Not eating hay

[LB&Me]

Hi everyone, I’m new here and it’s my first post!

My 3 year old lionhead rabbit LB has spent most of his life as an outdoor bunny, despite my protests. He came in for winter at the beginning of December (my parents refused to have him in sooner because “he’s used to the outdoors and he has thick fur!”) and my family has decided that I was right and he should be a house bunny once they saw how differently he behaved indoors and how sweet he was. He’s the perfect house bunny besides trying to pluck the carpets bare! It only took three years to convince them lol!

While he lived outside my mum was his main caregiver, and his diet was appalling. He had hay, but he was given an overflowing bowl of pellets every single day and a ridiculous amount of vegetables. Even though I told her it was unhealthy for him, she wouldn’t listen until he was suffering with diarrhoea and the vet confirmed what I said.

The problem is that now he is inside under my sole care and even though I give him no vegetables like our vet said, and minimal pellets (just enough to cover the bottom of the bowl each evening) he appears to be stubbornly refusing to eat hay, to the point where I’ve heard suspicious tummy gurgling and am worried about gut stasis. I would hate to see this happen, we lost his partner to this three years ago (he was only 6 months old when she died and they were together for 4, my parents won’t get another) and it broke my heart to see her suffer like that.

What can I do to actually convince him to eat hay? He has generic pet shop hay and I’m planning to get him something more appealing like a herbal forage hay to see if I can entice him. I told my mum about what he’s doing and she told me to just give in and go back to giving him huge amounts of pellets, but I know that’s not a good idea.

Any advice is appreciated,  I could use some help with the carpet situation instead since he’s being so naughty with that! Thanks for reading!

[sarahthegemini]

The best way is to try different types of hay to see if there’s one he’ll go wild for. My rabbits love Oxbow Orchard. It’s expensive if you buy the little bags but if you buy in bulk (11kg or 22kg) it actually works out very reasonable price per kg. Of course buy a smaller bag to start with just in case! Any grass hay is fine, so timothy, orchard, oat and meadow are all fine. It’s worth trying different brands too because some are better quality than others.

You could try hay cookies which is basically compressed balls of hay. They can be fun to destroy and it might spark an interest in hay. Also, you could try sprinkling (bunny safe) leaves and flowers on top of the hay to entice them.

Do you have access to fresh grass? If so, you could try that although I think that needs to be introduced slowly as it’s richer than hay *can anyone confirm?*

Unfortunately with bunnies, a lot of it comes down to perseverance and patience so just keep trying. There will be a hay out there that he loves

[LB&Me]

Hi, thanks for your reply! When he lived outdoors he had constant day and night access to a run on grass (he refused to stay in the hutch at night) so he doesn’t need reintroducing to grass or anything. I always wonder whether grass can fully replace hay, or if both are required for their best health.

We’re definitely going to try different hay options, although there aren’t a great many that I’ve seen in the shops around me so I’ll have to look online. 

Since posting this I’ve actually convinced him to eat some hay by making a little portable hay box which he was enjoying playing with and he was eating some of the hay at the same time!  I’m thinking the trick with him is to include hay in his mentally stimulating activities and games rather than just give him a pile or rack. I suspect he finds the classic ways of feeding it to be too boring for him!

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By LB&Me on 1/06/2018 4:51 PM

Hi, thanks for your reply! When he lived outdoors he had constant day and night access to a run on grass (he refused to stay in the hutch at night) so he doesn’t need reintroducing to grass or anything. I always wonder whether grass can fully replace hay, or if both are required for their best health.

We’re definitely going to try different hay options, although there aren’t a great many that I’ve seen in the shops around me so I’ll have to look online. 

Since posting this I’ve actually convinced him to eat some hay by making a little portable hay box which he was enjoying playing with and he was eating some of the hay at the same time!  I’m thinking the trick with him is to include hay in his mentally stimulating activities and games rather than just give him a pile or rack. I suspect he finds the classic ways of feeding it to be too boring for him!

Hay is just dried grass so it doesn’t matter which your bun eats (hay or fresh grass), so long as he eats

I buy hay online because hay in pet shops is usually pretty rubbish, at least in my local ones. It’s usually much cheaper online too! Do you happen to live by any farms/stables? You could buy hay by the bale and that would work out cheaper. 

Ah yes, stuffing hay into toys and boxes and whatnot is a great idea! It usually does excite them a bit! I’m glad you’ve found something that works

[Dasher]

You can try hand feeding. I had a picky hay eater and I would follow him around and offer him hay. It took him a while to eat a normal amount of hay but it helped.

[Feathers]

You might put his pellets on a plate under the hay so he might accidentally eat the hay when eating the pellets.  Or even put a few small pieces of fresh grass or herbs mixed in with the hay so he may eat hay while trying to get to the other foods.

[Author]

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