Horse hay

[SoftyProtector]

I work with horses and my bunny thinks their hay is really tasty. I got him some more horse hay but I am not sure it is good for him. It was directly from pasture, there was some poop around. I tried to wash the hay a little. Can he get sick from eating it?

[Bunny House]

Be careful of what hay it is, anything is safe besides alfalfa, which is for younger buns. I would advise to only use fresh hay next time you give him any. Just like we wouldn’t want to eat food that might have been touched by someone’s fecal matter because of bacteria and ilnessess that can be passed to him.

Just make sure to keep any eye on him to make sure he is fine!

[Bam]

I agree with Bunny House. Horse hay is fine as long as there’s no or only very little alfalfa in it. Horse grass hay is fine. Pooped on hay is not good though. If you have access to the bales when you open them, maybe you could fill a tote bag etc and take home with you? I’m assuming you have the giant bales, I’m not quite sure how tey work though. I have given my buns excellent quality horse hay, horses and rabbits are very much alike when it comes to digestion. Horses are often working though, so alfalfa is often mixed in with the grass hay, at least in the USA. Our house rabbits tend to do the bare minimum of work though, so alfalfa shouldn’t be given to them unless they are young growing rabbits, pregnant or lactating does or sometimes sick, recovering rabbits that need extra protein and calcium.

Hay silage has risks though, and I’d stay away from that. Horses are often vaccinated against botulism but rabbits are not.

[SoftyProtector]

He is young so alfalfa would be great, I buy it for such a high price It is made from high grass and my rabbit loves the stems

I have read that soaking hay is not good, it decreases sugar etc… It is definitely better to take from bigger bale, this one was already almost eaten, so they the horses could walk on it.

btw hello there, this is my first thread and I hope this forum will prove useful

[LittlePuffyTail]

Just be careful with the bigger bales as they can get moldy if damp or wet. Hay mold is very bad for bunnies. But in general, as mentioned, horse hay is fine for bunnies. I grab some square baled from my pony’s barn for my Elara bunny when it is freshly baled.

[joea64]

I’ve been feeding Panda and Fernando on Standlee-branded hay for close to a year now, since Friends of Rabbits changed their supplier. If you go to the Tractor Supply Co. website, for example, you’ll see Standlee hay advertised as only being for horses and other large animals, but that’s really just CYA language, since rabbits eat and enjoy it just fine.

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