Bunnys cutting up hay, but eats little of it!

[Kyrre]

I think my bunnys Peter and Penelope are trying to tell me they don’t like Oxbow Western Timothy anymore.
They pull it all out of the hay racks, eat a few of the seed-pods on the tips, eat the joints in the stems and leave most of it cut up on the cage floor. When it gets to be a nice thick layer they pee and poop on it.

They have a huge litterbox and are normally very good at using it, but when the cage floor becomes a hay-matt from their excessive hay-attack they start to pee and poop on it. It creates a huge mess and leads to me throwing away a LOT of fine, and expensive hay.

I tried a few other varietys and when I got a packet of Oxbow Oat Hay, they were exstatic!
If I place some in a bowl outside the cage, they will first be quite messy and try to get at the best bits, knocking the bowl over, but when they’re through there is no trace of hay left.  They eat it all! I’m on the second bag now and they still go at it like it was gold.

Could it be they were simply tired of the hay and wanted a change?
Or maby they just wanted more cruncy hay.  I do notice they used to eat the joints in the other hay and that’s the thoughest parts. This hay is all crispy and crunchy and has some whole oat still in their husks on the end sometimes. This seems to be targeted on the bowl-toppling frenzy at first, then rest of hay goes down to happy munching.

 

[LittlePuffyTail]

First of all, your buns are beautiful!!!! I bet they are lots of trouble!!! So cute, though.

My buns do that sometimes with the Oxbow Timothy when it is especially coarse. Olivia is really bad…she will eat all the seed-pods (I call them fuzzies) and leave all the rest to poop on. When the hay is quite coarse and they are being fussy, I usually pick up a bag of Oxbow Orchard, which is usually nice and soft, to mix in. That way I know they are getting enough fiber.

[Kyrre]

I’ve tried the orchard and the botanical but they don’t seem very keen on either.
The oats however, they love.

[Deleted User]

Have you tried a different brand of orchard? My bun is really picky. She only likes certain hay from certain companies. She can’t stand the Kaytee Orchard hay but will chow down on Oxbow and the BB brand. Or have you tried feeding your buns a blend of hay? Like the BB Timothy Blue Blend? That may help. =]

[Kyrre]

I’ve tried all the hay my 3 local vets and petshops sells, including some local farm grown and some organic stuff that came in huge bales.
In the two latter cases there was a lot of brown dry stuff in the mix and the bunnys siphoned that and a lot of the other grass out, ending up with 60-70% (estimated) waste just in brown stuff and discarded stubs. I had to empty the bottom “livingarea” every other day for it to even be liveable.

Usually I empty their cage every week and the litterbox twice a week in addition to whenever it becomes necessary due to one of em deciding to be stupid.
With the local hay there was simply too much waste.

They seem quite happy with a tad timothy and a lot of oats now though so I guess I’ll see if their taste changes.

 

Here’s a picture of their cage (which is always open when I am at home) after a cleaning.
This was taken before I changed their litterbin to a full width square one giving em each their own corner. They used to play in the cardboard box I hung in the ceiling too untill they chewed it to bits. The right box was full of cut up t-shirts but they decided tey rather wanted a carpet there too so thay have now. I’,ve almost given up on the hay bins completely as they just drag everything out too.

The roped walkways is my own doing as they came with bare planks and just a few slots for grip. I wound em in sisal rope giving em great traction.  The mattes I use are made from sisal too (cactus fibre) and cost about $35 at ikea. They are not colored in any way and the bunnys really like em. In the end I had to reduce the use of the mattes on the bottom as they started to pee on it, but I added the mattes to the upper levels instead and they do not pee on that at all.

[LoveChaCha]

I highly recommend American Pet Diner. My fussy, picky rabbit ate the 2nd cut Timothy Gold.

[Kyrre]

Thanks LoveChaCha but it’s not really available in Norway, and it’s kind of silly to buy imported hay if oxbow does that too really.
Hay should be as locally grown as possible. Not being shipped accross great distances and green fields in trucks.

[LoveChaCha]

I didn’t know that you live in Norway. The APD hay is grown very well and is very green. It is really high quality hay for what people pay for it. Other brands like Kaytee have so-so hay and is really cheap. Some people are not able to have access to local hay, so that is why there are so many options available online for bunny parents. I’m sorry that my suggestion will not work out for you.

[Kyrre]

Posted By LoveChaCha on 08/13/2012 11:55 AM

I didn’t know that you live in Norway. The APD hay is grown very well and is very green. It is really high quality hay for what people pay for it. Other brands like Kaytee have so-so hay and is really cheap. Some people are not able to have access to local hay, so that is why there are so many options available online for bunny parents. I’m sorry that my suggestion will not work out for you.

I should ofcource have mentioned earlier that me and my waskawy wabbits live in Norway
It’s the kind of detail that slips your mind in this global age.

[BunnymomKS]

They do just seem to like to chop it into pieces. Little stinkers! Usually mine don’t pee on it but sometimes it gets wet, or hair mixed in with it, and they just use it more to make a soft sleeping spot than to eat it. They eat enough at first, but there just must be some instinct to chop it up. Maybe they think they’re grazing and they have to bite the grass strand in order to eat it?

[Kyrre]

This weeks new notion is that digging is a must, especially in the large litterbin.
Ideally as much feces and wet sawdust as possible should be hurled out of the box and cover the rest of the cage floor.
To mix with cut up hay ofcource, for that homely feel.

Seriously, I am starting to think that bunnys are natures slob’s.

[TH004]

Oh no! My first buns used to dig at her litterbox when I used wood shavings. I switched to Carefresh and she stopped. I think it never felt wet to her. When the other stuff did, she would kick it out of the box.

[Kyrre]

I continue under the assumption that they are slobs and pigs and like to do these things as they enjoy sitting around in muck.
My to fuzzbutts are white, and I mean blisttering white, except the feet which get a yellow hue, or if they’ve been out playing in the grass; green!

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