount of food, a little bit. This is not really recommended with very young rabbits, like your rabbit, but can and should be done when the bun is 6-7 months, longer if your bun is a big breed. (Big breeds mature later).

Until then, I think alfalfa hay is good for your bun. It’s what the American House Rabbit Society recommends. As you seem fully aware, good hay eating habits are best founded when the bun is young.

[TacoBunny]

Thank you for your reply. I will give him approximately 1/3 of cup of Oxbow young rabbits pellets in the morning and in the evening ( he is always hungry for it). He will eat some greens or 2-3 small pieces of green vegetables at lunch. He is very active and playful, but I am still worried

[TacoBunny]

Thank you so much for your detailed reply. I wish he would eat alfalfa hay. He only nibbles softest part of it. I will definitely try oat hay ( he is crazy about oats, which he has 1 teaspoon once a week) and hay troopers next.

[Louiethebunny]

Are you feeding 1/3 cup each meal, or spreading 1/3 cup between morning and night? 1/3 cup twice a day is a large amount, and even though younger rabbits can be free-fed pellets, you can adjust his pellets to only one time a day to encourage hay eating during the rest of the day, or cut down a little on pellets. I’ve been feeding my 7 mo rabbit fewer pellets, and it helped increase his appetite for hay.

[TacoBunny]

Yes, i am feeding approximately 1/3 cup each meal. I tried to reduce this amount, but he gets extremely hungry. I tried to give him pellets only once a day, hoping that he will eat hay instead, but it didn’t happen. I got him a chew-a-bowl, hopefully it will help.

[Wick & Fable]

“extremely hungry” can also simply be the rabbit’s energy towards food. Many rabbits will go crazy for pellets because they taste so good. It is not unusual for an adult rabbit to get only 1 tablespoon or 1/4 cup of pellets a day only — the rest is all hay and a bit of veggies.

It is good that you’ve tried only once feeding pellets, and a part of me is curious on whether it may be worth trying that again. It will take time for a rabbit who isn’t hay-inclined to finally decide “Fine, maybe I’ll graze some more.”, so perhaps you can start by just lessening the amount of pellets by a bit to give the appetite some room to gravitate for hay.

How is the hay presented to your rabbit, and how much is availlable?

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.

[TacoBunny]

So the chew a bowl didn’t get his interest at all 🙁 Today again i tried to mix pellets with the hay. He threw the hay away and only ate pellets. Interestingly the package says “unlimited pellets”…

 

[TacoBunny]

Hello Wick, I give him a decent amount of hay. As of now i tried Oxbow Orchard Hay, Kaytee Timothy Hay plus Marigolds, Kaytee Timothy Wafer cut hay all went to garbage in a week. The only hay that he would eat a little bit is Alfalfa hay (he only eats soft parts) Any suggestions for a “tasty hay”?

 

[Wick & Fable]

In regards to hay, if a rabbit is not an enthusiastic hay eater, I believe they won’t “go crazy” immediately for any type of hay– it might take a couple days. For example, my second rabbit wasn’t fed many veggies at her foster situation, so it took about a week of presenting and leaving a plate in front of her each evening to finally get her to try a nibble or two.  There are definitely some that turn their nose to timothy and go crazy for orchard, but I know both my rabbits are pretty baseline the same for the different types I’ve tried.

How do you present the hay? Is it in a litterbox? Do you have little hay containers and toys around the environment?

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.

[Wick & Fable]

“Unlimited pellets” is the typical phrase used for young rabbits. It’s found on a lot of packaging; however, that doesn’t necessarily mean giving a rabbit constant access nor an excessive amount of pellets, as that can lead to obesity, imbalanced diet, poor eating habits, poor dental maintenance, etc….. so, the idea is more along the lines of anywhere from a 1/4cup to 1/2cup in a serving, based on what I have read from other owners here and there– it really fluctuates by owner, which I know is not a straight-forward answer.

The “worst case scenario” if you “underfeed” pellets will be the rabbit being underweight and malnourished for its growth; however, that doesn’t happen overnight. You would probably see the rabbit seeming a bit skinny, in which case you know at that point, you can bulk up the pellets. For medical reasons, I had to limit my rabbit’s pellets when he was 12 weeks old. He only got about 2 tablespoons. Later down the line, the vet noticed he was slightly underweight, so we fed him some supplemental food, in addition to what he was getting, and he has been maintaining healthy weight ever since, and is healthy with no complications now at 3.5 years old.

… In short, experimenting with reducing pellets for a week or so to see how it may impact hay eating will most likely not do harm and may help guide your rabbit to see hay as a more legitimate source of food.

I am also not surprised about the hay-pellet scenario. It is a child eating only the croutons off a salad.. very typical, haha.

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.

[TacoBunny]

The hay is giving to him in a tray and on a side of the litter box. I will reduce his daily amounts of pellets for a week and see if it helps. He is definitely acting like a child. i think he is acting as a spoiled child…

Does anyone i can replace a hay with this https://www.etsy.com/listing/742185855/ab-wellness-support-hay-sticks-oat-free?ref=hp_rv-3&frs=1?

[DanaNM]

Those seem like more of a treat, so would not be a good replacement for hay. Hay is needed for fiber (which makes up the bulk of the gut and keeps things functioning), wears down the teeth (chewing the strands of hay), and also prevents boredom (buns should spend at least 4 hours a day chewing!).  But they do sell compressed hay cubes (that are just hay) that might be a good transitional food to get the bun used to the taste of eating hay.

. . . 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.  

[Wick & Fable]

It might help to give him multiple places to go around and be curious/graze at the hay. Rabbits are naturally foragers, so it may pique his interest! I know one of my rabbits is eating a lot more hay because I gave him more places to eat it. You can stuff hay in toilet paper tubes, cardboard boxes, etc..

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.

[LBJ10]

You could try a hay topper to get him interested. Dried willow leaves, oat flowers, dandelion, mint, chamomile, etc.

[Louiethebunny]

My rabbit isn’t a huge hay eater, but after I modified his diet and offered several types of ways to “find” hay, he’s more interested. I put DIY hay bags around our room for him to forage, some hay free in the litter box, some in a bag above his litter box, and some in kleenex boxes with the plastic removed, he finds it especially fun to pull the hay out, and sometimes sticks his whole head inside the box, (he can get his head out comfortably though). You could also try to offer other types of hay, Oxbow sells hay like botanical hay, oat hay, orchard hay… they are still good for fiber, and some rabbits love “treat” hay because it is sometimes more fragrant or tastes really good to them. I sometimes mix in a small bit of botanical or orchard hay into Louie’s regular timothy hay, and he munched it all through to get the yummy orchard hay.

[TacoBunny]

Thank you so much for all your suggestions, I understand the importance of eating hay, that’s why I am concern. I will try to come up with several ways to “find” hay, hope it will help. Can anyone post a link to hay toppers.

[prince dorian the bun]

this may be a bit of an odd suggestion, but if I am giving Dorian new foods, I often at least mimic eating them myself, lucky for me this is mainly with leafy veg and occasionally a new fruit, but I have just pretended to eat it and that works too! He then becomes more curious and will actually try a bite or two. After which I give him lots of attention and try more again later. If you try all the other suggestions that may be worth giving a shot. Also hay in toys, toilet paper roles and @Louiethebunnies suggestions work great.

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