Rabbit cannot eat hay due to lack of teeth

[Louladoll]

Hello!

I have an almost six year old male bunny called Benji. Hes an odd boy indeed, his back teeth decided to stop growing over 2 years ago now. We have them checked but nothing changes!

He can eat his pellets because we soften them with a bit of water. But obviously eating hay is an issue. He does fine on the pellets, absolutely loves them. He cant eat fresh greens either. We have tried mushing greens up but he won't take them. He will try his best to eat his treats though (of course!) such as banana/sweetcorn. But as I said they are just treats!

So what does everyone recommend? I am thinking of buying some oxbow critical care food and supplementing a bit of that with each portion of his pellets. But I was wondering if there was any other ideas? I have tried making hay into hay powder but I just can't get it small enough! I figured if I can make hay powder I can sprinkle it on his food.

All suggestions welcome! He is perfectly happy I just want to improve his nutrition/eating habits.

Thanks a lot
Louladoll
:bambiandthumper

 

[Bville]

I'm not an expert on this, but I think that the hay is to help wear down teeth and provide fiber in their diet. Since he doesn't need his teeth worn down, then the only benefit he's not getting is the fiber. I would think that if you give him a pellet that is high in fiber it would help the situation. I have read a few labels and there is a big difference in ingredients so I would definitely look for one that has Timothy hay as the first ingredient and a high percentage of fiber.

 

[JBun]

I don't know that adding critical care would make much of a difference in his diet. Basically critical care food mix is just a variety of rabbit pellets, in powdered form and a few different ingredients for better rehabilitating sick rabbits. So since your rabbit is already getting soaked pellets, that part of his nutrition is ok. I agree that the part that is missing from not eating hay, is the additional fiber for gut function. A high fiber rabbit food pellet would provide that, or here in the US there are plain grass hay pellets that are available in most livestock feed stores. I don't know if you have something like this available in your country. The pellet size is usually larger, but since you would be soaking them that won't matter. If you don't have plain grass hay pellets but have hay cubes, hay cubes may also work if you soak them. Though you may want to break them up first before soaking, as it would take a long time for them to soak if you didn't.

If you have access to a UK brand called Vetcareplus Weight Management rabbit food, it is high in fiber and low in sugars, and I believe is designed to be free fed.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

Are you able to get just hay pellets? I know some areas have them for horses. You should be able to soak them like you do with his regular pellets and even mix them up together. If you can't find the pellets, hay cubes could work as well. Some pet stores sell the cubes in smaller bags, so could be easier to try them before you buy a big bag. Both cubes and pellets are just hay with nothing added.

 

[Louladoll]

Thank you for all your comments! I agree completely that the hay is needed for the fibre part only. This is my main concern really. Thank you for suggesting the hay pellets I didn't know about them. There is a farm store out by the pet shop so I am going to try there to see if they have some sort of hay pellet. Do you think these would be able to soak easy without breaking up? By the way he is currently on excel mint and refuses to eat anything else!!!

Thanks so much!

 

[missyscove]

I have a classmate (fellow vet student) who had an older rabbit who had a similar problem where his molars apparently just stopped growing. He was fed a diet of exclusively critical care because that's all he could eat, but if you're getting him to eat soaked pellets with success that should be adequate as nutritionally they're basically the same thing. Yes, ideally there should be more long strand fiber in his diet but there are also people who feed their rabbits nothing but pellets and they do okay.

 

[Louladoll]

Hey missyscove

Thank you for commenting!

Benji is doing great on the pellets alone, but he can sometimes have bad poo and it makes me want to try and improve his diet just by a little bit. I am also hoping he would feel better inside for it! He never ate hay when he was younger either, so it may be difficult but I will give the hay pellets a shot, also looking into the vetcareplus weight management food that was mentioned by Jbun! It says its free feed and he would LOVE that. He can't get enough of his pellets, he went from being underweight to overweight because he just eats and eats lol.

Reassuring to know he can do okay on just the pellets though if that's the way it has to be :balloons:

 

[missyscove]

I'm not sure if you have canned pumpkin where you live, it's typically used to make pumpkin pie or other things here, but is the kind without any spices added. Canned pumpkin is a good way to add a little fiber into the diet that he may also like.

 

[Louladoll]

I'm not sure if you have canned pumpkin where you live, it's typically used to make pumpkin pie or other things here, but is the kind without any spices added. Canned pumpkin is a good way to add a little fiber into the diet that he may also like.

Well that would be great but I have never seen it here. I am certainly going to look for that though, I am betting my boy would like some yummy pumpkin Theres a few pumpkins still in shops, so we will try making some if nothing else to see if he likes it! Thanks for the help/tips