Hay cubes? Pelleted hay?

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evansrabbitranch

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Clinton, Missouri, USA
Here is an odd one for you, my landlords refuse to allow loose leaf hay. That is what they call it. I have been feeding Chinny alfalfa hay cubes, she loves them. She went through a 40lb bag of them in a little over 2 months and they stored well, but are they ok?

I mean is there a big difference between feeding loose hay and these? There are also timothy available.

Also we are having a hard time finding what we consider to be a good rabbit pellet. We don't like any that have corn or soy, we have allergies in the family to both so we have to avoid stuff with them as much as possible. Found one but it is alfalfa based which is fine for now because she is only 3 months but soon I would like to move her to a timothy based pellet. However I can not find any in bags I could afford to keep stocked for her. We live in the boonies and I hate shipping charges I see for big bags of pellets. Here is the deal. Same place that has the hay cubes has hay pellets. Basically just pelleted hay. We have begun Chinny on learning what veggies she can have so she will have a well rounded diet, can I just give her the pelleted hay and hay cubes with good variety of veggies? I keep hearing about pellet free diets, but am not sure if it would be that great or not.

Both products are marketed for horses and do not have any kind of meds in them or anything like that.
 
Hay cubes can't really replace loose hay. Loose hay wears down the teeth while cubes really don't.
Cubes are less messy, but should not totally replace loose hay. You can try putting hay in a cardboard box so it is not all over the place.
If the timothy hay is loose hay and you are just giving alfalfa cubes, then you should be fine.

Hay pellets are just hay, so can't replace regular pellets. Pellets have vitamins and minerals that rabbits do need. Since pellets should not make up a high part of the diet, you can feed them like a supplement. Only give about 1/8 to 1/4 of a cup per day and it will give the vitamins and minerals but not break the bank. It is hard to get the right combination and variety of veggies to get enough vitamins and minerals. If you don't feed a lot of pellets, it doesn't matter too much what you give. You can get some good bulk pellets (even from the bulk bin so you don't have to buy a big bag) and just give a small amount. I would be cautious about a pellet free diet unless you really know what you are doing and can provide the right veggies.
 
very strange of your landlord. i'd personally sneak hay in but it depends on how much contact you have with them
 
We were using loose hay and nothing we did kept it up off the floor and they said it was a fire hazzard. I like giving Chinny the blocks, our vet says she has the nicest front teeth he has seen on a rabbit. But then she is very young. I could slip in a small bag of hay now and then but not a lot and not too often. Maybe when we have our new cage the hay will stay in? In the past all our cages had wire floors with wire sides straight down to the floor of the cage so it was very very open. Since Chinny is our only rabbit now and probably for a long while, we are getting her an NIC type cage with chloroplast floors that have a nice lip to keep stuff in the cage. Its going to have 3 levels as she is very active and can only be out for 2 to 6 hours at night depending on when I start to nod off lol.

The kind of pellet we feed DOES matter. If it has corn in it my daughter can not help feed it without gloves or she gets a bad rash. Soy dust agrivates my asthma. So we try to avoid these. Could I mix timothy hay pellets with the alfalfa based rabbit pellets we found that is low in soy and corn free? I'll keep giving hay blocks mostly because if my landlord sees that kind of hay he just pats her on the head, says things look great and goes on his way. One thing I noticed, when we were feeding loose hay she was sneezing ALOT and was thin. Since we switched to the blocks she stopped sneezing, her poops are normal sized instead of small and rock like, and she put on weight.
 
Hay cubes are not the same as hay - they don't wear down the teeth in the same way and don't provide the same digestive benefits. Wearing down teeth is more about the molars than the front teeth, so just because her front teeth are find doesn't mean the back will be.

I would try to bring in as much quality hay as possible - how would your landlord know? Landlord's aren't allowed in your house without permission usually.
 
Its in our lease for an occassional inspection for safety. I'm wondering how the cubes could not be the same, she was in poor health with loose hay though she was on a poor pellet too. Since getting the better pellet and the cubes her poos look the way they should and she put on weight. I'm wondering if you are thinking of the Kaytee cubes? The ones that are so compressed they are smooth on the sides?? That is not what I am giving. These are MUCH more loosely compressed but don't fly around like loose hay, they are made for horses and flake easily. She bits off a flake section and eats it like she would loose hay. They are bigger too. She also gets sprouts I grow for her. The sprouts are oat, wheat, and millet. Ok not sure its just sprouts, I grow a mixed flat and clip some each day and feed it to her piece by piece.

Like I said I can do some loose hay if she wants it, but not tons. Her appetite really picked up when we switched to the hay cubes, which we did before switching pellets.

Added: Isn't it possible to have a rabbit with allergies? Vet thought she might be allergic to the dust off the hay, its near impossible to find loose hay here that is not dusty.
 
evansrabbitranch wrote:
Its in our lease for an occassional inspection for safety. I'm wondering how the cubes could not be the same, she was in poor health with loose hay though she was on a poor pellet too. Since getting the better pellet and the cubes her poos look the way they should and she put on weight. I'm wondering if you are thinking of the Kaytee cubes? The ones that are so compressed they are smooth on the sides?? That is not what I am giving. These are MUCH more loosely compressed but don't fly around like loose hay, they are made for horses and flake easily. She bits off a flake section and eats it like she would loose hay. They are bigger too. She also gets sprouts I grow for her. The sprouts are oat, wheat, and millet. Ok not sure its just sprouts, I grow a mixed flat and clip some each day and feed it to her piece by piece.

Like I said I can do some loose hay if she wants it, but not tons. Her appetite really picked up when we switched to the hay cubes, which we did before switching pellets.
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have you tried a hay rack?

check the legislation in your area and the terms of your lease. they should give you fair warning before an inspection and shouldnt be more than 3 or 4 per year
 
Sigh, we DO get fair warning we just coulnd not keep the hay up. Tried a box with a small hole to hold it, tried 4 kinds of hay racks including homemade, it was a MESS. I do not want to argue about this, her teeth looked fine by the vet, he just commented how great her front ones were, but they all looked good too. I will add getting a small bag of loose now and then, perhaps we just had too much on hand. We had an entire bale back then. Maybe small bags are easier to manage.
 
evansrabbitranch wrote:
Sigh, we DO get fair warning we just coulnd not keep the hay up. Tried a box with a small hole to hold it, tried 4 kinds of hay racks including homemade, it was a MESS. I do not want to argue about this, her teeth looked fine by the vet, he just commented how great her front ones were, but they all looked good too. I will add getting a small bag of loose now and then, perhaps we just had too much on hand. We had an entire bale back then. Maybe small bags are easier to manage.
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ohhh sorry babe i defs wasnt trying to argue with you, just trying to think of a solution to your problem!

to be honest if bun is happy and healthy and the vet says shes ok, dont stress.

if it's her teeth you're worried about maybe try some chew sticks?
 
I'm sorry, I was up late. Tried really hard to not come across as harsh or anything. Yeah I am looking at a lot of different stuff to try with her. For now she gets cardboard boxes and tp tubes to play with. I have been looking at the apple stix being offered on ebay, and some other stuff. We are working on saving to buy a place so we do not have to worry about a "landlord" saying no loose hay or whatever. We have a lot going on and I try hard to not let that stress leak to my online friendships, sorry I let some get through I did not mean anything by it. I can probably get small bags now and then and see if there is a difference. Yeah the vet says she looks great now. She was thin and tiny.
 
I can relate to your situation, Katherine. We've got pretty bad allergies ourselves. Gus can't have hay in the house. I've had to come up with some work arounds to make sure he's getting a proper diet. Our solution was to set up a pen onthe back patio off our dining room and let him eat hay there during the day. He also gets two large servings of salad greens every day. Plus an assortment of chew things: baskets, grape vine wreaths, willow balls, etc.

Rabbits need two things: long, stemmyfibres to keep their digestive tract moving and roughage to wear down their teeth.

Hay is the roughage of choice for many because it's most similar to a rabbit's natural diet, it's cheap, and it's easy to feed.

But salad greens, fresh grass, corn husks, artichoke leaves, willow, wicker, grape vines, etc. etc. can all perform the same function. (Provided the rabbit is also getting pellets for nutrition.)

Also, some rabbit feeds are extruded, making them crunchier, which helps wear teeth.

Anyway, I'm curious to know what these hay blocks are? Do you have a brand name?

Hope that helps!

Rue
 
Oh yeah, they are Pro Hay Premium alfalfa hay cubes, they also come in Timothy. This company also makes the hay pellets. Her gut functions really well with these hay cubes. She is also getting greens and things now, slowly adding new to her diet to be sure there are no issues. She had raddish tops last night. Tonight she gets parsley. She moves to rip up cardboard boxes and tp tubes. I'm looking at some wicker toys online and I have my eye on some bird toys made with sisal and apple twigs too.
 
Ah, okay. Yeah, those are the same thing I tried with Gus, but turned out to be about as dusty as regular hay, so we had to quit using them.

Feeding her hay and pellets from the same manufacturer is probably a good idea. They'll be made from hay from the same fields. ;)

Hope that helps!

Rue
 
Actually did not find any dust until we got towards the bottom and its more like pellet fines than actual dust, or like finely chopped hay. I just mix it into her food and she loves it! She will still get rabbit pellets but I was thinking the hay pellets might help get even more hay into her and not have her all fat. Having a hard time figuring out how much to feed her since she is growing, will be easier when she is finished growing lol.
 
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