Please tell me hay CANNOT cause tummy trouble

[bunkin]

This is probably a really stupid question but having posted many times before about my buns frequent tummy bloat episodes that are getting closer together and having changed just about everything in his diet in the two half years i have had him the one thing he is eating alot of now and never had a sniff of in first 5 years of his life is hay.
He only had rabbit muesli and nothing else at all in those 5 years. Vet thinks this may be the problem in that maybe he is unable to process a normal rabbit diet or that the bad diet has caused a problem.
He is eating loads of hay ( timothy, green oat and wheat oat and barley). He has had unlimited hay past year but before that in my ignorance he only had a handful of it a day.
So I am now maybe stupidly wondering if its the hay he cannot tolerate??????

 

[yaretzi]

It's more than likely a specific type of hay rather than all hay. Try feeding only one type for a 2 weeks, then switching type and see if you can identify which type causes it. Certainly it will take some time for the gut flora to build up in a bunny that's only had a small amount of hay at a time before, so that may be it too.

 

[SarahP]

I'd try cutting out the cereal hays and see what happens.

 

[bunkin]

I'd try cutting out the cereal hays and see what happens.

Do you mean wheat and oat hays?? Sorry for being a bit dim:roll:

I put my brain into gear so assume I need to cut out he oat wheat and barely hay and stick to timothy and grass hays. He has barley straw which he eats as well in his litter tray, should I stick to grass hay in that as well?

 

[bunkin]

It's more than likely a specific type of hay rather than all hay. Try feeding only one type for a 2 weeks, then switching type and see if you can identify which type causes it. Certainly it will take some time for the gut flora to build up in a bunny that's only had a small amount of hay at a time before, so that may be it too.

He seems to go about 5 weeks between attacks so would have to stick to it for at least a 5 week period to know for sure and in the past he has even gone up to 3 months but I understand what you are saying.

Maybe stick to just timothy hay and cut out the wheat oat and barley.

 

[SarahP]

Do you mean wheat and oat hays?? Sorry for being a bit dim:roll:

I put my brain into gear so assume I need to cut out he oat wheat and barely hay and stick to timothy and grass hays. He has barley straw which he eats as well in his litter tray, should I stick to grass hay in that as well?

Sorry, I wrote the last message a bit fast! Yep, I'd feed a grass hay first, and then possibly reintroduce the cereal ones...