Stopped eating Hay?

[Deleted User]

My 4 month old holland lop has decided to stop eating his hay! The lady I got him from always gave him timothy hay so when he came here I already had timothy hay for my other bun so I decided to just keep him on the timothy. When he first came about a month ago he ate small amounts of it but once I started him on greens he won’t touch the hay. He eats romain, cilantro, broccoli, dandelion. Unlimited pellets (because he’s a baby). How can I get him to eat his hay again. He has good poops and he is active and healthy.

[thekingofsomething]

First of all do you speak dutch? Second not all rabbits like the same hay, and maybe he doesn’t trust you, or he also could be sick.

[sarahthegemini]

You could try limiting pellets. I had to do that for my two or they wouldn’t eat much hay. You could also try a variety of hays to see if they find one particularly irresistible. Mine didn’t care for timothy.

[Wick & Fable]

Tracy, most likely it’s because you started veggies! If your bun is old enough, nothing wrong with veggies, but rabbits really like veggies more than hay. Since your rabbit knows he’ll get veggies, he may be holding it eating hay in hopes he’ll get veggies instead. It’s like giving a child candy every so often while expecting them to eat a lot of salad as well!

Not sure your feeding schedule, but I’d limit veggies to one or two presentations per day. For two, maybe one in am and one in pm. This way, when he’s hungry after am feeding, he really has no choice but to eat hay when he’s sick of pellets. You’ll want the knowledge of someone more savvy, but my thoughts are if your rabbit is 4mo and is eating veggies, you can start to limit pellets. This would encourage hay appetite as well. I’m not too knowledgeable on it because Wick never had an unlimited pellet diet due to health reasons.

Also, is fresh hay more enticing to him? Rotating the hay in fresh hay (add what’s left in his hay box to your fresh Timothy supply, toss it around, then put a handful back in his box) helps Wick’s hay appetite when I see he isn’t touching his hay as often.

The answers provided in this discussion are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. Seek the advice of your veterinarian or a qualified behaviorist.

[tobyluv]

You may have to cut back a bit on the pellets. Even though instructions for feeding young rabbits say to give unlimited pellets, they can be fed too many if their bowl is constantly refilled.

Try orchard grass hay or any of the other varieties of hay to see if he likes those better. You can even get alfalfa hay and sprinkle a tiny bit on top of his timothy. If the little bits of alfalfa filter down into the timothy, he may want to eat it all.

[Author]

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