Encouraging bunny to eat more hay

Any tips?

Reluctant to reduce dry food etc as he's not a massive eater to begin with but we'd like him to eat more hay for his tummy/teeth.

I'm afraid that it's very often the case that a rabbit avoids eating very much hay because they are full up with pellets. How many pellets does he get a day?

If it's not possible to reduce the amount of pellets, then try him with different hays. Some rabbits are very fussy about their hay :lol: Another idea would be to mix dried forage in with the hay to make it more interesting.

There are also hay products that you could get for him to increase the amount of hay that he eats, such as hay bricks.

I found that offering a selection of different hays works for mine, Dillon has a poor appetite and Susan needs to eat more hay for her teeth. I got a few different hays and dumped some herbs in with them squishing the herbs into the hay.

My bunnies eat much more hay when it’s their favourite hays, they love Timothy hay from Timothy hay.co.uk, and also the hays from nature’s own. It’s definitely worth trying out different hays from different companies to find their favourites. A lot of companies will send samples out for your bunnies to try.

The Hay Experts definitely do a sample pack. My late bunny was a poor hay eater but quite liked orchard grass. He also munched cheap supermarket hay with gusto, but only when he was in his litter tray. Have you tried herbal hay mixes, or combining dried forage such as dandelion / plantain with hay?

Is he bonded? Sealy was terrible with hay until he was bonded with Bandit, who was a guzzler. Ciara also wasn't fantastic, but she was fed on a diet of nothing but muesli by her previous owners and the vet told me her jaw muscles would probably never work properly as a result.

Otherwise, rabbits tend to like nice fresh stuff (if it has been sat on, peed on, breathed on for a period of time it becomes "spoiled") so giving smaller handfuls more often may prove more effective than large amounts more occasionally. You could also try going for the full on natural stuff- if you've got grass growing near you, you could go on a little ramble and pick an array of wild plants for a free bunny lunch!