Changing to a healthier diet

Hello!
I've got an 8 year old bunny and we've been told by our vet that that his current diet is very unhealthy for him (mainly pellets and rabbit mix with some vegetables and grass)
I recently bought a bag of Showmasters Rabbit and Guinea pig meal which consists of Lucerne chaff, oats, pasture pellets and bran and was wondering if it is a good choice?
I'm also trying to reintroduce hay into his diet but he will not eat it! Are there any tips on encouraging my bunny to eat more hay?

Thank you!

Hi flutimo

Most members on this forum feed their bunnies either Selective Science Pellets or Excel Nuggets. Both are higher in fibre, lower in sugar than your average bag of rabbit food. They also prevent selective feeding.

Stick to green veg, and gradually decrease the amount of hard food you provide for your bunny to an egg cup sized portion and this should make him more interested in the hay.

Did the vet suggest what they thought was wrong with his current diet? If it is a case of too much prepared food and not enough fibre, I would look at changing the proportions of what you feed him. If he eats grass anyway, I would just increase the proportion of grass in his diet and gradually reduce the quantity of dry food. Hay eating is good for when grass is less available eg winter. Maybe try something like Readigrass instead of standard hay? It's more expensive but might get him eating more hay and then you can gradually mix it with the standard hay to get him into the habit of good hay eating.

The idea of feeding more hay / grass is to increase the fibre - this keeps the teeth worn down properly (which can become more of a problem in some older rabbits) and the guts functioning properly (shown by big, round, fibrous poos).

Thank you MummyBunnyEm for your advice!! I'll try decreasing his pellets to see if he starts to eat hay

Thanks Shimmer for the detailed info The vet classified his current diet as "junk food" since it had a lot of ingredients in it such as corn, dried fruit, seeds which I later learnt wasn't very good for my bunny(and hence the suggestion of a diet change).
So if grass is available all year around can it be fed in place of hay? Or is it still beneficial to feed my bunny hay along side the grass?

Rabbits in the wild would eat grass and other appropriate vegetation. Hay is just dried grass and a convenient way of keeping it over winter. Your rabbit will be fine with either. Grass obviously contains more water so their poo will be darker. Hay fed rabbits should have large, round, golden poo. There is no reason why you can't feed grass all year round if you have a good supply. Hay is available all year anyway so you will never have to go hunting for it. It is also useful as bedding, especially now the nights are getting colder - so they can have breakfast in bed. I would prefer to feed mine grass but I can't get enough for half the year so they get some hay all year round anyway to keep up the good habits.

Seeds and corn are not very good for your bunny but if he doesn't like pellets he would possibly like Rabbit Royale. Just a small portion. As your rabbit has reached 8 his diet can't have been that bad for him. Is he in good health still?

Ok! So perhaps I'll just stick to grass!
Well he has recently had really bad urine burn and the vet says he has arthritis so he's had treatment for that. But apart from that, his kidneys are working well and he doesn't have any weight problems or anything like that.
We've actually just pruned our mulberry tree in our backyard- so I was wondering if the twigs and leaves could be fed to him as a treat?

Well, rabbits in the wild live on grass and weeds (like Dandelion and Plantain). I am not sure about Mulberry, if you Google Is Mulberry safe for rabbits, it will tell you. a rabbit with arthritis can't lift his rear end properly to wee so his fur gets wet and the urine of course burns his skin. Is your bunny on Metacam or something similar for the pain? This should enable him to wee more naturally, avoiding urine scald.

Google has mixed reviews on it:/ some say that the sap may be hallucinogenic, so I'll just stay away to be safe...
Yes the vets have given him injections and he's due back for a booster. He's been able to lift his bottom and hop around more too so I think the injections have been effective!