How to encourage hay consumption

[New Bunny Mum]

I know its incredibly important for rabbits to eat a lot of hay to keep their teeth worn down.

I’m worried Pancakes isnt eating enough. I make sure I give her fresh timothy hay everyday but recenty she seems to be eating very little of it. She is still eating her pellets, salads and treats ok, and drinking and pooping normally soI dont think its to do with health issues.

I make sure she has hay in her litter boxes, and offer her hay based toys such as alfalfa hay rings and toilet tubes stuffed with hay.

Does anyone have any suggestions for how to get her to eat more. This is the hay I currently use: http://www.burgesspetcare.co.uk/products/rabbit/burgess-excel-herbage.html

I am based in the UK – we dont have oxbow over here, but burgess excel has been recommended to me my embers on this forum as a good alternative,

Thans for any help.

[Bumblebunny]

Our bunny started out not being a great hay eater. We started experimenting with different types of hay and finally found that we needed to mix timothy with oat hay and orchard grass. He now loves getting a basket of fresh hay. If some other hays are available, maybe you can try mixing them.

[Stickerbunny]

First off – how much does she get in terms of pellets? Often that is the thing that keeps them from hay the most, why eat hay when you have nummy pellets to fill you up?

Secondly, rabbits can be QUITE picky about their hay. My girl only eats orchard grass, Powder won’t eat oxbow timothy because he doesn’t like the texture, but he loves oat hay (and other brands of timothy are fine). So just because it’s a good brand of hay for them, doesn’t mean they will think it’s a tasty hay. See if you can get some other types of hay and try that, it might be more tasty to your bun.

[New Bunny Mum]

I think that it may be I’m over feeding pellets. We dont use ‘cup’ measurements in the UK, but I give probably about a handful (and I have tiny hands)

I also give her a lot of salad, a big bowlful at least once a day containing at least 3 types of leaves.

Actually as I am writing this she is tucking into her alfalfa and timothy hay ring!

[Sam and Lady's Human]

You don’t have measuring cups in the UK? You don’t have any way to measure? How do you cook??

It might be a bad batch of hay, try getting a new bag and mixing them together, or even just fluffing up the current hay she’s got.

At her age, she needs about 1/4 cup (or 4 tablespoons)to 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) of pellets daily. Since she gets a healthy salad, I’d go more towards the 1/4 cup. Just googled, 1/4 cup would be 60mLs.

[New Bunny Mum]

We use grams. But your cup to tablespoon advice is really helpful thanks. I just worked out how many tablespoons I get to the handful I give her. It was just over 6 tablespoons. Should I cut her back to four? I would hate to think she could be hungry.

[Sam and Lady's Human]

Posted By New Bunny Mum on 12/28/2011 09:37 AM
We use grams. But your cup to tablespoon advice is really helpful thanks. I just worked out how many tablespoons I get to the handful I give her. It was just over 6 tablespoons. Should I cut her back to four? I would hate to think she could be hungry.

 

Ah good! I’d cut her back, she’ll eat more hay If nothing else, you could do a trial for a week or so to see if her hay consumption increases.

[bunnyfriend]

How much does Pancake weigh? My lop weighs 3 pounds and she gets 4 tablespoons a day, and that’s a little on the high side for her weight (my 7 pound rabbit gets 6 tablespoons). Trying different hays is a really good idea, one of my rabbits is so picky and when I switched her to Oxbow she started eating hay like crazy. You could also try some stuff like botanical hay which just is timothy with lavender and chamomile to make it more enticing, the Oxbow kind is okay to feed unlimited but I’d watch out for other brands who add stuff that’s not good for bunnies. There are also hay toppers that work but those can only be fed as treats. You could also try splitting up the pellets, feeding half in the morning and half at night.

[littlemissflip]

If your bunny is free-roaming for a large part of the day, another “trick” is to keep hay in places where the bunny likes to hang out–not just in her home. We have a few little baskets of hay in different rooms of the house where Capt. Danger likes to hang out/explore, and it seems to really help encourage hay consumption. He doesn’t have to go all the way back to his condo to get a hay snack; it’s almost like he “discovers” it while he’s running around exploring and thinks “oh, hay!…don’t mind if I do…” (The downside, of course, is that… well, we have hay all over our house!)

I also agree that feeding a variety of hays can help keep it interesting and appetizing, and cutting back on the amount of pellets and high-calorie food (e.g. fruit) will help encourage an appetite for hay as well. You can also add a few pellets to her hay, so that she has to dig and forage through the hay to get to the pellets.

[New Bunny Mum]

Thanks for all the tips guys.

Little miss flip: your bunny is the cutest thing – and what an amazing name!
I’m going to get her some new timothy hay tomorrow, and mix in some dried dandelion that she goes wild for ans see if that does the trick. Hiding her pellets is a good idea as well and Im sure she will have great fun kicking hay all over the house in the process!

[littlemissflip]

Posted By New Bunny Mum on 12/28/2011 12:02 PM
Thanks for all the tips guys.

Little miss flip: your bunny is the cutest thing – and what an amazing name!
I’m going to get her some new timothy hay tomorrow, and mix in some dried dandelion that she goes wild for ans see if that does the trick. Hiding her pellets is a good idea as well and Im sure she will have great fun kicking hay all over the house in the process!

 

Awww, thanks!   Your Pancakes is adorable as well!

[Monkeybun]

She might not be all that fond of timothy hay. Are there other types of hay, orchard, oat, etc, that you can try with her? Some buns can be very picky with hay.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Cut down the good stuff slowly (pellets/veggies) to make her a bit more willing. I don’t eat salad if I filled up on pizza!
Put hay in more than once a day-they love the newness of an offering it seems and eat hay more if it’s ‘fresh’ (You don’t need to put in tons, just a fresh exciting handful of hay_
Add a rabbit friendly dried flower mix to hay-they sell one on here-my bunnies snubbed it once and now dive for it.
Try different types and mixing it -even a little alfalfa or hay cubes to get things going.

Should work beautifully

[New Bunny Mum]

I bought a bag of meadow hay for pancakes today. I normally have her on timothy but my pet store had run out.

Is meadow hay a good hay? It was cheaper than the timothy I normally buy her, is than at indication of an inferior hay? I still have a little timothy left so if she hates the meadow she wont go without.

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