rabbits wont eat hay!

After reading posts suggesting that rabbits should eat lots of hay and less dried food to loose weight, I started thinking. I can't remember seeing Treacle and Fudge ever tuck into their hay! :? I put a couple of handfulls in each day but I think it ends up as bedding rather than food (unless they secretly munch when I'm at work!)? My other rabbit Niamh gets really excited when I put the hay in her cage and there's never any hay left for her bedding! How should I get the boys to eat more hay??? :?

stop feeding anything else! well not that drastic but litterially cut down on the pellets so there is a sprinkling in there bowl that bearly covers the surface believe me a know the will eat it.

most of my adult bucks (which are all rescues so maybe that has something to do with it) dont eat hay until i get harsh with there food and then they eat it, but you have to do this forever as soon as you up there pellets they will go back to eating no hay...

try it it works for mine

Ill give it a go but they are so fussy, some times I dont give them pellets till lunch time so they just have hay in the morning but I still dont see them munch it (unless its in an unopened bag in the kitchen then they'll help themselves!!!)

They are really fussy with fresh food as well. They won't eat anything sweet and they don't eat the grass either when they're outside!

Actually just caught Fudge eating the hay!

But how much should 2 large rabbits be getting through between them a day?

for rabbit that enjoy it a stack the size of them , for bunnies that dont as much as poss, so of mine still only eat a little a day when they are desperately hungery but its better than none at all.

and believe me fussy rabbit or not the wont starve there selfs they will eat it but you need to make them hungery.

A rabbit which doesn't eat hay is more likely to get teeth problems, so encouraging them to eat hay instead of pellets will reduce the chances of this happening (as well as saving you the cost of dental treatment for them).

There was a rabbit which used to stay with a family across the road from us. We know the family fairly well, and when the Mum went into hospital for a few weeks, we said we would check the bun to see if the rest of the family were looking after it whilst she was away. All seemed ok for the first week, second week care was reasonable but we gave the family a gentle reminder that the bun needed water and cleaning out. Third week there was no hay, no water and piles of poo. The bun hadn't been cleaned out but there was not one scrap of hay to be seen anywhere. Now this rabbit wasn't a hay eater (the hay supplied was poor and she usually ignored it), the bun was starving as it hadn't been fed and it was kept in a large concrete run so no grass or weeds available for grazing on. When we went over to check on her, she was nibbling on a dried up leaf which had blown into her run. We confiscated the bun and told them that they could have her back when the mum came out of hospital.

So you see, a rabbit won't starve itself. If there are no teeth problems, and there's nothing else to eat, they will eat hay. We always supply copious amounts of hay every day and it constitutes the major part of their diet.

(Long story, sorry :roll: )

Make sure they like the hay you're feeding. I'm blessed with buns that'll eat any hay, but what I fed them at work today was fresher and not the generic P@H hay I usually get. They tucked into it with relish and ate with enjoyment. So make sure you're feeding good, yummy, fresh hay!

Just a smalpoint to add and that is make sure your hay is in a rack or ball, as many rabbits wont eat hay that has been walked on. val :lol:

Have you tried them on "Friendly Pure dried grass" ? Or Burgess excel dried grass?

ours are very fussy with hay, so we give them hay and the above, we also give them alfalfa cubes or forage feasts as a supplemental fibre source. so they have a choice.

I know its strange thing for a human to say but the smell of the Dried grass makes my mouth water when filling there grass bowl , and they cant get enough of it .

Bunnybasics said:

Have you tried them on "Friendly Pure dried grass" ? Or Burgess excel dried grass?

ours are very fussy with hay, so we give them hay and the above, we also give them alfalfa cubes or forage feasts as a supplemental fibre source. so they have a choice.

I know its strange thing for a human to say but the smell of the Dried grass makes my mouth water when filling there grass bowl , and they cant get enough of it .

Click to expand...

me too :shock: :shock:

I do tend to agrre on the fact that it depends on which hay you feed them...mine are particulary fussy.

Thanks for all the replies and suggestions! I used to give them alfa alfa occasionally when they were babies and they enjoyed that but for some reason I didn't think it was good for older rabbits to eat it frequently? I havent tried dried grass with them, and I must admit the last couple of hay bags I have got have been the nasty commercial ones. Where can you get good quality hay from? all the little independant shops have been gradually closing down over the years!

To be honest I'm STILL shopping around for decent hay, so can't help you there.

You're right, alfalfa shouldn't be fed to older buns, so good call on not doing that! You can find Burgess Excell Supa Forage (dried grass) at P@H, although it is expensive, it's good for them!!

I have a rabbit that won't eat hay at all and as a result has terrible back teeth problems.

I have tried about 8 types of hay and still no luck yet. I have tried all sorts of sneaky ways to trick her but she's having none of it.

I get my main hay from a local farm, £4 for a bale which lasts 3 weeks. It is really green and sweet smelling and the other rabbits love it. If you have anywhere like this it is worth it.

There are loads of farms around me as I live in the country, I just don't know any that sell hay and not sure how to go about finding out! :?

Yellow pages

It will be under animal feed or equestrian supplies, something on those lines. You should find places that sell hay for horses.

Tam

Thanks I'll give it a go

Touie - where are you in Hampshire? The farm that Caz told me about is near Basingstoke and the hay is organic and wonderful. Mine love it (and they turn their noses up at rubbish). Tottis not eating it at the mo as he's out fo sorts but he normally tucks into it. I gave some to rescues as well and they reported back that it went down a treat. I'm off to get some more maybe tomorrow.

I'm right over the other side of Hampshire , near Portsmouth there was one place near by listed in the yellow pages so I'll give that a go

I have just cut down on mine's pellet rations by feeding just hay and veggies in the morning and pellets at night. They are forced to eat more hay now that there are no pellets in the morning so when I get hope from work in the evening ... VOILA! ... an empty hay rack!!

... just ordered some sample hay from West Wales Willows

www.westwaleswillows.co.uk