How do I know if my bunnies are eating enough hay?

[sarahthegemini]

Both of my buns don’t seem to eat what the guidelines suggest – a bale the size of their body – in fact I don’t even think it comes close to that amount . I feed them about 2 tablespoons each of pellet and grass mix in the morning and then nothing else aside from hay (I don’t feed them vegetables because I was under the impression that young buns can’t eat veg regularly. I’ve researched and realised how wrong I was but I’m just starting to transition their pellet and grass mix to pure pellets from pet store so don’t want to introduce veggies until their tummies have adjusted to this) Within a week (if all goes well with the new pellets) I will start introducing them to lovely vegetables . Anyway , when we first got them,  the hay wasn’t the best quality , it looked more straw like. I was also using straw all over their hutch. It seemed like they were eating tons of hay back then but it’s completely possible that hay was falling onto the straw bedding and I didn’t notice. I am just worrying that they are not consuming enough hay. They can sit and eat for ages but the volume of the hay doesn’t seem to decrease significantly . I know they like the taste of it because they are happy to munch for ages. I got them better quality hay yesterday (it’s really green!) hoping they’d eat more but it doesn’t seem to have effected them.  Guess they’re not too fussy!? I try to make food fun for them by putting hay in a hay barrel that they have to roll although they figured out they could just tip it upside down and drag it all out  and stuffing it into cardboard rolls. It entertains them but most of it ends up on the floor and then they lose interest . now that I think about it , this started happening a couple of weeks ago when they discovered their love of gnawing and chewing.  I’ve had to actually limit the time they have with their favourite gnaw toys because they can chew for literally hours and they get so invested in it that they eat even less! 

Any guidance, anyone? in terms of pooping it’s all fairly normal. Had a couple of dodgy ones from last night but all day so far they’ve been normal. I’m concerned that they’ll eat even less when they start having vegetables daily.

Edited to add: I’m wondering if perhaps the rack is causing them trouble getting the hay out.The rack is located above the litter tray, on the outside so they pull the hay through the wires of the inside of the cage. However sometimes they stand on their ramp to reach the hay rack on the outside  Thoughts? 

[Luna]

Buns can be fussy when it comes to hay – some prefer firmer hay (1st cutting), the softest hay (3rd cutting), or something in between (2nd cutting). I buy Luna 2nd cutting because it has good fiber content (3rd cutting has less fiber) and she likes the firm/soft mix.

I agree those ‘hang outside the cage’ hay racks sometimes makes it seem like it’s harder to reach the hay. You could try an inside the cage hay rack – if you use the same hay and it seems like your buns are eating more, then the outside hay rack might have been making it difficult to reach the hay; if you use the same hay and it seems like your buns are not eating more, then they could be picky eaters and you could try a different hay.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Luna on 11/14/2016 3:01 PM

Buns can be fussy when it comes to hay – some prefer firmer hay (1st cutting), the softest hay (3rd cutting), or something in between (2nd cutting). I buy Luna 2nd cutting because it has good fiber content (3rd cutting has less fiber) and she likes the firm/soft mix.

I agree those ‘hang outside the cage’ hay racks sometimes makes it seem like it’s harder to reach the hay. You could try an inside the cage hay rack – if you use the same hay and it seems like your buns are eating more, then the outside hay rack might have been making it difficult to reach the hay; if you use the same hay and it seems like your buns are not eating more, then they could be picky eaters and you could try a different hay.

Thank you for your response . They definitely like the taste because when I re-filled their hay ball, they went crazy for it! They’ve been popping back and forth between lazing and chewing and eating their hay so I don’t think it’s a case of not liking it. I do think the hay rack is the problem though. A lot of the hay falls and gets trapped between the edge of the litter tray and the inside edge of the cage where there’s a little gap. Maybe a free standing hay rack would work but it might take up too much litter space. Hmm.  I’ll have a look for an inside hay rack, or maybe a hook on bowl would work ? 

[Bam]

I recently read thatbunnies prefer to be served hay on the floor, because it’s most like how they eat grass in nature. It’s impractical for the human though, but perhaps if you put part of their hay in a bowl on the floor?

Poop is the best “guide” when you try to determine if your buns’ diet has enough fiber. Really good bunny poop is big, round and golden from bits of hay fiber. They should crumble fairly easily. Ideally there should only rarely be uneaten cecotropes. All buns are not the same though, some have a tendency to sticky poop almost whatever you feed them.

The main thing to look out for regarding poop is size, or rather, if it decreases in size. That’s an observandum. If you see beads-on-a-string poop, you probably need to brush your bun. If there are many uneaten cecotropes, the bun is as a rule getting too rich food, or there’s sth that’s not agreeing with that particular bun’s tum. I have a bunny who can’t have carrot, ever, because he gets sticky poop from carrot. Carrot tops are fine though.

It’s very good that you introduce veg slowly. Everything new except grass hays should be introduced slowly so the bacteria in the bunny gut has a chance to familiarize themselves with the new food.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By bam on 11/14/2016 3:26 PM

I recently read thatbunnies prefer to be served hay on the floor, because it’s most like how they eat grass in nature. It’s impractical for the human though, but perhaps if you put part of their hay in a bowl on the floor?

Poop is the best “guide” when you try to determine if your buns’ diet has enough fiber. Really good bunny poop is big, round and golden from bits of hay fiber. They should crumble fairly easily. Ideally there should only rarely be uneaten cecotropes. All buns are not the same though, some have a tendency to sticky poop almost whatever you feed them.

The main thing to look out for regarding poop is size, or rather, if it decreases in size. That’s an observandum. If you see beads-on-a-string poop, you probably need to brush your bun. If there are many uneaten cecotropes, the bun is as a rule getting too rich food, or there’s sth that’s not agreeing with that particular bun’s tum. I have a bunny who can’t have carrot, ever, because he gets sticky poop from carrot. Carrot tops are fine though.

It’s very good that you introduce veg slowly. Everything new except grass hays should be introduced slowly so the bacteria in the bunny gut has a chance to familiarize themselves with the new food.

That’s interesting, my only concern with putting it in a bowl on the floor or something is not necessarily the mess (they’re pretty messy with their hay anyway!) it’s that they try to sit in it and end up pooping in it. I actually tried using a metal rectangular loaf tin yesterday because *I thought* they’re too big, they won’t try and hop into it but alas….Buttercup jumped right in and pooed in it. I thought about just putting it directly on top of their litter but they stomp and pee all over so the hay would become contaminated very quickly. I’m wondering if a hook on bowl is my best option. 

They’ve actually been eating more hay today than they usually would – or at least they are trying to eat more. Should I just put it directly in their litter tray for tonight ? I can look in the pet shop first thing tomorrow but it’s almost 10pm here at the moment so I’mnot of luck for the rest of this evening ! Although I’m about to search online for an inside hay rack. I’m so confused as to what would be best.

[Sr. Melangell]

I just read what bam put about bunnies prefer hay on the floor, that maybe why Olly throws his hay in the air from his bed then has a feast off the floor.

[sarahthegemini]

It’s definitely the rack! I’ve just put a big handful of hay into the litter trays – they devoured most of it, I’ve put another handful in and they are eating it still I’m so pleased that it is just a practicality issue and not a health or fussy isdue, I’ve just got to find the best solution!

[Bam]

That is great! Yay for hay-devouring bunnies!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I always feed my bunnies their hay on the floor. It’s much more healthy and natural. I always did that with my horse for the same reason. Bunnies bodies are meant to be grazing on the ground. With hay racks, there is also the more likely danger of hay dust going up the nose or getting an injury from a hay stem.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 11/15/2016 10:52 AM

I always feed my bunnies their hay on the floor. It’s much more healthy and natural. I always did that with my horse for the same reason. Bunnies bodies are meant to be grazing on the ground. With hay racks, there is also the more likely danger of hay dust going up the nose or getting an injury from a hay stem.

How do you deal with litter habits? Do you put it near their litter tray? Today I cut a narrow opening into a box and stuffed it with hay and put that in their litter box thinking it’d stay put and bunnies can still pee and poop whilst they eat but because the box was so light they were throwing it around and one of the bunnies had their bums so close to the edge of the tray that when they peed, it missed the box entirely  

[LittlePuffyTail]

I’ve tried having separate litter and hay bins but never worked. The buns will poop wherever the hay is so I just got big litter boxes and put the hay on one side and the litter on another. Works pretty well. Bunnies love to eat and poop at the same time. A small amount of hay gets wasted but it’s the best system for us.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By LittlePuffyTail on 11/15/2016 3:10 PM

I’ve tried having separate litter and hay bins but never worked. The buns will poop wherever the hay is so I just got big litter boxes and put the hay on one side and the litter on another. Works pretty well. Bunnies love to eat and poop at the same time. A small amount of hay gets wasted but it’s the best system for us.

Hmm that’s got me thinking-  at the moment I use carefresh and straw in my litter trays, do you think just using a (thicker) layer of Carefresh would be more hygenic? The hay that I put in their trays gets mixed up amongst the straw and poop and therefore gets wasted so I wonder if this would solve that?   I mean, there’d be no straw to get tangled within the hay. 

[Bam]

You don’t need straw in the litter box. straw can be fun for a bun to dig in in a dig box, but it has poor absorption capacity and it’s useless as food (it’s harmless, but too low in nutrients – hay actually has a lot of valuable nutrients and micro-nutrients).

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By bam on 11/15/2016 3:46 PM

You don’t need straw in the litter box. straw can be fun for a bun to dig in in a dig box, but it has poor absorption capacity and it’s useless as food (it’s harmless, but too low in nutrients – hay actually has a lot of valuable nutrients and micro-nutrients).

I just put it in there for comfort  I originally used just straw and quickly realised how useless it is as an absorbant ! 

[sarahthegemini]

I used only carefresh in the litter trays today and it looks so much cleaner…no more straw mixing in with the hay wooo! I can just keep scooping the hay to one side of the tray with ease now. (Y’see my buns are quite careless, they’ll stomp all over their tray so even when I put hay at one side, it inevitably gets spread all over the tray and then they sit all over it and poop, pee etc, and so much was wasted because I couldn’t separate it from the straw) Anyway, my only problem now is they’ll sit in their tray to eat but they sometimes won’t be inside the tray fully, their bottom will be hanging over the edge (not because the tray is too small, but because they’re silly) and so when they lift their tails to pee, they miss the tray lol

[sarahthegemini]

Bought a bigger litter tray (as it happens, it isn’t quite deep enough so we had to put some card around the edges so that when they hop out, stuff doesn’t get kicked out) and fashioned a lovely hay holder to place in their tray to keep hay off the ground. Would have worked a treat at keeping the hay clean but Buttercup just jumped right in and pooped  So, back to just hay on the ground of the tray! I think it’s probably the best option. Anything that is big enough to hold a decent amount of hay and not be too tricky for the bunnies to retrieve is inevitably going to get sat in 

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