• 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.

How much hay should my rabbit eat daily?

How much hay should my rabbit eat daily?

She has an unlimited supply of hay but doesn't eat most of it. I have tried a few different 'brands' of hay but she eats nowhere near as much hay as my guinea pigs eventhough she is more than twice as big as them. She will eat fresh cut grass and other veggies and fruit treats. She eats bran for breakfast and mainly selective science pellets and a small amount of some other brands that I have bought to add a bit of variety.

She is about six months old and seems very healthy and active.
 
Last edited:
i don't think she should be eating bran, and you should try not to mix up her feeds. find one and feed her a small amount daily (an eggcup full).
How much are you currently feeding her?

My rabbits eat more than their own body mass in hay every day, though tbh i'm also interested in hearing how much they should eat.
 
Why not bran? My daughter got a book from the library called 'How to look after your rabbit?' (or some very similar title) and it suggested feeding bran mixed with water. She loves it and eats two teaspoons every morning.

I give her a handful of pellets in a bowl and either some in a cardboard tube with hay stuffed either end or some in a ball with holes in or maybe by hand.

She also has grass, dandelions and veggies and a fruit treat such as a small strawberry or a grape or a slice of banana or apple etc.

She produces lots of round pellets as well as some squishy ones that she eats (yuk!).
 
Why not bran? My daughter got a book from the library called 'How to look after your rabbit?' (or some very similar title) and it suggested feeding bran mixed with water. She loves it and eats two teaspoons every morning.

I give her a handful of pellets in a bowl and either some in a cardboard tube with hay stuffed either end or some in a ball with holes in or maybe by hand.

She also has grass, dandelions and veggies and a fruit treat such as a small strawberry or a grape or a slice of banana or apple etc.

She produces lots of round pellets as well as some squishy ones that she eats (yuk!).

I dont know about the bran but I would imagine it could be used to bulk rabbits up?!
Rabbits SHOULD eat the same size as themselves in hay per day.
I would recommend cutting down on the pellets and stick to one brand of pelleted food, too much variety can actually cause more problems as they have such sensitive tummies.
Also fruit should only be given VERY occasionally! You do not mention how often you feed fruit but I would recommend no more than every 2 weeks. Fruit has such high levels of sugar that it can upset the gut flora.
 
Princess eats about 4 times her weight :lol: is that fine? she noms all day on it and I do tend to top up a lot

I used to give her too many pellets and she ate less hay, now I've knocked the pellets down she eats more hay and has better golden poops
 
Thanks for the replies. She is definitely not eating her own bodyweight in hay. I have tried giving less pellets to encourage more hay eating without success. Maybe I need to try even less pellets and see how that works.

Where could I find out about the bran?

Thanks again.
 
I'm just sure i read somewhere that you shouldn't use bran for rabbits because it's empty carbs, no nutrition. I'm not 100% sure where I read this but a lot of 'how to look after your pet' books are, frankly, inaccurate and out of date.
 
Hi

The book that says it is 'How to look after your rabbit' by Colin and Jacqui Hawkins. It is in the Walker book series. I have it in front of me. We only got the bran because we read it in the book. (My daughter says she has seen it in another book too). I am new to rabbits and I am finding the (often contradictary) advice from friends, acquaintances, books, pet shops and the internet quite confusing.
 
you will often find contradictory advice, more so with diet and accomadation,

One way to look at it, is the natrual diet, rabbits eat or graze rather grass and vegitation n the wild, and thrive in large open spaces as they need plently of exersize to keep their guts moving,

bunnies tummies are very sensitive, and often more so, with bought buns a you never know how they are bred and whether they will be prone to dental or guts probs, very common in bad breeding amoungst other things,


so for domestic buns a diet of fresh hay every day, yesthey do seem to sit wee and poo in it as well :lol: what type of hay are you buying, my buns personaly hate p@H hay its dry brittle has no smell and basically to me looks like its bee scrapped off the floor, also far to expensive,


If you have the space finding a farm or a place with horses often sell bales of hay, good hay is fresh looking often with lots of green on and sweet smelling, often works out soooooo much cheaper in the long run too,

There is a very good list on this forum somewhere of a list of good fruits and vegs twigs to eat, buns teeth grow continuously so need to chew to keep them down and in tip top shape


squishy poos you are technically you are not meant to see these are the ones they eat, in the wild food can get quite scarce so they produce these as a back up, too much squishy poos can mean to many fruit and veg in diet


Id try a differant hay, the hay experts ( good website and delivery quite a few people here use them with no probs :D ) do little sample packs for your buns to try, some work out not cheap but combined with say normal hay this can be given as well


welcome to the forum, there plenty of advise and subject covered on here, and one of the few places you can openly discuss poo without people going ewwwwwwwwww:lol:
 
It is good that you have come lookign for advise, sadly there are many books that give poor, outdated advise and it sounds like you may have found one of them. A healthy rabbit does not need supplementing with things like bran / oats etc and may result in you having an overweight rabbit which will have a shorter life span and go on to develop other problems which will require vetinary care later on.

The diet of domestic rabbits should really mimic as close as possible that of a wild rabbit. Rabbits need minimal pellets and an egg cup for an average rabbit is perfectly adequate, between 80 - 90 % of their diet should be hay a rough guide is picking up a compressed amount which is the same size as their body size. Grass can be fed instead or to supplement the hay. They also require a small amount of green vegetables such as spring greens a day.

Fruit and vegetables such as those high in sugar including carrots, apples grapes, banana should only be given as treats. Many of the commercially manufactured treats should be avoided as they are high in sugar, there are lots of more natural treats such as dried leaves, flower heads which are find to feed. These include https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Natural+Treats+%2526+Herbs.7/?osCsid=ngbaitmt9u0msh4apu85vfkle0

If your rabbit is not eating enough hay, cut back on the pellets giving no more than an egg cup a day, if they eat more pellets than this they will fill up on pellets and not want to eat the hay.
 
Hi
Thanks for the replies and advice. We have tried lots of hays. We are working our way through a bale of hay from Jollyes but also have some Wilkinsons hay and have bought a bag (unbranded) from a pet shop as well as some Excel Herbage and have had a brand of Timothy hay (can't remember name). The guinea pigs loved them all except the Wilkinsons (they still ate it though only after the bale hay) but bunny did not have a preference (i.e. all got same 'disinterested' treatment) although she loves grass and dandelions and does eat a lot of those as well as other veg. Should I cut these down too?

I will cut down the bran gradually so as not to upset her tummy.

I almost forgot, she also eats alfalfa which she loves.
 
Last edited:
Grass and dandelion leaves are fine as they mimic the natural diet that a rabbit would have in the wild, however if you are giving a handful of pellets plus additional in a tube or a treat ball reduce the pellets to an egg cup full a day. by stopping the bran and also reducing the pellets you should notice that they will increase their hay intake.
 
Alfafa is ok in small quantities, however it can result in bladder sludge and also stones. If your rabbits like stalky hay, contact Lisa at the hay experts and ask her if you can purchase some sample packs of stalky hay, that way you dont end up buying lots of hay which they then dont end up eating.
 
I took her to the vets in the end. I now have a little cup to measure the pellets and yet another type of hay she turns her nose up at (Excel Herbage with dandelion and marigold)! What a fussy bunny!

I must have sounded like one of those mums at the doctor's surgery that arrive in a state of anxiety when DC sneezes once! LOL That's me!
 
Back
Top