How Much Hay for Babies?

[HocusPocus11018]

How much hay should a baby (nearly 3 months old) be eating in a day? HP gets 1/4 cup of pellets at night before I go to bed and he usually eats the whole thing by morning so I give him another 1/4 cup and he grazes on it throughout the day but usually doesn’t finish it before I do the bedtime feed, he had a hay pile in his little box as well as a basket of hay but he doesnt really seem to eat much of it, no more than a few mouthfuls if that daily his pellets are oxbow essentials young rabbit (alfalfa based) and his hay is Oxbow Western Timothy Hay

[Deleted User]

Hay should be at least 80% of his diet, and it should be given in unlimited quantities. A good way to schedule non-hay feedings is every 12 hours. This gives them enough time to need to eat something else besides pellets and greens. The amount of pellets he’s eating sounds great If he doesn’t like the type of hay you can try to change it to see what he likes most. A lot of bunnies like oat and orchard hays.

[Mikey]

For most rabbits 1/2 cup of pellets a day is waaaay too much. Many only get 1/4th or even 1/8th cup a day.

[Deleted User]

Mikey, they only have a 3 month old. Most young buns up until they’re about 6 months old get anywhere between 1/4-1/2 cup, which was we were told by our vet. A lot of vets at that age recommend giving unlimited.

[mschoonover11]

Sounds like everything your doing is great! Good bunny mom

With hay, as Asriel and Bomber said, it should make up 80% of your bunnies’ diet no matter how old or young they are. Your bun should always have unlimited amounts of hay 24/7. When my boy was 3 months, I gave him a 1/4 cup of pellets in the morning, and another 1/4 cup at night. I also gave him the oxbow young rabbit essentials. Since the oxbow young rabbit pellets are made with alfalfa hay, it has calcium and too much calcium intake causes buns to overproduce cecotropes. When my bun turned 4 months, I’ve been giving him a 1/4 cup daily and he stopped overproducing the cecotropes. If your bun doesn’t overproduce cecotropes, than you can give a 1/2 cup daily cause that’s totally fine for a young bunny.

Make sure your bunny eats a lot of hay!

[Mikey]

They do, unless theyre not eating enough hay. If the bun is neglecting their hay, the pellets need to be cut down early.

[mschoonover11]

Posted By Mikey on 3/29/2018 8:50 PM

They do, unless theyre not eating enough hay. If the bun is neglecting their hay, the pellets need to be cut down early.

Yes, I agree with you. My bun was getting too many pellets and was not eating hay, so I had to cut the pellets down to one serving a day. Now, I’m not saying baby buns should get one serving a day. They can get 2 servings a day if they’re eating enough hay.

[Deleted User]

I never had that problem, so I guess I didn’t have to do that. To me it just sounded like maybe her bun doesn’t even enjoy the type of hay because he doesn’t even eat the full 1/2 cup he is given during the day.

[mschoonover11]

my bun didn’t like the oxbow Timothy at all. In fact he hated it. Lately oxbow has just been lacking in quality at least imo. I had to switch and buy many different hay brands until my picky bunny finally found the one he liked best. Hopefully u won’t have to go through that. (it was very stressful)

Welcome to owning a rabbit haha!

[Mikey]

To be fair, it could be a mix of both He might not care for the type of hay, and it can be too many pellets for him. Time for a little trial and error!

[HocusPocus11018]

thanks for the tips guys! I’ll try reducing his pellets and see if he eats more hay I just feel bad seeing his bowl empty

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