Hay?

[Newtothis]

Hay everyone

Peanut is almost out of hay and pellets and I'm thinking about trying something new, maybe something he'll enjoy more. I know that it's not really recommended to buy hay with all these other things in it, but I found some hay at my local pet store that has mint leaves in it. Should I try this or should I avoid it?

 

[Chester1_andblueberry]

I found the same thing! Except it was by Kaytee and my buns did not like it they ONLY ate it as a last resort. Asb soon as I was running low I went and hot a bag of their favorite hay! *Oxbow organic meadow hay* but all bunnies are different so the choices is up to you, some bunnies love it, others hate it it depends.

 

[Chester1_andblueberry]

And*

 

[Azerane]

It's more the pellets with things mixed in that you have to be concerned about. Hay with some dried herbs in tend to be alright as long as it's not a large proportion of herbs and not a great deal of hay. The other concern is to be careful introducing the herbage hay if your bunny isn't used to eating mint, it could cause a tummy upset.

 

[Newtothis]

He hasn't had mint at all, should I introduce him to it first before purchasing the hay? or is there some other type of hay I should try, I don't like the one I have now and it sure seems like he doesn't either. I was stressed out when I bought it because let's be honest having a rabbit is stressful, and it was my first time so I grabbed the first thing that said Timothy hay

 

[woahlookitsme]

Try an Orchard grass first maybe?

 

[MikeScone]

The hay with mint - Oxbow calls it "Botanical Hay" - is basically timothy hay, at a higher price. As far as I've been able to tell, the added mint smells nice to us, but doesn't seem to have much additional attraction to Natasha Rabbitova, at least. She's happy to eat timothy, and doesn't seem to care if it includes mint or not. My first rabbit, Scone MacBunny, wouldn't eat timothy - and he wasn't a bit fooled by mixing mint into it.

For what it's worth, orchard grass and meadow grass hays were favorites with both buns as alternatives to timothy.

 

[Newtothis]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'll be trying Orchard next and see how that goes. I've been cutting down the amount of pellets he gets, trying to encourage him to eat more hay but it's not really working I feel like I'm starving him

 

[Chewy-de-Lionhead]

Thanks everyone, I guess I'll be trying Orchard next and see how that goes. I've been cutting down the amount of pellets he gets, trying to encourage him to eat more hay but it's not really working I feel like I'm starving him

I felt the same way with Chewy. I got him some Orchard grass and he loves it. Made all the difference in the world. Good luck! Hopefully he will like the Orchard Grass as much as Chewy does!