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What hay do you use?

BigBunnyBenji

BigBunnyBenji

Mama Doe
Currently, I give my bunnies just a normal meadow hay and Excel dandelion herbage (http://www.pet-supermarket.co.uk/prodimg/CN33002_1_Zoom.jpg), which I think is timothy hay with extras.

My bunnies aren't big hay eaters, I'm just wondering if there is anything else I can try to get them to eat more?
I'm really confused about the differences between hays, and then there is 'herbage' and 'alfafa' and 'ings' and all these other kinds, I don't really know what's best or which should only be in small amounts. I don't know which types of hay I should be using.
 
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I'm a relatively new bunny mummy but I have grasped the following...

Never use alfalfa hay frequently, if at all, as it's too high in calcium I think.
Ings I think is a brand, and meadow hay is slightly different hay, I think this is just to give variety.

For my bun I use Timothy Hay hay at timothyhay.co.uk. They charge £22 including delivery for 10kg that will probably last Neo a good 6 months.
I also feed Excel forage with dandelion alongside. This sits in the front of the litter tray with the Timothy hay in the hay feeder above.
I'm going to also introduce meadow hay to bulk it out too, I don't think the brand is too important with meadow hay.

From what I've noticed personally, timothy hay seems to be greener, no matter what brand.
Meadow hay seems to be more yellow and brown and also apparently lower in nutritional content, I think people normally use it to bulk out and give variety to their buns diet.

Hope this helps!
 
I get mine from Timothy Hay or HayforPets. HayforPets do a sample pack so you can try the different ones. As hay is such an important part of a rabbit's diet (should be at least 80%), it is well worth trying different types.
 
Oh, and timothyhay.co.uk send samples out if you don't want to commit to a 10kg bale.

The hay expert website sells tester packs of 5 types of hay if you want to see which to buy, I think it includes a type of timothy, meadow, oat and something else.

You can get oat hay and apple hay etc, however these are more treats and should only be fed as a small handful every other day or so.

If you are really struggling to get him to eat more hay you can try grass (snip with scissors, never feed grass from a lawnmower) or things like bramble and other forage, but introduce slowly!
If the worst comes to the worst you may need to buy a bag of treat hay that you can buy from places like Pets at Home which you could try sprinkling into normal hay to try and get him eating more.

If you feed him pellets and veg, how much do you feed?
Try to gradually reduce the pellets and veg so that he should feel more hungry and go for the hay.
 
I use meadow hay from a horse feeds supplier nearby. It's green and is very lovely quality.

I also feed timothyhay.co.uk hay as a treat hay - they get a handful or two per day.

I've always found typical pet shop bagged hays such as P@H, Excel etc are the last hay to be eaten, my lot prefer the farm hay many times over as it's fresh and not dusty, so I haven't bought them in ages
 
I also now feed baled hay meant for horses, it's lovely, and they eat much more than they used to of all the special hay I used to get. It's much much cheaper too :thumb:
 
Freakinfreak said:
I'm a relatively new bunny mummy but I have grasped the following...

Never use alfalfa hay frequently, if at all, as it's too high in calcium I think.
Ings I think is a brand, and meadow hay is slightly different hay, I think this is just to give variety.

For my bun I use Timothy Hay hay at timothyhay.co.uk. They charge £22 including delivery for 10kg that will probably last Neo a good 6 months.
I also feed Excel forage with dandelion alongside. This sits in the front of the litter tray with the Timothy hay in the hay feeder above.
I'm going to also introduce meadow hay to bulk it out too, I don't think the brand is too important with meadow hay.

From what I've noticed personally, timothy hay seems to be greener, no matter what brand.
Meadow hay seems to be more yellow and brown and also apparently lower in nutritional content, I think people normally use it to bulk out and give variety to their buns diet.

Hope this helps!
Click to expand...

Wow! My two get through 9.5kg of Ings in 3 weeks! :lol:

My bunnies weren't big hay eaters until I tried Ings and now they can't get enough! So definitely worth trying a few different ones to see what they like
 
Mine are trying lots of different types but like meadow hay from the local pet store and timothy and rye from hay for pets most
 
As long as you avoid legume hays such as alfalfa you'll be fine.

Meadow hay and Timothy are good staple hays. Herbage is basically Timothy with dried herbs mixed in - probably cheaper to do yourself.

Cereal hays such as oat are very popular with buns and can help encourage them to get nomming, but they can be rich so not suited for every bun (such as tummy buns, or buns prone to extra weight as they are fattening).

Ings is a specialty of hays for pets, its grown in water meadows.

My buns get meadow hay in large bales from the local farm, with occasional oat hay or readigrass (This is freeze dried grass so it stays green and extra yummy as opposed to drying naturally in the sun like hay).
 
elmoandfern said:
Wow! My two get through 9.5kg of Ings in 3 weeks! :lol:

My bunnies weren't big hay eaters until I tried Ings and now they can't get enough! So definitely worth trying a few different ones to see what they like
Click to expand...

My two get through a 9.5kg bag of meadow hay in about 2 weeks, and that is an improvement..! :lol:

I use h4p, timothyhay.co.uk and baled meadow hay but with that sometimes they eat it, sometimes they don't! Also readigrass as a treat, that always goes down well.
Mine won't eat things like the Wilkos hay, or the shops bought hay anymore. They used to only eat asda's hay but just stopped one day :roll:
 
Thanks for all the advice guys. :)

I should have said, they do have access to grass all day so they are getting enough fibre, as they are just grazing all day. I just notice when I check the shed, they don't seem to have eaten any hay all night.
 
When mine have access to grass they barely touch their hay. Why eat dried food when you can have the fresh stuff! :lol:
 
elmoandfern said:
Wow! My two get through 9.5kg of Ings in 3 weeks! :lol:

My bunnies weren't big hay eaters until I tried Ings and now they can't get enough! So definitely worth trying a few different ones to see what they like
Click to expand...

Wow!
I'm just guessing at the time he will take to get through it. Some days he loves his hay, some days not so much. Plus, you need to not forget that I also feed other hay alongside my Timothy bale, so he will take twice as long to get through it :)

My other half feeds him in the morning, and I'm sure he must give him too much in the way of pellets so I'm thinking of getting those measuring spoons and then it will be the exact same every day (or should be). The issue is I feed science select which look like worms so not so easy to measure out without scales which is just a faff!
 
Freakinfreak said:
Wow!
I'm just guessing at the time he will take to get through it. Some days he loves his hay, some days not so much. Plus, you need to not forget that I also feed other hay alongside my Timothy bale, so he will take twice as long to get through it :)

My other half feeds him in the morning, and I'm sure he must give him too much in the way of pellets so I'm thinking of getting those measuring spoons and then it will be the exact same every day (or should be). The issue is I feed science select which look like worms so not so easy to measure out without scales which is just a faff!
Click to expand...

Perhaps just use an eggcup to measure out pellets? Mine get an eggcupful each - certainly couldn't be bothered to weigh.
 
My bunnies get a little more than an egg cup of pellets purley because that is the diet thats suited to them, their pellets just cover the bottom of the bowls

I feed medow hay from a local farm shop- £5.80 for a very big compact bag of hay that lasts about a month between two

Binky wasnt too bothered about hay until I bought out the treat hays and started occasionally sprinkling forage into her hay, now she eats hay like a champ!
And bella...well, most days I go outside to find bella sitting in her hay rack having a munch and on the odd occasion even asleep in her hay rack :lol: :lol: :lol:

Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
 
Mine have a bale of hay from the local farm. At times it's lovely and green and soft, but sometimes it's pretty rubbish. I'm working on finding out where I can source my hay from when theirs is rubbish. They also have readigrass, and sometimes have treat hay such as camomile or something.
 
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