How do you encourage bunny to eat hay?

[flopsy]

It should come naturally, right? Well, both our bunnies (one died last week) refuse eating hay. We have switched out different brands but they won’t nibble on hay. I just got new and expensive timothy hay from a local farmer but Ben won’t eat it. I have caught him nibbling a strand or two but that’s about it. The bonded bunny who died also rarely ate hay.  I rarely have to refill the hay box and I am concerned this is why we lost our brown bunny. The vet just saw him yesterday so I don’t think there are any tooth issues.

He usually eats greens, a fruit and some herbs and a cup of grain free pellets at night. He is a little over 6 lbs.

[GlennTheLionhead]

Hey!

Sorry to hear your stuggling with hay consumption and im very sorry for the loss of your other bunny.

Lack of hay consumption can be a problem noticed by a lot of bunny owner its seems.

One if my buns never consumed enough hay but now eats it in heaps! The main thing that worked for us was reducing pellets. I dont know your buns situation but a cup of pellets a day seems considerably more than necessary. Usually an adult rabbit should have approximately a tablespoon/ one egg cup/quarter cup of pellets a day, sometimes less.

My bunny gets just 8 science selective pellets a day because hes had a history of spurs and my other bun gets 12-15 as she needs to put on weight. They also get a pinch of a grain free forage mix that includes pellets, probably a teaspoon of that daily.

Rabbit will often choose to fill up on the tasty things first causing them to eat less hay. If you do plan to reduce pellets to see if it helps its worth noting that it should be done gradually 🙂

 

[Bam]

I’m sorry you lost one of your buns.

Glenn is right, the main thing to do is to reduce food that isn’t hay. Do it somewhat slowly – rabbits that suddenly are put on an all hay diet can either refuse to eat the hay, leading to stasis, or actually starve even if they eat the hay because their GI system aren’t used to breaking down hay to get the nutrients they need from it. So I’d say taper down on pellets and greens, make sure you offer a variety of hays over time and don’t let him blackmail you into getting extra treats and greens. You can serve his limited amount of pellets divided into 2-3 servings over the day.

[flopsy]

Oh ok! When we first got them, I asked the vet about pellets because the previous owner told us they fed their bunnies a grain diet (meat bunnies). So, the vet told us to feed a cup of pellets per bunny, one cup of greens/herbs/fruit mix and hay. Ben is a Rex rabbit. He currently weighs 6.5 lbs and was at the vet on Sat.

I will try reducing pellets in the future. Right now, Ben is grieving (after losing his bonded wife) and eating only if fed by hand so I prefer not to change his diet.

[Bam]

It’s highly reasonable not to change the diet of a grieving rabbit. I suggest you decrease the amount of pellets starting next week or so. Little by little,, so his GI microbes get used to a hay-based diet.

[Author]

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