Rabbit Eating less hay

[Deborah]

So my rabbit has been on timothy oxbow hay for 3 months now, but his extremely fussy only eating certain parts but also leaving alot after which indicates to me his not eating a lot of hay even though his poos are normal and round, when i took him to the vets she said his middle teeth are slightly overgrowing but nothing to be concerned about as of yet, as long as his still eating hay to trim them down. 

But with this i feel like his not eating enough via the amount he leaves, and i have tried quite a few methods and dont know what else to try and i dont give him alot of pellets and his veggies are normal, he used to love his wilko meadow hay (UK brand) and always eat that but no he just doesn’t seem fussed he loves the barley straws that come with the timothy hay but thats it really and I want him to be able to eat more but without constanstly having to change his hay because his either being fussy or doesn’t like it I have also tried indroducing other brands of oxbow but he does not seemed fussed. 

I have ordered some oxbow meadow hay to see if this helps but just dont want his teeth to overgrow. Feel kind of useless 

Any advice would be so welcomed thank you very much 

[Muchelle]

To keep my bun’s teeth in check, vet gave us Bunny Dream, that are pellets made of 100% pressed hay (you can find them on zooplus.co.uk if you want to give it a try). He doesn’t eat a lot of hay and is very fussy, one day he likes one brand, the next he doesn’t. So with this method of hay and hay pellets he’s been able to file his teeth (he’s had dental problems in the past years).

If adding tasty toppings to your bun’s hay and switching brands doesn’t work and he has overgrown teeth this could be a solution ^^

[BunnyHibi]

My rabbit has been recently dealing with the same issue himself, I’m currently unresolved on what the problem is but keeping an eye on him for he’s still kinda eating it. We’ve mainly given our rabbits Timothy, had no issue until now, but with him it’s been a concoction of Timothy, Forti-diet and Orchard. Is there something suddenly wrong with Timothy? Some people suggested leafy greens. Romaine is currently out of the question since there’s been recent reporting of E.Coli and there’s plausible assumptions Romaine lettuce is the cause/linked to the outbreak. But Green Leaf Lettuce is apparently still good(?). Others suggested tempting them with their favorite herbs if they have any Parsley, basil, etc, or resorting to hay-based pellets. Switching it out may work too.

[binkieBun]

I had the same problem. My vet said to take away the pellets. Rabbits don’t need it in reality. I heard rabbit food pellets were originally created for meat breeders to fatten up rabbits. Some bad pellet brands also cause stomach/GI issues in rabbits. I took away my rabbit’s pellets, and he was eating so much hay! There is also other benefits to take away pellets. Chomping on lots of hay prevents overgrown rabbit teeth, and decreases their urge to chew/destroy other things. (Keeping veggies is fine, just in the correct amount.)

[Muchelle]

While it’s true that pellets were originally created to feed meat rabbits – and it’s true most supermarket-sold ones are absolutely horrible – there are a lot of specialized brands that produce good pellets with the right ingredients and nutrients balance. I would not advice to take away pellets from a bun that’s used to eat them, simply because a bun should never risk to go hungry and possibly have GI problems (mine would rather die than to eat hay, for example lol).

Since Deborah’s bun is showing signs of overgrown teeth, I’d push on with pellets, hard veggies (celery, fennel) and fresh grass, that’s easy to grow and usually very appreciated At least this is the combo that saved my bun’s teeth

[Deborah]

Thank you all for your very helpful replies, I think I’m going to try him on the pellets and see how he goes with them, i also ordered some readigrass last night and I’m going to start growing my own which will be a great help.

Thank you for all your advice

[binkieBun]

A little more from my experience….
My bunny was putting on weight .We had went to our vet, who specializes in rabbits, and she said that our bunny isn’t eating the hay because he’s stuffed with pellets. Taking it away for a while, just forces them to eat the hay. When they want to eat, they’ll go to the hay. Just make sure it’s good quality timothy hay and perhaps experiment with other blends of hay with it. My vet also said that pellets are too soft whereas the hay has to be chewed down which helps to grind their teeth.

We still give our bunnies high quality pellets occasionally as treats, and they love them. They actually will leave pellets behind, and run to the hay instead. It just took a while for that to happen.

Anyway, something to think about.

[Sirius&Luna]

I would try another brand of hay. I’ve seen the wilko hay, and i don’t think its the best quality. Hay should be green, and often the bags from non-specialists are quite brown.

My bunnies didn’t like the Readigrass timothy, but they like the oat, so you do need to play around a bit to find one they like. Now I’ve found a supplier that only sells 9kg bags of timothy, and that’s where i get mine.

The other thing is to try and only feed pellets and veg once each a day, as if they know they’re getting lots of small portions of veg/pellets then they’re more likely to hold out and wait for that instead of eating hay.

[funny-bunny]

Definitely experiment with the types of hay you give. They say to give a bunny a hay salad which is a mixture of different types of hay. Start with the timothy hay as the base and then add other types of hay. Your bunny might prefer one type of hay over the other but definitely have timothy hay as the main one. I often rotate the different blends of hay to give a good selection. And definitely try different hay brands.  hay sound be green. even when buying hay from a good brand, that particular batch could be bad.  That’s happened to me many times.

Oh, and many of the different blends of hay have different hardness levels.  Get one that’s hard and that will also help grind the teeth naturally.

Good luck and let me know how it goes!

[sarahthegemini]

Timothy doesn’t need to be the main one. Any grass hay is fine – orchard, oat, meadow etc

[funny-bunny]

Ah you’re right. I’m sure I had read somewhere timothy should be the primary one but I can’t find that info anymore.

Anyway, I saw this link on the homepage that talks about foods and they talk about hay there.

https://binkybunny.com/BUNNYINF…fault.aspx

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