Fussy Bunnies

[LittlePuffyTail]

My buns love Oxbow Orchard Grass. To save money and time, I got the pet store to order me the 9lb bag. It’s a lot coarser than the stuff I get in the small bags. They hate it.  Stormy refuses to eat any, he just digs at it until it’s all over his cage. The other two sort through it and eat the softer pieces.

Is there anything I can do to entice them to eat this hay? I have a huge bag of it. But I’m worried about them not getting enough hay; my boys are going through a shed right now.

[LoveChaCha]

LPT, me too.

I got a bag of 9lb Orchard and Chacha refuused to touch it. It made me discouraged. She likes the soft stuff too.

I don’t know what advice to offer, but I do understand!!!

[jerseygirl]

Have you tried offer nothing but hay for a day? I know that can be tough. I read a few times that people who had fussy hay eaters would do this and then once the rabbits started eating it, they ended up preferring it over other foods.

[Jessi]

I mixed orchard grass and oat hay together a few weeks ago and now marley wont even touch the orchard grass adn just eats the oat hay around it! It sucks cause i too have huge bags of it! I have made marley eat nothing but hay for a day a few times. She goes through these phases of not wanting any hay so i have to force her too. She will spend most of the time just pushing it around and making a mess but if i just keep adding some fresh hay she will soon eat it.

I would to say just force them to till they do. I had to do that when she was a baby to eat timothy hay and it made her love it after a few days

[MimzMum]

Do you have any bunny safe dried herbs you can sprinkle through the hay? Sometimes that gets my bunnies to eat where the were picky before.
I don’t know…all the hay I’ve gotten this year, barring BB.com’s oat, has been of a quality that my bunnies are tending to shun. It just may be a bad year for crops.

[LittlePuffyTail]

The last 9lb bag I got was really nice, I couldn’t believe how fast I went through it. It’s so annoying how the hay can change so much. Last night I sprinkled some crushed pellets throughout their hay, they seemed a bit more eager but not sure if they actually ate more of it.

[Moonlight_Wolf]

Yea it seems like the coarseness of hay changes pretty often. Maybe just for this batch of hay you could spray some watered down apple juice on the hay. Or if you put hay in a rack and their litter box then just use this as the litter box hay. When I first read the title of this thread I though it said ‘Fuzzy bunnies’ and I was then confused to why you were asking about hay!

[RabbitPam]

LPT, if you only bought it this past week, I would take it back and ask for a store credit or refund. Especially after explaining that they wolfed down the last 9 lb. bag. It implies there is possibly something wrong with this one, or they are still selling from the same order and it’s too old and not fresh. Even if your bunnies just changed their minds, my experience is that retailers know that animals are hard to please, and can turn down an expensive purchase of large quantities so they usually allow returns to keep you shopping at their store. See if you can exchange it for a new bag with a fresh date on it, or one they knew they ordered much more recently, or a couple of smaller bags of it instead.

[jerseygirl]

Good point RabbitPam. You should be able to return a product if it’s under standed. I never think to take that option. You’re the customer, it;s your money etc

[Lintini]

I agree the store would want to know if your pets don’t care for it, and they probably won’t mind taking it back from you at all. I had a pretty nasty 100lbs of timothy I felt bad feeding them because it just wasn’t that good of quality. I told the feedstore about it, they said they didn’t like it either! I just gave about 50lbs to my mom to feed to our horse and cut my loses since it was only 20$ and now by their soft grass hay. I feel like a weirdo poking at all the hay bales looking for the best one but oh well, I love my pets

[LittlePuffyTail]

The hay looks gorgeous, so I won’t return it. It’s all green and nice smelling. They are just unhappy because because the strands are much coarser. I would hate to cause problems since the pet store ordered it specifically for me, it’s not a size they usually carry. Although they seem to be getting used to it. The sprinkling of pellets in their nighttime hay seems to have helped. They all pick through it and leave the most coarse pieces which I then chuck in their litter box.

[RabbitPam]

If you want to keep it, that’s OK, but you don’t have to have something wrong with it to be returned. To my surprise, I went into a pet store where I’d bought something and sheepishly said “it’s perfectly good, but my finicky bunny won’t eat it. Is there anything I can do?” She practically whipped it out of my hand and said to go shop for an exchange. They were so used to the weirdness of pets!

It’s nice of them to order it special for you. You could always pop by and tell them your having trouble with them being finicky, and ask if they have any advice. Maybe they will tell you to bring it back, or have a different type to suggest trying for the next time. Sounds like it might not have been the right order? Anyway, don’t stay stuck if you don’t want to.

Sometimes during the holiday season local rescues are looking for donations, so if you want to cut your losses and buy a new supply, you can donate this batch instead. I think your picky gang is ganging up on their slave!

[MayaConsuelo]

I’ve noticed Mr. Bun-Bun seems to be eating much more hay recently than before (is that due to the change to colder weather? How would he even notice since he’s indoors and my apartment is warm?) Anyway I use the big bags although I want to buy a bale of hay if I can find one… he picks through and eats all the soft bits he likes first. Every other day I don’t replenish it, and he’s forced to eat all the thicker strands that he’s scattered everywhere (perfectly fine but not his first choice.) Seems to be working so far, maybe it’s harder when you have to keep track of hay for more than one bunny.

[Author]

Messages