• Forum/Server Upgrade If you are reading this you have made it to the upgraded forum. Posts made on the old forum after 26th October 2023 have not been transfered. Everything else should be here. If you find any issues please let us know.

Straw or Hay??

ClaireS

New Kit
Hi everyone!! Just wondering what peoples views are on bedding....... Hay or Straw? Some of the straw I have seen is a bit vicious looking!
 
Hi Claire,

They need both really, unless they are indoor house rabbits, or long-haired.

Hay is for eating, and straw is for warm winter bedding. If you have room to store it, find a bale of barley straw, which is softer than wheat straw, and contains a lot of soft leafy stalks that they will eat, adding fibre & nutrition to the diet.

You can also use hay for winter bedding but it tends to get eaten up!
 
Ooooh great! My source of straw is going to be the same lady who I get my scrummy hay from and she has said that it is barley straw so won't my bunnies be cosy this winter!!!! :D
 
I used to bed mine on hay but he's now decided to weee on it and it stinks after one day! so ive just swapped it to Straw instead. He doesnt seem too bothered.
Will they hunt out the hay? Ive put it in a hay rack on the side of the cage but i dont know if he's figured it out or if he just eats the straw.
Chris
 
I use hay. It is softer, and I would have thought healthier for them to eat. I used to use hay racks but they just toss them about, so I just make sure they have a clean supply every day so they don't eat any that is soiled, twice a day if the weather is too bad to let them out. Mine eat lots of hay, and I have never had one with tooth problems. (Although I am yet to convince newly arrived Isadora that it is something rabbits like; I hope she isn't going to muck up my healthy teeth record.)
 
I use Hay too, the Trecastle Timmy Hay from West Wales Willows and my buns love it. I would worry about using straw for bedding in case it poked them in the eyes as straw is a lot stiffer than hay.
 
Back
Top