Forum

OUR FORUM IS UP BUT WE ARE STILL IN THE MIDDLE OF UPDATING AND FIXING THINGS.  SOME THINGS WILL LOOK WEIRD AND/OR NOT BE CORRECT. YOUR PATIENCE IS APPRECIATED.  We are not fully ready to answer questions in a timely manner as we are not officially open, but we will do our best. 

You may have received a 2-factor authentication (2FA) email from us on 4/21/2020. That was from us, but was premature as the login was not working at that time. 

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately! Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet. It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

What are we about?  Please read about our Forum Culture and check out the Rules

BUNNY 911 – If your rabbit hasn’t eaten or pooped in 12-24 hours, call a vet immediately!  Don’t have a vet? Check out VET RESOURCES 

The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

Forum DIET & CARE New bunny doesn’t want his hay?

Viewing 10 reply threads
  • Author
    Messages

    • Kyrkogrimr
      Participant
      120 posts Send Private Message

        So I’ve had Puck home for a little less than a week and I’m really struggling to get him to eat his hay. He seems to flat-out refuse to eat from any kind of hayrack (I’ve improvised a few) and will only eat stuff from his litterbox – the problem is that it’s making it really hard to tell if he’s eating enough – or at all :/ I’m feeding him meadow hay at the minute, and I’ve read that different bunnies like different types of hay, but I can’t find any alternatives at the minute – I also don’t want to end up spending a fortune only to find out that he’s equally unimpressed by all varieties of hay x_x Any suggestions on how I can persuade him to eat more hay? I know I’m quite possibly worrying more than necessary, but he’s my first bunny so it’s all new and scary lol

         

        He seems otherwise fine, he’s peeing and pooping and zooming around happily – I’m currently swapping him over from muesli to pellets, but he seems to be eating fine too. 

         


      • Mocha
        Participant
        509 posts Send Private Message

          You should be worrying as much as you are. Rabbits NEED to eat at least their body size in hay each day to keep their gut moving and pass anything they shouldn’t of eating through their intestines. My rabbits personally HATE hay racks. The lady at the rabbit foundation said not to use hayracks too. Rabbits can only eat about 1 strand at a time from hayracks, which is very tiring and they prefer grabbing mouthfuls at a time. What I do is, I have high around the pen in hay balls (my rabbits like the jingly noises they make), I have them in Snak Shak logs, I have them in bowls and in big piles on plates, and I have it in their litterbox. In the litterbox, I usually put it in one corner of the box, and they know to eat it there.
          You can buy bales of hay at a time at a feed bin for a VERY cheap price, and they he is a lot fresher than the petstore hay. I can buy a huge bale (like 25 flakes) for only $20.
          Timothy is the most common, it isn’t my bunnies’ favorite hay, but they do eat it. Orchard grass is my bunnies second favorite hay. They really do enjoy it and eat it a lot. Oat hay is my bunnie’s absolute favorite hay. They go crazy for it and they eat it more than their pellets.
          You can try all of these hays and see which one your bunny prefers. You can buy the oxbow bags of them for around $6 online. They are expensive, but they’re small quantities so you don’t have to buy huge bales.

          Hope I helped.


        • Kyrkogrimr
          Participant
          120 posts Send Private Message

            Thanks Mocha,

             

            Sorry if this is a stupid question, but can I found a bag of timothy hay mixed with dandelion and marigold – can he eat this every day or should he only be having “plain” (for want of a better word) hay as a daily thing, and then hay mixes as a treat?


          • Mocha
            Participant
            509 posts Send Private Message

              You’re very new with bunnies, so none of your questions can be considered stupid at all

              You should have one main hay, without any forages. Just plain timothy, orchard, oat, or other grass hays. And you can have another forage type thing.

              What I do, is I keep the basic/plain hay around like what I said before, and once or twice a day I feed my bunnies a small handful of timothy dandelion mix just in a seperate bowl, as a healthy treat.
              If you want you can also mix dandelion in with his hay (like a small amount mixed in with a big amount) to encourage foraging.

              Hope I helped!


            • Kyrkogrimr
              Participant
              120 posts Send Private Message

                Thanks again, Mocha – I’ll have a look around and see what I can find.

                Just a quick update; having thoroughly freaked me out, Puck seemed to decide yesterday that his hay wasn’t so bad after all, and chomped his way through probably 90% of what I’d given him over the course of the day, and was munching on the hay he’d stashed in his hidey-hole this morning when I got up and brought him some fresh stuff, so hopefully it was just a phase? Either way I’ll be ordering some samples of different hay types so I know which varieties he likes best, and hopefully I won’t have a problem with this again.

                In other news, Puck seems to have decided that his new favourite hobbies are wearing his hay and throwing it around to cover as much of the cage (and exercise area when he was out to play) as physically possible.


              • BunnyBrigade
                Participant
                203 posts Send Private Message

                  Sounds like you got yourself a pretty happy little bun there. =] And welcome to the “No Longer Having a Clean House” group. ;P My Hugo does the same exact thing! He drags his hay all through out his cage and likes to bury himself in it while eating it. Let’s just say I’ve given up on trying to keep his cage spotless. =p


                • Kyrkogrimr
                  Participant
                  120 posts Send Private Message

                    Just a quick update, in case anyone else reads the thread and is having the same problem; Puck seems to like having his hay from a large wide-topped bowl (like a mixing bowl) He still eats it from his litter tray (particularly when it’s just been changed) or off the floor, but he never ignores a big bowl full of hay lol Not that it stays in the bowl… ten minutes later there’s half in the bowl and half on him/on the floor around him lol He’s a mucky pup, but as long as he’s happy and eating I don’t mind


                  • Mocha
                    Participant
                    509 posts Send Private Message

                      Kyrkogrimr- The same thing is happening with my buns! I gave them a fresh bowl of hay this morning, and they ate all of it within 10 minutes (in the litterbox that would usually take them 1 hour). They much prefer eating from bowls.


                    • Kyrkogrimr
                      Participant
                      120 posts Send Private Message

                        I’m just relieved he’s eating his hay properly lol If I could just persuade him to limit his hay-tossing to *inside* his cage instead of all over the freshly swept livingroom carpet, that would be just fabulous… excuse me if I don’t hold my breath though lol I don’t know why I didn’t think to try a bowl earlier, could probably saved myself all that stressing 


                      • litheandgraphic
                        Participant
                        608 posts Send Private Message

                          Posted By Kyrkogrimr on 8/30/2014 1:14 PM

                          I’m just relieved he’s eating his hay properly lol If I could just persuade him to limit his hay-tossing to *inside* his cage instead of all over the freshly swept livingroom carpet, that would be just fabulous… excuse me if I don’t hold my breath though lol I don’t know why I didn’t think to try a bowl earlier, could probably saved myself all that stressing 

                          But it’s good that you’re being vigilant and noticing things when they’re off, especially something as important as this!

                          When I first brought Theodore home I tried giving him a hay rack… he just looked at me like I was nuts. I ended up attaching a decently-sized basket to the edge of the enclosure right above his litterbox and it works much better. xP

                          One thing you could try is to attach coroplast or cardboard edges to the side of the pen, to keep the hay in. It works pretty good for me, even though I only have one edge covered with an inch of cardboard!


                        • Kyrkogrimr
                          Participant
                          120 posts Send Private Message

                            I was planning to get my other half to help me build a wooden tray with raised sides to sit his cage in once I start getting my wages in (I’m starting a new job next week), but I’ll see if I can scrounge up some cardboard until then. Unfortunately most of the cardboard we have right now is being used to protect the (brand new ) carpet from his territorial peeing EVERYWHERE whenever he’s out of his cage. I’m absurdly grateful he hasn’t taken to spraying the freshly-painted walls. I’m not sure the landlord would be willing to forgive that

                        Viewing 10 reply threads
                        • You must be logged in to reply to this topic.

                        Forum DIET & CARE New bunny doesn’t want his hay?