How to encourage 3.5 year old to eat more hay

Hey everybody!

We have been having trouble increasing Mouse's hay intake. We've had him for 14 months now, and it's been an uphill battle ever since.

He was passed around 5 different homes before we got him, and from what the vet can tell, he wasn't fed any hay. When we first welcomed him into our home, we had to put the hay through our Magic Bullet and sprinkle it on his pellets and fresh greens, just to get him to eat any of it!

This led to molar spurs which led to GI Statis when it got too painful for him to eat. Luckily, we knew him well enough at that point to realise that something wasn't right, and with the vet's help, pulled him through it.

Over the last few months, we've managed to increase his hay intake, but it's nowhere near what it should be yet.

As per the vet's request, we cut down on veggies and pellets in the hope that he'd increase hay intake. Instead, he just increased water intake, and was peeing all over the place, so we upped his other foods again and tried mixing hays.

We tried putting it in toilet paper tubes and making games out of it, but he lost interest quickly after a few tosses.

So far, the best mix we've found is two different brands of timothy hay, a bit of orchard grass, and a sprinkle of dried herb mix, all of which we then spray with two sprays of organic apple juice. However, on our last vet visit, she told us what we already knew - he needs to eat more hay.

We realise that he's getting more and more used to it, but does anybody have any other ideas that might speed up his love affair with hay?

Here are some tips.

* Refresh his hay very often-bunnies like to eat fresh hay even though the first batch of hay is fine, lol.
* I don't know if this would work but maybe you could mix a few treats in the hay like a bit of oats or something like that so it kind of forces him to eat some hay to get to the oats.
* Maybe you could get a big cardboard box and stuff it with nice fresh hay and put him in it. It may make him want to eat more hay.
* You could mix his hay with his favorite veggies so that he eats more of it trying to get to the veggies.
* Put hay near or in his litter box as bunnies love to eat while they poop.
* Another thing you could try is to juice one of his favorite fruits and pour the juice over his hay.

I hope he eats some more hay soon. Good luck!

Ilovemyrabbit said:

Here are some tips.

* Refresh his hay very often-bunnies like to eat fresh hay even though the first batch of hay is fine, lol.
* I don't know if this would work but maybe you could mix a few treats in the hay like a bit of oats or something like that so it kind of forces him to eat some hay to get to the oats.
* Maybe you could get a big cardboard box and stuff it with nice fresh hay and put him in it. It may make him want to eat more hay.
* You could mix his hay with his favorite veggies so that he eats more of it trying to get to the veggies.
* Put hay near or in his litter box as bunnies love to eat while they poop.
* Another thing you could try is to juice one of his favorite fruits and pour the juice over his hay.

I hope he eats some more hay soon. Good luck!

Click to expand...

All these suggestions are what I do with my rabbit and they seem to work!

Hopefully they will help you as well.

Not eating hay may hay been the result of having molars spurs in the first place rather than the other way around. Possibly your bun has other dental issues that are causing issues . I would focus on eliminating any possibility of dental issues. A head x-ray will usually show tooth root issues etc. which a manual exam cannot.

This thread is three years old. If you would like to discuss the topic of encouraging hay eating further, it's best to start a new thread. Will lock this one for now.