How to keep teeth healthy if my bun does not chew the hay stems?

[Lupin]

My 3 month old fuzzy lop bun, Bill, pulls all the stems out of his hay box but does not eat/chew the tough stems. He then selectively picks out only the alfalfa leaves. I cannot find fresh alfalfa hay in my country so Bill only gets to eat the imported packaged hay which I feel isn’t too fresh/yummy.

Are buns supposed to chew on the hay stems as well to keep their teeth healthy? What can I do / feed daily to wear down his teeth?

I am worried about Bill’s teeth because doesn’t seem like he’s very good at grooming himself (he gets mats behind his armpits and near his back).

[LongEaredLions]

Any long strand of hay (whether stalky or leafy) is still going to be wearing down the teeth atleast somewhat, but if you can you might try ordering a different type of hay, such as timothy or meadow. Alfalfa is a very stiff and poky hay, he might be more inclined to eat something a little softer.
As for the mats, those areas might be a bit hard to clean, especially for a young and especially fluffy bun. I’m sure he appreciates a bit of help getting at those.

[jerseygirl]

You could probably start mixing a grass hay in with his alfalfa hay and see if he begins eating that. Something like timothy or orchard grass hay. He will need to transistion onto a grass hay as he gets older anyway, so he may as well become familiar with it now.

[Lupin]

Update: I found that Bill will finish most of his stems now if I cut the alfalfa stems into shorter pieces, so there’s less wastage now. I’ve also started giving him timothy hay, but he just ignores it. I finally relented and gave him back his alfalfa cause he wasn’t eating much, and he literally inhales the alfalfa now (last night he was sneezing cause he ate his alfalfa too fast!) as he has discovered that alfalfa is so much yummier than the timothy!

How does the timothy that you give your buns look like? The imported timothy hay that I get here are brownish, greyish with hardly any green in them.. and I wonder if its the lack of nutrients (aren’t the stems just straw?) that made Bill snub those. He will rather starve and wait than eat the timothy.. other types of hay other than timothy and alfalfa are hard to find here and really expensive. Is it really bad to give him alfalfa for the rest of his life – cause I want him to eat more hay but he refuses to eat the timothy?

Also, can fresh grass keep buns teeth healthy like hay? Fresh tropical grass is easier to get here and Bill will eat that in small amounts.

[Author]

Messages