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Changing Diet

Nummy

Nummy

Young Bun
Hello all :wave: I was hoping to get a few ideas on how to get my rabbit to do a diet change. He currently refuses to eat anything that tastes like timothy hay. He only wants to eat those alphalfa meal pellets. I really want him off those pellets because they are not good for him. I have tried to give him two different brands of timothy hay pellets and he won't even touch them. I tried to mix some of the timothy hay pellets with the alphalfa pellets and he ate all the bad pellets and left the rest! :shock: I feed him a 1/4 cup of pellets and unlimited vegies through the day since he doesn't eat hay. Can a rabbit live off of greens instead of eating pellets? Can he have fresh grass instead of hay like cat grass for example? He does like to eat grass. He has already had a bladder stone before so now I am worried he got it because of those pellets. He is so picky too so I am having a tough time trying to do the switch. Any ideas anyone??
 
will he eat 'any' kind of hay at all? have you tried offering differant types (meadow hay, freeze dried grass extra)?

im not sure what the best thing to suggest would be, as hay is essential not just for dietry health but for his teeth as well.:?
you are correct in that grass would be a substitute for hay (for most buns its the other way round) but an hour in the run will not suffice he would need to be out on the grass most of the day
 
Hay's really important for the digestion and teeth wear but the good news is grass is just as good if not better! Build up the quantity gradually so his tummy gets used to it but aim to eventually give him a big pile of grass every day.. as much as you'd give hay. If he doesn't graze outside you might need to pick it a few times a day so he has it fresh.

Alfalfa is higher in calcium than grass so your right, not good if he has bladder stones.

Rabbits can live off grass/hay and a good mixture of greens. So once you've built the amount of grass he eats daily up (say over the next 2-3 weeks depending how much he already eats) I would gradually reduce the amount of pellets he gets each day. You could leave some timothy ones there in case he wants to try them once there are less of the other pellets.
 
I am so glad that he can have grass! :p It is strange that he would rather eat the fresh grass than the hay but Nummy is picky. I have tried him on multiple kinds of hays, and to no avail! He seems to only want fresh stuff like greens or grass. He is a very well behaved rabbit, so he is allowed to be out of his pen all day to eat and exersize. I am always giving him greens, he beggs all the time. I even left out the timothy hay pellets for him to nibble overnight, but he didn't touch them. I saw him trying to eat some carrots sticks from the bowl the timothy hay pellets were in, and he kept shaking his head everytime he picked up a carrot as if to say the pellet was ucky!:shock: :lol: I can buy the cat grass at my grocery store for now, but he seems to really enjoy natural grass from our back yard in the summer. Oh and Nummy has bad teeth too already likely because of his lack of interest in the hays!
 
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