Hubble and Hay

[KytKattin]

for the past two days Hubble wasn’t eating his hay. I thought maybe it was just because he wanted fresh so I gave all of his old to Nova (my hay garbage disposal) and made three very neat little piles so I could see what he is eating. Most of the old hay was Teff becuase that is the easiest for me to grab and Nova loves it (and it doesn’t make her as fat as the other stuff). Well he first grabbed for some Teff and oh my goodness, if rabbits could spit I think he would have. Then he tried the Blue Bunny mix and is very happily munching away on that! The third pile was oat, and he hasn’t touched that, which doesn’t surprise me. He also has a box of second cut timothy, but he doesn’t eas that as much as the Blue Bunny. He still drinks a fair amount of water and his urine is very normal looking. So I have to ask; is it better that he is at least eating any hay, even if it has 2% alfalfa? And while I know that alfalfa isn’t good for rabbits of a certain age because of calcium build up in the urine, can you please give me more info on other problems it might cause?

[Sarita]

Well there is not a direct scientific link between dietary calcium and the amount of calcium excreted in a rabbit’s urine. Most vets recommend that a rabbit who has an issue with bladder sludge decrease the amount of calcium in that rabbit’s diet. I would not worry about the 2% in the blue bunny mix – rabbits need SOME calcium and not all rabbits will have bladder sludge problems which seem to be more of a problem with overweight rabbits or rabbits with motility problems.

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