How do I encourage hay eating?

[kirst3buns]

I have a 2 or 3 year old mini-Rex that I got September 30th from another family. When I got him, they gave me the food he was on too and it was Kaytee Fiesta so I switched him over to Oxbow Timothy Pellets. He didn't come with hay so I'm not sure if they ever gave him any.

I've been giving him hay and he doesn't really seem to eat much of it. I'll see him eat one or two pieces and then quit. We have been using a timothy mix that we get from a horse farm. I've tried hay cubes too and he's not interested (the timothy ones).

Since he seems to shed a bit more than my lop, I'm worried that he's not eating enough hay. Any suggestions to get him to eat more of it?

 

[BlueGiants]

You can cut back on his pellets a bit (and don't be in a hurry to give treats). Sometimes if they get a little "hungry" they'll get the idea. If he's never been given Hay, he's just not looking at it as a food source. The Timothy mix is excellent. He just needs to decide that it's "good enough to eat". (Good thing you switched him off the Fiesta!)

You can try hiding treats inside the hay, you can try spraying lightly it with apple juice. You can make a toy of it by stuffing it inside a Paper tube (toilet paper/paper towel). It will take time to undo what he's used to doing.

 

[Marietta]

BlueGiants is right. If he hasn't been fed any hay previously it'll take your bunny some time to consider it as a food, as a first step and then learn, little by little,to like its taste. Cutting down the pellets a bit would also help, mine eats more hey when there's nothing yiammier around to eat and when he, eventually, gets hungry, he plungers his nose into hay like a little piggy! Apart from the nice toy suggestions of BlueGiants ,which usually work as a "bait" for hay eating, you could also try the classic trick of putting hay into the litter box, as you must have read times and times again in RO, buns love to eat and poop and, in this way,they getencouraged to eat more hay. Trying out various hay mixtures also helps (the Vitacraft hay I buy -it's a brand from Belgium- has a series of various hay mixtures, containing also herbs or chamomile or rose petals or mint).

Try and tell us if you had any results. By the way, yes, those Fiesta pellets are such a junk food mixture. You did well that you switched.

Marietta

 

[timetowaste]

oooh ooooh!!! someone else has a problem the exact same as mine!!!!!!!!!!!!

when i first rescued nemo, he wouldn't eat hay unless i tickled his lips with a piece of it, and then he would bite it and just chew it up and swallow. in fact, the only time he would eat it was if i hand fed it to him.

i posted on here, and i can't remember who said it, but someone said "well it sounds like someone has got you trained!" and at first i resented it! but you know what? he had me whipped. so i piled it into his cage and refused to give him any of his pellets (that he loved so dearly at the time) and finally, he began to slowly but surely eat the hay.

nowadays, he refuses to eat the pellets! i'll take that over not eating hay. so i mix up his hay diet and use kaytee hays. he is crazy about hay now. the other day, i left a bag of alfalfa on the floor and he tore up the bag and devoured HALF of it. crazy flippin bun.

tracy

 

[Gabby]

I had one bun I got when he was nearly 4 years old. He had prob never been given hay in his life and wouldn't eat it. Tried different stuff he was never tempted. cut back his other stuff, but instead of eating hay he didn't touch it and just started to loose weight. So I gave up. I only post this just incase someone else has a bun or ends up with a bun like him. He would litterly starve himself rather than eat hay. He lived to be 10 and passed away from a briain tumor.

 

[kirst3buns]

I think I will try hiding some very small treats in the hay and maybe spritzing it with apple juice.

I hesitate to cut back on his pellets too much. He is overly enthusiastic (in other words, he lunges at me and has drawn blood on several occasions) when I feed him pellets.He seems to be much better behaved at feeding time if I give him plenty of pellets. For the sake of my hands, I think I will try the other options first. He certainly came to me with some food issues!

Thanks all! Oh, and I'll be watching him and let you know if anything works.

 

[Phinnsmommy]

He may also just not like the taste of Timothy.

Mine LOVE Bluegrass hay, and it is just as healthy for them as Timothy.

I get a (75%,25%) Timothy Blugrass mix from Kleenmama's, and they love it.

They used to not each much hay, when I still used Kaytee products, now they choose it over pellets and veggies!

 

[timetowaste]

it's okay to hide the treats in there, but the thing is, at least with nemo, he will dig the treats out and eat them first. watch for that!!!!!


tracy

 

[kirst3buns]

Just a quick update. I think I may have made some progress.

For Christmas, my buns received the hay basket from busybunny and it came with 2nd cutting timothy hay. He loves that stuff! He ate an entire handful the first day I gave him some. Perhaps he's just incredibly finicky.

The Kaytee bags of hay didn't interest him, the horse hay didn't and hay cubes didn't but this stuff seems to be working. Anyway, I will keep giving him that and see if I can order some more.

 

[Marietta]

Hi!

I'm very glad for the progress! it seems that your bun just found the taste he likes! I forgot to tell you to also check on the Rabbit 101 section, it has a very informative file on hay, what it is and how one getsrabbits to eat it.

Marietta

 

[Phinnsmommy]

Yay :biggrin2:! So glad to hear that.

Not many buns like the Kaytee products... scary kinda :?.