Bunny addicted to pellets

Greetings everyone, first I want to apologize for my poor English. I have a one year old bunny and he is addicted to alfalfa based pellets. He is not always like this, he used to want to eat hay when he was still baby up until 4-5 months I think. I dont think he has teeth problems because he can easily chew cardboards and other hard stuff. Where I live, they only sell one brand of timothy hay so switching to another brand is not an option for me, also there are no farms nearby where I can buy hay. Lately I've been giving him grass to substitute for hay but the problem is I have to rub each blade of grass with his favorite pellet first otherwise he won't touch it. I do this grass rubbing everyday for several months to get him to eat grass but its really tiring and time consuming as I also have to work. Please if anyone has suggestions for making him want to eat hay again. Thank you very much in advance.

How many pellets are you giving him?

That sounds very much like learnt behaviour that you are going to need to gradually break.

I'm no expert but if it was me and my bunny I would start by gradually reducing the pellets and increasing the hay. Also you could hide his pellets in the hay so he has to work for them and maybe eat some hay at the same time.

Hopefully someone else will have better advise but don't worry about your english, it's really good.:wave:

Thanks for the quick replies. Well he always has pellets and hay in his playpen. I wanted to remove the pellets but I'm worried he won't eat anything. I tried not giving him pellets for 4-5 hours and he didn't eat the hay. I read its dangerous for bunnies to not eat anything for long period of time. I also tried hiding his pellet in hay and he just pick the pellets

BrownBunny said:

Thanks for the quick replies. Well he always has pellets and hay in his playpen. I wanted to remove the pellets but I'm worried he won't eat anything. I tried not giving him pellets for 4-5 hours and he didn't eat the hay. I read its dangerous for bunnies to not eat anything for long period of time. I also tried hiding his pellet in hay and he just pick the pellets

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So, what about the answer to my question?

GrahamL said:

So, what about the answer to my question?

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Oh lol, about two handful of pellets daily I guess

BrownBunny said:

Oh lol, about two handful of pellets daily I guess

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Rabbits will not eat hay if they fill up on pellets. Bit like children eating sweets and then not wanting their dinner.

The generally recommended amount is an eggcupful once a day and I suggest you very gradually reduce to this amount. You should see the intake of hay increase - but they only like fresh hay so it needs to be given at least twice a day.

Babsie said:

Rabbits will not eat hay if they fill up on pellets. Bit like children eating sweets and then not wanting their dinner.

The generally recommended amount is an eggcupful once a day and I suggest you very gradually reduce to this amount. You should see the intake of hay increase - but they only like fresh hay so it needs to be given at least twice a day.

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Babsie has answered what I would type anyway

GrahamL said:

Babsie has answered what I would type anyway

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I was a bit quick off the mark wasn't I. :lol:

Thanks everyone, I will try gradually reducing the pellets. In case he never wants to eat hay again, can fresh grass completely replace hay?

grass is their natural food (in the wild) so yes it is better than hay