Bunny plays with hay

[Yunju]

Hello!

My male bunny seems to play with his food more than he eats it. So much so that his cage has turned from just wood chips as his flooring to, i dont know, about 6 inches of hay.
I'll put some hay in for him to eat (I believe it's Timothy hay, not sure, the man buys it), he might nibble on some but then a little while later he'll be flinging it every where and by morning his pile has been dispersed throughout his cage.

He has no health problems, he's a good sized rabbit and not exactly sure on his age since we got him from a previous owner who wasn't even sure on the age, I'd say about 1.5 years old to 2 years old.

Any help? please!
I feel like so much hay is being wasted since he doesn't seem to eat a lot of it.

 

[wishingstar]

I don't have a lot of experience as a rabbit caretaker, as I'm rather new to the "rabbit scene". 😅 Astro likes to spread his hay around, too, though, and he can create quite the mess if I don't pick up after him. You might try a hay ball -- a ball that you can connect to his cage and file with hay for him to snatch out of it -- or a hay rack. Astro doesn't seem to care much for his hay rack, and I have much better success with filling a large shallow, ink-free cardboard box with hay for him to jump in and much away in.

 

[wishingstar]

Oh, also, instead of throwing away the hay he discards or ignores, I put it back in his bag of hay and mix it all together before I scoop a handful of it up and try to fill his bowl without poking him in the eye with the hay as he jumps around me, excited for more food! It seems to help encourage him to eat all of his hay, and not be wasteful. 😋

 

[Blue eyes]

There are some ways to minimize the spreading of hay. The important thing is to be sure that they hay is still easy to access. I put hay directly in their litter box. I also refresh that hay twice per day. Expect to have a good portion of wasted hay. Rabbits tend to pick through and discard the hay they don't want. That's normal. It's suspected that rabbits can even discriminate between various cuts of hay.

They deliberately reject certain pieces. Though it sounds like your rabbit may also be just playing with the hay.

If you are just laying the hay in the cage, maybe you could try putting it in a litter box or in a hay rack that has large openings. I do NOT recommend a hay ball since those are more useful as entertainment. It takes too much work for bunny to get the hay out and this actually discourages them from eating a generous amount of hay.

I've also resorted to buying hay by the bale (from a feedstore). Other RO members buy it by the half bale. It is incredibly cheap to buy hay this way. It will make you not even give a second thought to wasted hay. I'm super generous with hay and much gets thrown out, but I probably spend just $20 per year on hay for my 2 bunnies. (Yes! it is super cheap!)

 

[Yunju]

Thanks guys.
My male is very... i dont know, mischievous. We used to use a hay rack (I guess it's called) and he tore it off of his cage, so that he could sling the hay around as well as toss the rack around his cage. Same thing goes for his litter box. Used it a few times then decided it would be more fun to play with.

I thought hay bales weren't recommended for rabbits?

 

[whiskylollipop]

What's wrong with hay bales? If you can store it properly, I don't see why not. I also agree that bunnies pick through their hay and simply won't eat it all. I chuck the leftover hay into their litterbox twice a day when I refill their hay rack, then I can just throw it all out at one go when the litterbox gets changed.

Your bun sounds very active. Maybe he'd be less mischevious if you let him out more so he can run around and tire himself out.

 

[Devi]

My bunny will only eat maybe a few nibbles out of his hay even with reduced pellets and twice a day feedings leaving him with just hay for the rest of the time between feedings. He usually makes a huge mess with the hay tossing it around making a huge mess, but I switched to the compressed hay and we're both happy he loves the challenge of digging and pulling at the hay to get some and gets to toss it around and when he is done I have minimal clean up during the day plus the compressed hay doesn't bother my allergies as much.

 

[bunnyman666]

Trix loves playing with her food, hay in particular. She spreads it out, boxes at it, then eats it. Sometimes she grabs it back. The funniest thing is with kale- she drags it around, munches on it, drags it some more, then goes to town with it. It is particularly funny when the kale is longer than she is.