hay question... do they eat it all....????

[BigBunny]

I filled MrBunny's tray with hay last night. some was missing this morning. but it got me thinking should i fill it up again ??
my question is do rabbits eat ALL of the hay you give them or only the choice pieces ? should i throw out remaining hay and always just give it "fresh" stuff each day or just keep topping it up and he/she will eat it all ???

thank you in advance for your replies.

I'm sure since this is really only day 1 with Bunny that i will have many more curious and odd questions to ask as time goes on.

 

[Tauntz]

Hi & welcome to bunny parenthood!
Hay & water are the two most important things to provide for your bunny. I make sure that my two girls have hay & water available at all times. Give them what I think is a good portion of hay in the morning & then check again in the afternoon. Just before we say good night I give them what I feel like will give them enough for night munching until I get up to start the day. My girls tend to chomp on their hay & leave bits all over their xpen. Also, make sure that you either put a hay rack up over their litter pan or make space on one end of the litter pan to put hay for them to munch. Rabbits tend to eat & poop so it helps to have the hay where they can reach it from their litter pan to assist in "potty training."

 

[BigBunny]

at the moment i have a kitty litter tray and one end is litter one end is hay 1/2 each. just wasn't sure if i should chuck the remaining hay or just keep topping it up. i had a bowl in there but figured quickly it wouldn't be big enough so just over flowed it and filled half the tray. the bowl is still buried under there somewhere. :wink

 

[bellaterra214]

I buy my hay in flakes, so I use hay in all their litter boxes and they also have a hanging source to eat from. Litter boxes get changed morning and night, but I do notice they eat a good amount of hay out of the litterbox instead of the hanging source. We use a mixture of timothy, orchard and oat hay. They pick out what they like and leave what they don't. Even if I leave a pile on the floor, there is usually 50% hay left by the time they are done with it.

 

[BigBunny]

ahhh okay cool. thanks. thats what i wanted to know. just like anyone or anything i guess they will always pick out the best bits and leave the not so yummy ones behind.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

We use orchard grass as I'm allergic to timothy--if given enough time, my buns will eat every last bit. If it looks okay, we just top it off. Ours range from 3 pounds to 20 pounds so they do go thru it at a different rate.

 

[FreezeNkody]

Mine pick.. And waste lol

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

I must have really good hay or a non picky rabbit because she eats it all! Sure, she loves the stiff strands the most but she's pretty good at eating it all. All that's left in the morning is little bits on the bottom of her tray. I know how much she eats at this point so it's not often that I over feed the hay. When I do, I reuse the leftover pieces for the next day...as long as she hasn't peed or pooped on it

 

[PaGal]

I put out hay twice per day. I feed them enough that they never run completely out but given the chance they would eat it all. Even the hay that falls outside Thumpers cage from the hay rack I will pick up and I place it in a box outside of his cage and he will eat that.

 

[pani]

Mine are picky, picky, picky! A lot of their hay gets delegated to potty hay, after they've picked out the nice bits. Clementine will forage a bit longer than Felix. Neither of them leave any of their lucerne untouched, though.