Home made Hay mangers

[sweetbluebun]

I really need to figure out a new hay system.  My hay allergies are killing me, and I’ve done just about everything to prevent exposure (ie stored in a plastic container, gloves) but the hay on the floor is still an issue because the buns have carpet scraps in their pens and the dust always seems to transfer over onto the surrounding carpeted area that runs through my whole basement.  The buns love to make a huge mess with it, they like jumping in the boxes and throwing pieces around until half of it ends up on the carpet.  I was thinking an overhead system might prevent some of the mess, or at least make it more managable.  Right now I can’t switch over to another hay because I just bought a huge fresh bale of 2nd cutting, it’s less dusty than the kaytee which is nice, but the buns really love it and I don’t want to waste it.  The feedstore that I got my hay from carries orchard, but it looked a little stale so I just stuck with the 2nd cutting of the timothy. 

I’ve seen pet hay mangers and they look like they’d be about as messy as keeping the hay in litter boxes.  I was thinking about maybe a box next to the pen and a huge litterbox underneath?  I was just wondering what sort of matierals would be best?  I’ve seen cardboard boxes and ones made with NIC cubes.  I was just wondering if anyone had built something like that to deal with hay messiness. 

[Hedi]

What about using a covered litter box for cats? I bought one from target that is very roomy. I put litter w/newspaper in there as well as their hay. This way all the hay is contained in one area and your buns can eat and go potty at the same time. My buns luv having their hay in their potty box.

[KatnipCrzy]

EDIT: pardon the poos in the pic- I took the pics just now so I could post examples.

I am not sure if this will help you or not, but what I found is a coated wire bin from the “sink” section/ kitchen organization at our local grocery supercenter (Meijer). 

In the NIC cube cage I attach it at the bottom with 2 zip ties- stuff it full of hay and flip it up and clip it closed with a metal clip.  Most of the hay gets pulled out into the litterbox.  When I change the box I always put a handful of hay on clean grid in the litterbox.    I first had it set up to be an “open” top so I could just throw the hay in, but after 2 days Cotton obviously must have figured out she could jump in and poo on ALL the hay, so it was ALL hers (We are still having Cotton/Penny bonding poo/pee wars).  So I had to change it so it could be flipped up and clipped “closed”.

The dog crate holder is zip tied in place- and the shelf above moves up to allow me to fill it but also acts as a “lid” to prevent any pooing in all the hay.  The bins were about $5 and they hold a lot of hay.  I stuff them full of the bulk bale hay and I give handfuls of Binky Bunny hay like meadow, oat into the litterboxes every other day or so.  It seems to keep the buns interested in the hay.

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[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Nice setup Katnip! I need to think about something like that, Right now I just put it in the litterboxes and then a handfull here and there in their condos/areas. But that’s a major mess so….I should try one of those bins!

[sweetbluebun]

Thanks Katnip that’s exactly what I was trying to do, something overhead so that I wouldn’t have to handle the hay as often too. Right now I’m touching it maybe 3-4 times a day to do refills and to toss what’s in the litterbox. I will def try this out!

[KatnipCrzy]

I looked around until I found a basket that gaps large enough for the bunnies to easily pull hay thru.  When Cotton was young I tried stuffing all her hay into an empty tissue box to keep it neat and clean- and she wouldn’t eat it at all out of the box.  So it was really with her in mind that I searched for large access area basket.  It is nice not to have to throw away all the hay when I clean the litterboxes.  And I find that I stock more hay for them if I am not assuming I will throw most of it away the next day when I clean.

The angled NIC cube that it is attached to is because of the electical outlet right there on the wall, we need to use the outlet for some fish tank stuff- so I angled a section across it so the buns can not chew the cord that is plugged in (it is white and not easily visible).  

 

[Beka27]

that does look great Katnip! it’d be ideal to be able to fit a whole 40oz bag into a hay holder. it’s so tightly compacted anyways upon opening, that could possibly work if you knew what your dimensions would be.

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