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anyone have a good recipe for hay cookies?

beetlekhama

Young Bun
does anyone have a good recipe for homemade hay cookies? the vet has advised that stan needs to eat more hay for his back teeth but he seems to ignore his hay in the rack so i thought maybe i could tempt him with some hay cookies.

Also will this do the same job for his back teeth as munching on hay?
 
Copied and pasted directly from: http://bakebakebake.livejournal.com/1352167.html

Katie's Smack Snacks for Rabbits

You will need:

* 1 c. rolled oats, finely ground (coffee grinder works best)
* 1/4 c. rabbit pellets, finely ground
* 2 medium-sized bunches of parsley
* 1/2 of a carrot
* 1/2 of a banana
* 1/4 c. + 1 tbsp. water

Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line a baking sheet or stone with wax paper (baking stones actually work best). Grind pellets and oats down to a powder and set aside. Puree parsley, carrot, banana and water. This should become fairly liquefied, so you can add more or less water depending on the consistency. In a bowl, mix puree and dry ingredients. Knead until a stiff dough is formed. Dough will be somewhat sticky. Place ball of dough between 2 sheets of wax paper and roll to about 1/8 – 1/4 of an inch thick. Cut into small squares and place on baking sheet. Bake for about 30 minutes (don't let them get too brown), then turn off the heat and let them sit in the warm oven for at least an hour. (The last step is really important because letting them sit in a warm oven is what dries them out so they'll keep for a really long time and not grow mold!)

http://bakebakebake.livejournal.com/1352167.html

You can substitute the rolled oats with hay "crumbs/dust/bits." Likewise, the carrots and parsley can also be substituted. I believe the banana can be substituted as well...but so far my attempts without banana have not turned out so well.
 
But, the recipe above probably doesn't provide a very good way to eat hay... =S

Perhaps sprinkling some dried chamomile flowers on top of your hay? Switch to a different kind of hay? Maybe a different kind/brand even? My buns eat primarily timothy hay. Every other day, they'll also get oat/meadow/orchard.
 
Hello,

I baked hay cookies for my bunnies' christmas pressie last christmas. They were over the moon and I had to literally peel them off the bag :D The got the recipe off the forum - just do a search for cookies or hay cookies. It's an old one from a couple of years back. It doesn't use bananas but a dash of apple juice instead.

What I learnt (might be useful for you?):

1) make the cookies thin and in small bite sizes. I make mine too thick (i had these christmas cookie cutter with all sorts of animals shapes:oops:) and they took very very long to dry out. Some of them went bad due to the left over moisture after a few days. In smaller sizes it would dry out faster.

2) You can really personlise the recipe. I used more hay bits (i used the small ends and dusty parts at the bottom of the bag) than pellets which I think is better for them and less calorific. I also added grated carrots as a treat. You can pretty much add anything in there.

As someone said before, I dont think this is a great way for them to eat hay though. More as a healthy snack and treat. The benefit of hay is the chewing movement that the stems/stalks force the rabbits to make, hence wearing down their teeth. I dont see how hay ends and bits would provide that.

One of my bunnies is a dental bunny too with really bad molars that grow inwards and cut her tongue. She didnt like hay very much :( So I am now giving her meadow hay with lavender (I have a local store that sells this mix) which she loves. You can try adding some dried dandelion, lavender, mint or thyme with your hay. Sometimes, they just want some taste! :lol:

I hope this helps!:wave:
 
Yep, the trouble with anything like that is the hay is chopped and it's the back and forth motion over stalks of hay/grass that create the wear. That's why pellets (even high in grass) aren't very good for teeth wear.

I would try things like different hay varieties, fresh grass, I think someone tried dipping the hay strand by stand in banana or baby food.
 
Even though this type of treat might not be so good for the dental health, aren't they a good way of getting more hay fibre into our rabbits? If they're made with mostly hay rather than pellets and flavoured naturally to encourage them to eat it, I think they'd be a lovely addition to their diet. Eileen Walthall advises using (pure, natural, caffeine free) chamomile tea to flavour them with rather than plain water.
 
Both my dental buns struggled to eat stalky hay, but they both loved Oxbow orchard grass. It's quite fine, but very long stranded, might be worth a try ?
 
I make hay cookies for the girls.
It's just hay & Ellas Kitchen baby food.

Mix it all together so there is just enough moisture to hold shape you want. (I tend to do rectangles so the hay stalks are long still).
Put it in the oven at 180dec for 30 mins, then lowest setting(normally 80degc) until they are dry throughout. Can take around 2 hours. Store in air tight container.

Worth trying different types of hay and mixing fresh forage into the hay racks. Generally bunnies will eat whatever they think they're not allowed so a box or paper bag stuffed with hay is very tempting to them.

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I'm sorry I don't know of any recipes for hay cookies. I have thought about trying to make them from hand picked grass & forage but was worried about whether I'd get them dry enough without losing all the nutrition from too much heat. When I was looking in to it you could buy devices on amazon to help compress the ingredients

I do like to make my bunnies treats with a little grated fruit, blended dried forage, chunk of banana, few pellets (or dust from), dried herbs & fenugreek powder. Mix all together, form into shapes & bake on a low oven til firm

Welcome to the forum
 
I'm sorry I don't know of any recipes for hay cookies. I have thought about trying to make them from hand picked grass & forage but was worried about whether I'd get them dry enough without losing all the nutrition from too much heat. When I was looking in to it you could buy devices on amazon to help compress the ingredients

I do like to make my bunnies treats with a little grated fruit, blended dried forage, chunk of banana, few pellets (or dust from), dried herbs & fenugreek powder. Mix all together, form into shapes & bake on a low oven til firm

Welcome to the forum
Do you remember the bake off we had on here with the bunny treats [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

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Do you remember the bake off we had on here with the bunny treats [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

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yeah i thought of them when I was answering - you used a cutter & made them all professional looking, mine looked like dried blobs of packed lunch. they all went down well. i thought about making boo some but it seems a bit of an effort for one bunny :oops:
 
yeah i thought of them when I was answering - you used a cutter & made them all professional looking, mine looked like dried blobs of packed lunch. they all went down well. i thought about making boo some but it seems a bit of an effort for one bunny :oops:
[emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38][emoji38] Yea I remember Bob said something about yours looking like ceco splats [emoji38][emoji38][emoji38]

I just had a right laugh reading the bake off thread [emoji38]
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Yaaaaa I thought it was a real cookie recipe and I was coming with my recipes hahahah :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
I'm sorry I don't know of any recipes for hay cookies. I have thought about trying to make them from hand picked grass & forage but was worried about whether I'd get them dry enough without losing all the nutrition from too much heat. When I was looking in to it you could buy devices on amazon to help compress the ingredients

I do like to make my bunnies treats with a little grated fruit, blended dried forage, chunk of banana, few pellets (or dust from), dried herbs & fenugreek powder. Mix all together, form into shapes & bake on a low oven til firm

Welcome to the forum

Thank you. This is a very nutritious and healthy recipe. I've never heard of it before and never even thought of making it. Now maybe I'll come up with something too and try it.;)
 
Hmm, I've got a small banana left over from pancake testing, might make them something as Barrie isn't fussed by banana (why do I always end up with the weird ones?! :lol:).
 
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