Battle of wills -- how long can they last??

Hi all,

I reeeeally would like to work on getting Binks to eat *any* hay and get Poppy firmly into a hay diet... but so far its not looking that promising...

Before adopting Poppy, we had tried cutting down on the spring greens and pellets as a means of getting Binks to eat more hay... but he soooo stubbornly refused :?

It was an absolute battle of wills and eventually we gave in and gave him pellets because we feared he wouldn't eat anything and gut stasis would set in....

Any ideas on how long we can hold out on giving them pellets before causing another problem while trying to solve the hay issue...

Any advice or tales much appreciated!

Leepodlet, xx

what type of hay have you tried - mine won't eat any other hay except the bales that Auntie Lynda and Uncle Jim get -which is fresh timothy hay from the field.

You could try it with another type - I know Denny's eddie bun only likes a certain kind too.

lol Pam

hi

some hay is rank - I've chucked tons away in the past as it's so hit and miss - If they are house rabbits they don't need any pellets at all and won't starve - but they do need tasty hay, nice smelling and green - not the short chopped brown grass cuttings you can buy :?

Tia didn't eat much hay when I got her but now she munches away enthusiastically on her timmy hay - I only give her a scant amount of pellets in the morning, less than a spoonful, and about 5 pellets for her supper as a treat. I think it took about a fortnight for her to realise that it was hay or nothing.

Pam, we've tried excel forage, timothy hay, and now the timothy hay cube... but aiiieee... these are fussy buns! :? where do you get your fresh hay from? is there somewhere i can order that online?

elve, two weeks -- golleeee! hope i can hold on that long
thanks for the pointers

Leepodlet, x

Coby will only eat certain types, little fuss pot

Mine will only eat Oxbow Timothy hay in loose format bloomin expensive and I get mine from hopandhutch.

Its the only stuff theyll eat so as usual: there worth it!

Thanks for the hint lucycat... something has to work with this bunster!
At least Poppy munched through her corn treat tho!

Lee, xx

Re: hi

elve said:

- If they are house rabbits they don't need any pellets at all

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I thought it was the other way around? House rabbits needing pellets as they don't get vitamin D from the sun?

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Poppy was eating hay from a farm..nice long green fresh smelling hay..she did get naughty after her spey and wasn't eating quite as much as before. cutting out their pellets and veg completely and just offering hay will work...you just have to be stronger willed than them!

Oh gosh -- the battle of the wills continues then!
But when she blinks those beeeeeg cute eyes, with the looooong lashes and white eyeliner fur... I just *melt*

Resistance is then futile...

Thanks for the feedback -- going to leave hay for England and cross my toes that this pans out...

Lee, xx

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this may sound odd but also remove their food bowls...I know of a rabbit..not the brightest bun in the world. (sorry Rufus!) who wouldn't eat hay when I got him....I stopped pellets and he just sat by his bowl waiting for dinner to arrive...when I took the bowl away he tucked into the pile of hay! Hopefully Poppy and Mr Binks are not so stupid!! :shock: :shock:
PS he is beautiful so makes up for being thick!

the man himself!

We've noticed that sometimes they don't eat hay because of their teeth.

We've got one or two that love hay, but they slowly ate less and less until they stopped and just ate their veggies and oats. We mentioned it to the vet who looked at their teeth the next time we were in and their back teeth were starting to curve over and dig into their toungue slightly.

After having their teeth trimmed they were straight back into their hay.

/

that can sometimes happen but Poppy had her teeth done only 3 weeks ago..so should not have any problems there.

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honeybunny said:

this may sound odd but also remove their food bowls...I know of a rabbit..not the brightest bun in the world. (sorry Rufus!) who wouldn't eat hay when I got him....

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:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Funny you should mention this, but I caught a certain Mr Binks looking wistfully at his food bowl this morning too

Will remove the bowls!

Hoping that the hay munching will help reduce the frequency of the bun dentals

Lee, x

14 Rabbits said:

We've noticed that sometimes they don't eat hay because of their teeth.

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Definitely worth keeping in mind - although Binks had his teeth done when he got the snip ... about 5 weeks ago. And as Jill mentioned, Poppy (who is currently lying on her side curled around her SnuggleSafe) was done about 3 weeks ago. So teethwise, they should both be okay.

Before we adopted him, Binks was going in to the vet on average every 4-6 months for his teeth as he only ate Curly Kale and Super Excel pellets. Since we switched his diet to mostly Spring Greens (which are more fibrous) and Super Excel pellets things have improved; 8 months passed before needing to do his teeth and he probably could have held out a couple months longer if push came to shove as the burrs hadn't yet reached the tongue.

As a younster, Binks used to eat plenty of hay.. then he took a fancy to eating Curly Kale and has done so for the last 4 years. The trick now is to convince him that "Hay is good! Hay is yummy!". I do think that we're going to end up having to find green hay.. no matter how good the Super Forage Excel smell I don't think he likes the dryness.

Both of the menaces were looking very sorry for themselves this morning; staring at their bowls, staring at me, and just generally looking dejected. They perked right up after devouring two bushels of Spring Greens and a quarter of a cup of pellets. :roll:

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Never tried this myself but if you're desperate...how about rubbing some hay with a spring green leaf to get the smell on it...then remove all greens and pellets and see if buns are fooled.......may be a complete waste of time but you never know!

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honeybunny said:

Never tried this myself but if you're desperate...how about rubbing some hay with a spring green leaf to get the smell on it...then remove all greens and pellets and see if buns are fooled.......

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:twisted: I'll give it a spin! :twisted:

How about finely shredding a few leaves and then mixing the bits into the hay? Actually, I tried a similar thing with his pellets... he just picked out the ones he normally eats and threw the rest out his bowl :shock: Shredding might not be the answer.

He's a very cheeky bun!
:lol: :lol: :lol:

Or leave the bowls and put hay in there! Then don't let them have any more until they've cleared their bowls!! :twisted:

As you know my two eats HUGE amounts of hay but this has taken a while to do! Things that seemed to help were:
- mixing chopped hay and chopped veg together, especially carrot shavings
- wetting the hay with a spray
- putting hay in their litter tray (this was super successful!)
- and the basic starvation regime that you've already talked about!
- and getting the right hay, I found that once I found a type of hay they'd eat, I fed them that one for a while and now they'll eat any one we give them.

You know the hay block I gave you to try them with, you can it in pellet form - perhaps thats worth a try? http://www.timothyhay.co.uk/timothy-hay-c-49.html?osCsid=d9b556344a5138cb1409f7df5eef811a It might trick them!

BevBunny said:

Or leave the bowls and put hay in there! Then don't let them have any more until they've cleared their bowls!! :twisted:

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Ha! tried that already... all I got for my efforts was hay all over the place as Binks tried to find the treats he thought might be buried under the hay!!

I'll try the other things you suggested though... I might add that soaking the Super Forage in hot water to "rehydrate" it was a miserable failure! All I ended up with is Hay Tea (which tasted awful) ... and very rank smelling hay 2 days later.

Re: .

Good morning all!

I spent 20 minutes last night chopping, dicing and shredding Spring Greens and Carrots to make the most delicious Hay Salad a la Twofoot. I had two very hungry and perplexed buns snuffling the two hay racks trying to fathom out where the veggies were.

This morning the hutch was covered in a thick layer of hay .... with the shredded veg noticeably absent. Between the two of them, they managed to empty both racks and remove all the veg - probably without eating even a stalk of hay!!

elve said:

I think it took about a fortnight for her to realise that it was hay or nothing.

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What did you feed her in the meantime Elve? Surely she didn't have two weeks of no food! What worries me is that given the proportion of veg-to-hay in the salad that I made (probably around 2% veg), there are very few bunny-poos in the litter tray this morning...

honeybunny said:

cutting out their pellets and veg completely and just offering hay will work...you just have to be stronger willed than them!

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Oh I'm sooooo weak! I look at the two sad faces who hop over to me and then back to where their food bowls should be (the message is very clear "Dad, where's the grub?") and start opening the fridge. If the amount of bunny-poo is an indicator of trouble, I'm in deep!