My rabbit wont eat hay

we,ve tried everything to get Wally to eat hay but he still wont. We've tried samples from the hay experts but still nothing and mixing apple sauce into it. Please can anyone help

Have his teeth been checked and how much other food, pellets, is he getting would be the first questions. If he has teeth problems he will find it difficult to eat hay and if he is full of pellets he won't be hungry enough to eat hay.

He had his teeth trimmed 2 weeks agoand only has pellets in the evening. He eats his veg but wont eat grass either. He just digs it up

Sherry said:

He had his teeth trimmed 2 weeks agoand only has pellets in the evening. He eats his veg but wont eat grass either. He just digs it up

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In total how much in weight of pellets does your rabbit get?

Ok some things to try are
cutting down his pellets to maybe an egg cup full once a day
hiding his pellets in the hay so maybe in eating them he gets a bit of hay and starts to get used to it.
chopping up hay into small bits and mixing it with his pellets (not good long term in terms of teeth but may get him used to the taste)
spraying hay with fruit juice
mixing hay with recovery or other wet food
mixing grass/hay with veg or dandelions so although he may pick them out he will get bits of hay/grass in with it.
grating carrot and mixing with hay
bonding with a good hay eating rabbit

At the end of the day some dental bunnies although their problems are sometimes caused by the lack of hay eating end up not eating hay because they have either got out of the habbit or it hurts them to do so.
Our rabbit has never eaten hay as his previous owners never gave him any and he was rarely put on grass. He now has advanced dental disease.
We have tried all the above apart from the bonding which we can't do as it is likely to make his condition worse.
It is great that you are getting his teeth trimmed but please get the vet to check his molars thoroughly as this is likely to be where the problem lies if it is a teeth issue. They are difficult to see when the rabbit is awake so problems are easy to miss. If the molars are a problem he probably won't eat hay untill they are sorted out as it will be too uncomfortable, and so the problem will continue to get worse.
As our vet would say check check and check again:lol:
Good luck

I have very similar problems with my bun who had small spurs removed about four weeks ago. It's really in only the past 4 days she has eaten bits of hay along with straw. There's a few things that i haven't tried in Wiggie's list so will try them. Thanks:wave:

Amber does eat grass when i put her in her run - after she's zoomed round and nosed round her toys. Could you possibly take her toys out if she has any just to see if it makes any difference? I also found that she eats grass while she's digging.

I have moved hay into different parts of her hutch as she ignores her hay rack. She does pick at it in her 'midday kip area'.

I have a rabbit who had a dental and xrays in march they found nothing wrong with his teeth and he still wont eat hay and only eats softened excel, banana and apple , you can take a horse to water but you cant make it drink

Fudge is my non-hay eating bunny and i tried everything and she would pick at the oat wheat and barley hay but not much.
She was fed a teaspoon of pellets twice a day with hay and a big bowl of veg at night.

A few weeks ago she got ill and i had to stop veg and since stopping veg she eats loads of hay. She is at the moment eating oat, whaet and barley hay, burns green oat hay, a little meadow hay and a little alfalfa king timothy hay.
she picks out the best bits and leaves the rest but she is eating a fair amount

She also get dried herbs which she used to hate and now loves, she gets dried plantain and dried dandelion in the morning and dried plantain or dried fruit leaves with a little burns herb mix and she loves it.

Keep trying everything and hopefully one day something will work, it took fudge just over a year to start eating hay :roll:

Whenever pellet you gave him, reduce by 20% for 1 week, and have a huge amt. of hay available in his hutch at all time. Then next week, reduce by another 20%, until there is only a few teaspoon left per day.

Your bun diet should be compose of 90% hay.