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Harley won't eat hay - U/D

Fellie

Warren Veteran
Hi :thumb:

Harley is now on SS - just a small handful (and I've got little hands) each morning with forage, and there seems to be alot less cecals on the hutch floor now so assuming she is eating them like she should.

But she doesn't seem to eat any hay - or very little. I've tried her on 3 types so far - from horribly expensive American 3 tie to the cheap straw I use for their litter boxes - and she just is not interested.

I put foragy bits in her hay to try and encourage her - doesn't work. I plonked her into the big container last night where we store the hay (a large shallow storage box that she could jump out of easily) - not interested. I've cut up her hay and mixed it with her morning pellets - she just ignores it and eats the pellets.

Am getting quite worried now as I don't want her to get teeth problems and her poops are small and dark - plenty of them but they just don't look that healthy.

She is starving when we get home in the evening - I give her a bit more forage then as well. But as hungry as she obviously is - she just won't eat hay. She's of a healthy weight I think - can't feel any ribs and she is certainly solid enough when I pick her up but just don't like her being hungry and not being able to help.

Any ideas of what else I can try?
 
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Hi how many SS pellets roughly do you give Harley I feed mine on SS I give them roughly about 8 pellets each on a morning and same on a night they all are never out the hay boxes , have you tried hayforpets hay they love the Timothy n rye and Ings hay you can get sample bags before you decide which to get :wave::wave:
 
Harley gets about 8 pellets - prehaps one or 2 more or less. And no more for the day so she really get so little.

But thankyou for the tip re the sample bags - will definitly try that with her.:thumb:
 
Have her teeth been checked? Sometimes that's the reason for not eating as well as the effect!

Other than that, howdy you give her the hay? In her litter tray? On the floor? In a rack? Have you tried baled farm hay? It's long strands and mine seem to prefer that to any other type of meadow hay I've tried.
 
Only thing I can suggest is a dental check (just in case) and try Hay for Pets' hay. Pippin didn't used to eat much hay and I'd tried loads of different ones and she was having none of them but now she loves Hay for Pets Timothy and Rye hay :) You can get it here: http://www.hayforpets.co.uk/products.html
Really cheap for the amount you get too
 
I've just ordered the 3 sample bags...so thanks for that!

And I will get her teeth checked to make sure they're all okay - she does her other food fine though and her treats as well (millet and dandelion stick things) but will get her checked just in case. She needs her nails clipping anyway I think (I'm too much of a wus to do it myself :oops:) so will do that together.

She has cheap straw in her litter box on top of the cat litter - I did have her normal hay in a big bowl next to her litter tray but have now installed a hay rack to make more room in her hutch. Neither seems to be of any interest to her.

thanks again for you advice everyone - :thumb:
 
I would suggest you put her hay on top of the cat litter in the litter tray and ditch the straw. They prefer foraging around in hay so tend to eat more if it's underneath them as it would be in the wild.
 
I would suggest you put her hay on top of the cat litter in the litter tray and ditch the straw. They prefer foraging around in hay so tend to eat more if it's underneath them as it would be in the wild.

I, too, would ditch the straw and use newspaper and hay in the litter tray. I would also ditch the treats - eating hay is much more important.
 
Amber simply would NOT eat hay, i tried everything to get her to eat it. She did like Dandelion Delight though. It was only when she got her husbun she suddenly decided to eat it. She eats loads of it now.
 
I may have found away to get my little squib to eat hay - finally. I got the 3 sample packs from the hay people I was recommended - seems she kind of likes Ing and Meadow...but this weekend I got her a new litter tray.

Previously she was in one of those triangular ones which seemed fine - but now she has a normal cat litter one which gives loads of room. So I piled it up with hay last night on top of the litter we use - and this morning most of it seems to have gone...so put loads more in this morning so fingers crossed I've found the solution. She seems to have done all her toilet bits at one end of the tray as well so seems to know what to do.

Will be so pleased if it works - had her teeth checked and they are fine, but will be much happier knowing she is doing what is good for her.
 
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