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Hay Waste Problems

Beapig

Mama Doe
Hi everyone,

You may have seen in an old thread that my OH made a new feeder for our buns from a charity shop wine rack:

2017-12-29_02-34-17 by Rachel Brown, on Flickr

The problem is that the gaps were quite big, so naughty Ham boy enjoyed digging it all out in one go and then just sitting and peeing/pooping on it. Hardly any got eaten and it just went to waste.

So this weekend, OH added more bars in between, making the gaps a lot smaller but still big enough to be eaten from. This has not deterred Ham, who now instead digs with one paw rather than two and still pulls it out all over the place. A lot of hay is being wasted as a result :/

Can anyone advise a better solution for a hay feeder which doesn't involve so much waste? For 1 it's making things expensive for us, but 2 I'm going to be filling up the compost bin in no time with all this straw.

Any pictures/links to the best kinds of hay feeders? Or else, what do you use for your buns?

Thank you guys :love:

Beapig
 
I waste a lot of hay but I buy bales so it's not too bad. I go through 2.5 bales a week or 3 some weeks! I think whatever they are happy with and as long as they are eating loads of hay then you have to fit in with that. In the wild they would graze with heads down most of the time, maybe that is why they pull the hay out into a floor position. My Harley did the same thing when I used one of those wine racks.
 
I'd love to know a solution to this, for piggies as well as buns. Albert piggy just pulls all his hay out and dumps it on the floor of his cage in a strop when he doesn't get more pellets! He has plenty of toys to chew and play with which he does. But it really as if he's doing it in protest to not getting more pellets after wheeking at us for ages. Giving him extra pellets won't exactly encourage him to eat more hay! :roll:
 
I think it’s impossible to not waste any as I’ve always noticed they seem to prefer to rake through the hay when it’s underneath them. I have a Manor Pet housing tray and hayrack I was kindly given by an RU member and that’s the best solution I’ve found so far. Some of the timothy hay I put in the rack doesn’t get eaten but the majority does, I reckon about 75%.

I used to just put baled hay in a large underbed storage tray and then put treat hay on the top and they would eat most of it that way too. But whatever way the cheaper baled hay does get wasted, it goes onto the compost though so does get used twice. I pay a fiver for a bale which lasts me a few months so I really don’t mind too much.

Mine still strop if their hay or pellets are late though. Smudge will rip up the newspaper in the tray if he doesn’t get his timothy hay. Spoilt bunny! They start by sitting on top of the hay rack as if saying ‘you've forgotten something’ and then we progress to the paper ripping.
 
How about making some additional bars that go horizontally instead of vertically. So the hay has to be pulled out through squares holes, IYSWIM x
 
How about making some additional bars that go horizontally instead of vertically. So the hay has to be pulled out through squares holes, IYSWIM x

Yes, hay racks with vertical slots always seem to create more waste than horizontal bars. I'm using a really tall cd rack as a hay rack atm, it works really well. There's still waste of course but not as much. And that way he has a hay bar he can eat from at ground level or from on the trunk it's fastened to.
 
Mine has majority horizontal bars and it's almost taught them that they need to eat the hay they manage to pull out because it's so much effort to do so! They eat the bits they want and sit on the soft stuff they don't like. I use a metal window box, as well as a massive square hanging basket.
 
I use the Ikea carrier bag holders as hay racks, but I don’t think they’d solve your problem. I found a big difference in the amount of hay wasted when I switched to timothyhay.co.uk hay rather than standard farm bales as they tend to eat what they’ve pulled into the litter tray too. There was hardly any waste. I have to say though the more recent bales I’ve had aren’t quite as green as they were previously and I’m finding a bit more wastage with these ones.

I am very tempted by these https://www.manorpethousing.co.uk/deluxe-hay-bar but with the holes rather than the bars. They are quite expensive though, I would be rather annoyed to spend that much money and find it didn’t work well for me!
 
Actually, just wondering if you could buy some mesh with the larger squares and fit that round the hay rack you’ve made? They should still be able to pull hay through to eat but not too easily that they are just scattering it!
 
Actually, just wondering if you could buy some mesh with the larger squares and fit that round the hay rack you’ve made? They should still be able to pull hay through to eat but not too easily that they are just scattering it!

That's what I was thinking as well. Just an offcut of large hole chicken wire would do the job nicely.
 
Thank you so much for the advice everyone :) <3 We might actually try modifying it so that the bars are horizontal rather than vertical. I'll let you know how it goes!

Casco and Shimmer, we have a large roll of hutch mesh wire, so I've considered that too. If flipping the bars doesn't do the job then we'll try adding some wire :)
 
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