Fussy Lugs

Lugs was always a really good hay eater but she has become super fussy over the last few months :roll:

she gets health checks regularly and have been told her teeth are okay so it doesn't appear to be for health reasons so maybe she really is just bored but i feel like i have tried so many choices I'm running out of places to try and i would be grateful for any tips :wave:

She refuses to eat any type of Vegetable, Herb or fruit unless its dried, so I get her Forage from Galen's Garden which is very hit and miss with her :roll: and The Hay Experts, she will eat some Oxbow Orchard Grass but isn't super keen and likes Burns Oat Hay, LOVES The Hay Experts Plantain ( which is what she seems to only want to eat at the moment, but isn't that more of a treat?)

She used to like Ings Hay but the quality has been so poor lately, i bought a bag of Ings and Timothy and Rye but she wont touch the Timothy and will pick out very particular strands of the Ings lol

I've tried Burns Meadow Hay also which is used in her litter tray so you can guess how that trial went :lol:, I'm thinking of trying DFH but I've read pretty mixed reviews

She's not keen on Dee Millen either, I did try Timothyhay.co.uk on the 2013 hay, but I don't think she was keen as it was quite stalky so I'm waiting for them to sell the 2015 which will be in a couple of months.

I even got desperate and tried the Herby Harvest from P@H but she left that too which I kinda expected lol, I only give her an egg cup of science selective mature pellets per day which she eats fine, oh and she has 1 Fenugreek Crunchie a day also.
she's 7 years old so I don't know if I am wrong in expecting her to gobble as much hay or if they naturally just eat a bit less? or maybe she is just sick of hay, she also has a little Redigrass a couple times per week, sorry this has been a long post I'm just wondering if anyone else has had this problem

xx

Hi there. You might be giving her too many pellets, with an eggcup full plus 1 Fenugreek C she is probably getting enough from these 2 foods, so she can't be bothered to eat hay. So I would cut her pellets down to 3/4 of an eggcup, a FC every other day, and see if this helps to encourage her to eat the hay. If not, you will have to go to 1/2 eggcup and a FC every 3rd day, to see if you can reach a point when she will be willingly tucking into her hay. It isn't that she is fussy, I don't think, she is just not hungry enough. It will take time as you can't rush this. Is she overweight at all? I have a few 8 yr olds but they eat the same amount as they always have and they are a good weight.

How big is she? Obviously food intake varies with size. If it's less than usual that is a concern - when was her last checkup? Teeth issues can develop in weeks as they grow so fast so it might be worth getting a vet to look specifically at that.

The warmish winter means grass seems to be still growing so you could try her on some of that.

Hi

Thank you for the replies, maybe that's where I'm going wrong, ill try cutting her pellets and forage down a bit and see how she goes, maybe I'm giving her too much Plantain she just loves that stuff and I assumed it was one of those forage items that I could give her a handful each day but maybe that plus the pellets are just filling her up too much

As for her health, when I first noticed she started eating a bit less hay I took her straight to the vet for a check up, they said they are happy and there's nothing to be concerned about, that she could just be going through a picky spell :roll:

It's probably more the pellets than the plantain - unless you are giving her lots and lots Pellets are very dense as the foods so compacted and there are high calories grain in so one pellet is probably the equivalent of several leaves.