Rabbit won’t eat timothy hay & Allergies to hay

[RavenL]

Hello, my bunny is just turning 6 months old.  I am told around this time that I should start shifting her from alfalfa hay to timothy.  Unfortunately, she hates timothy hay and refuses to eat it.  I usually feed loose hay but I recently discovered I am highly allergic to hay and the loose stuff gets everywhere.  Since she wouldn’t eat the timothy hay, I stuck a cube of alfalfa hay in there to see what she would do and she even eats that over the loose timothy hay.  Prior to this, when there was both loose alfalfa and cubes in her cage, she would ignore the cubes.  So I am curious about two things.

1. Is there a big difference between loose hay and alfalfa hay (*EDIT* I meant to say difference between loose hay and cubed hay)?  I know that loose hay is preferable but it is making me very sick and if I have to choose feeding cubed hay or giving her away, id prefer to feed her cubes.

2. I have to stop feeding her alfalfa hay soon but what do I do if I can’t find any other hay that she likes?  Is there anything else similar that someone can suggest?  Right now I am feeding Oxbow Western Timothy Hay.

[osprey]

In my experience Timothy hay is *extremely* dusty. I do not normally have allergies, but this weekend a group of us were putting together treat bags to give to shelter bunnies at Christmas. We had one of those 50 pound boxes of Oxbow timothy, and after the event as I was driving home my eyes were watering and burning from the hay dust. Orchard grass is an acceptable forage for adult bunnies, and is usually less dusty than timothy. I recently started feeding mine some of the American Pet Diner Mountain Hay, which is an orchard grass mixture. They really like it, and the dust is minimal. You really will need to wean your bunny off of alfalfa, as it is hight in calcium and calories, and lead to health problems as she ages.

[Sarita]

Yes, there is a big difference between the 2 hays. There are many different kinds of grass hays too, you don’t have to just feed her timothy hay (many people are allergic to timothy hay). There is orchard grass hay, bluegrass hay, brome hay, meadow grass hay, oat hay – so you have many choices to choose from for grass hays you are not limited to timothy hay.

[RavenL]

Sorry I had an error.  I meant is there a difference between loose hay and cubed hay?

[RavenL]

I have seen the grass hay, but it seems to be pretty delicate.  Does grass/orchard hay still provide sufficient chewing to wear down teeth?

[Balefulregards]

Coco doesn’t “love” the timothy – but boy does she love the Brome – I find it is less “dusty” then timothy, orchard or botanical. I simply mix the others in with the Brome. It also seems a bit coarser than the timothy hay. At any rate, it is BY FAR Coco’s favorite hay.

As far as cubes, to my knowledge they aren’t as good, as the strands are not as “bulky” as the unprocessed hay. I think Sarita explained it somewhere really well when I was asking about using them as a supplement during molting. Rabbits need that long strand to stimulate their guts.

[Beka27]

welcome here!

i’ll ditto everyone. it is important that they get regular hay (grass hay, but it doesn’t have to be timothy per se). the regular hay has longer strands and that is what they need to keep the gut moving and in good condition. cubed hay can be used as a tasty treat, but should not be used in lieu of real hay. it does not have the same fiber value…

alfalfa hay does taste better to many buns, but it’s important that at this point the bun get weaned off of it. what you can do is feed 90% alfalfa/10% grass hay for a week, then 80% & 20%, 70% & 30%… etc… gradually reduce the amount of alfalfa and increase the grass hay.

if your rabbit is getting alfalfa pellets now, you will also have to wean them off of that and introduce timothy pellets. do it gradually just like with the hay…

what kind of veggies do you feed daily?

you can try to wear a painter’s mask and gloves so you have limited contact with the hay. or is it possible that someone else in your home can be on daily hay duty?

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

All good suggestions!!! You could definitely try out the other types of hay and/or using gloves and a mask That should really help out!

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