Stickers is driving me nuts: Hay issues

[Stickerbunny]

When we first got Stickers she was on alfalfa only… I wasn’t sure of her age so I gave her alfalfa with timothy hay. She ate both. Turns out she was still young so was good she was on alfalfa, vet said about 6 months was his guess and she’s grown since we got her so probably somewhere around there. We’ve had her a few months now so she’s past the age she should be eating alfalfa.

After a few weeks she stopped eating timothy hay so I got her oat hay to try. She ate it for a few days then stopped. She was still eating her alfalfa.

A few weeks after that she stopped eating alfalfa, she shunned timothy and she refused oat.

So on suggestion of the boards I got her orchard grass hay. She devoured it (a huuuuuge handful as soon as I put it down it was pretty much gone) and I was like yay she likes it! … well, that lasted 2 days and now she is shunning it. I tried timothy and she won’t eat that either. I put a little bit of alfalfa down today and she is eating that.

What is up with her? She’ll go hungry rather than eat the wrong hay and I can’t find the right hay because it changes every few days it seems with her. Also means I can’t buy anything in bulk because she doesn’t have an actual preference that lasts more than MAYBE a week, lately it’s been 2-3 days though.

Basically my feed times with her now are supposed to be come out with a silver tray with a sample of each hay every day and let her pick what one she likes and then I am allowed to serve her. Well, in her mind it seems.

Is there maybe a good hay medley that would work for an adult buns diet? Something that mixes the three grass hays so maybe she’d pick out what she wants… though knowing her she’d just sit there glaring at me until I picked her choice out for her.

[Sarita]

Why don’t you take what you have and mix it up?

[Stickerbunny]

I have another rabbit, who doesn’t like his hay mixed up – so I give her little piles of the grass hays and let her pick, though she still ignores it on days she wants alfalfa and I really want to wean her off that :s but it’s also getting quite expensive buying her little mini-bales … and buying all three grass hays separate in bulk at the stores i’ve found would cost a lot. Buying them in little amounts is costing me $6 a bag – which the last oat hay bale I bought she ended up spending two weeks not wanting oat and I threw so much of it away.

Would be cheaper to be able to buy a larger bag of mixed hay, rather than keep having to buy 3 different mini bales. But, most the mixes have alfalfa in them that I found? Not sure if that would work for an adult bun…

[Silly Sungura]

I recently ordered the Timothy Blue Blend from the Binky Bunny store. It’s got three types of hay: Timmy, Orchard, and Blue Grass. Hodari really goes for it. She also eats a blend of oat, wheat, and barley packaged by Alfalfa King. She likes that, too. It comes in a four pound bale, so it lasts us a little while.

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