How frequently do you replenish your bun's hay?

[Jenk]

How frequently do you completely replenish the hay in your bun's litter box? I'm wondering if it's okay to replace/replenish it a few times per week, rather than daily?

Our buns have a grate in their litter boxes, but urine still builds up on the hay in the corners where they pee. My husband and I refill the boxes with fresh hay each night, but it's a very expensive system. We spend $60/month on a 50-lb. bale of Oxbow hay. And when you factor in the cost of pellets and greens, our total monthly food cost is $85-$90--more than we have to spend nowadays.


Thank you,

Jenk

 

[Violet23]

Honestly I use horse bedding pellets from the local feed store as litter for my bunnies, and just have their hay in a hay rack for them to eat. they eat way more hay that way, and you don't have to use hay as litter. Hope that helps

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

I give hay has needed, but at least every other day.
I use hay racks that sit in the litter box so the little bits are easy to clean up. When I clean the litter boxes, I either throw out the hay if there is not a lot left or use what is there and add more. I fill the whole rack after I clean. They usually need more hay sometime the next day. My rabbits really are never totally out of hay.

Could you use a rack of some sort so the rabbits are not sitting on the hay but can still eat as they like? My racks are open tops (they are CD racks) so the buns can just eat but the hay is still contained a bit. Maybe even arrange the hay so it is not in the corner where they pee.

As long as they have good hay I don't think it matters how often you give it. If they are going empty, then it would be an issue.

I know that one of your rabbits does have diet issues, but could you get local farm hay for the others to help save money? A bale of really good hay costs me $10 and lasts about 2 months. Even if you still need to give Oxbow, it would at least be a bit cheaper as it would last longer.

 

[Flash Gordon]

i dont buy oxbow anymore..too expensive...buy by the bale so u can give more freely...
if u really like the expensive hay then buy a cheap bale for the litter boxes and put the good stuff in the hay rack...id cut back on other stuff (veggies /pellets) to save money ...not the hay.

 

[Colorguarder08]

Tayler (my bestfriend and room mate) and I don't use hay in the litter boxes. Sweet Heart stays in Taylers bedroom in her own cage and Freckles stays in my room in her own cage. We just use Carefresh bedding in the litter boxes and have no problems with the rabbits going where there supposed to.

 

[Flash Gordon]

whoops..sorry this is an edit

 

[Flash Gordon]

and another screw up ..edit sorry.

 

[Colorguarder08]

We feed them unlimited hay and 2-3 handfuls of pellets.

 

[Flash Gordon]

Colorguarder08 wrote:

We feed them unlimited hay and 2-3 handfuls of pellets.

colorguarder08 im sorry i posted an answer under the wrong thread..i apologize...i wasnt askin you what u fed ur buns..:foreheadsmack:

 

[Colorguarder08]

oh ok well I guess it's ok to know anyways incase I was feeding it wrong.

 

[Flash Gordon]

well u prob should be measuring it out instead of guessing with a handful or two...how old is ur bun and if u know,,how much does she weigh?..what kinda pellets do u feed?

sorry Jenk we dont mean to hijack ur thread...

 

[Colorguarder08]

Im not sure how old she is or how much she weighs but I do know that there is always some pellets left over at the end of the day. the pellets I'm currently feeding her come from an unmarked bin at the petstore I bought her from, but if Zupreem turns out to be as good for bunnies as for ferrets and birds I will be giving Freckles the Zupreem pellets.

 

[Flash Gordon]

ur not feeding veggies?? then id prob do 1/3 -1/2 cup a day...its tough to guess if i dont know how big she is or age...is she a baby?
im not sure what pellets ur feeding her..if there fresh then that might be ok but if there in a bin im guessing they arent...Zupreem i know nothing about but i can look it up and see whats in it and let u know what i find..or others who are familiar with Zupreem will chime in on this thread to help im sure.

 

[Colorguarder08]

I haven't given her any veggies yet as I've only had her since thursday but she will be getting veggies once I get paid friday. The pet store didn't give her any veggies either and she wasn't there very long maybe a week at most I don't think she's a baby though heres a pic of her though if it might help.

 

[Flash Gordon]

she is a doll... she looks pretty young still. prob should be getting unlimited amounts of pellets..so if she has some left over at the end of the day ur prob feeding her enough..not sure if u know this already but when u begin feeding veggies u need to feed a small amount ,one veggie at a time. id start with basics like some Romaine lettuce, parsley, cilantro.

lets not hijack Jenks thread anymore ..i think i saw u start another thread about food so ill catch up with u on that one

 

[kuniklos]

I give my little guy unlimited amounts of hay. I change the hay when I change his litter. Depending on if he was a poop machine over night or not, I either change it in the morning or the evening. He goes through about 80=90% of the hay during the day, so changing out the little bit left works fine.

He gets 1/2-3/4 cups of pellets a day, and four snack times. My guy is all about the leafy green stuff, so he's either get one leaf of kale at each of these times, or a small fist of parsley or cilantro. He's 3.4 lbs and has been doing well with this diet so far. Although I'm always tempted to give him more than his fair share of greens when he gives me "ol' big eye".

 

[Jenk]

Violet23 wrote:

Honestly I use horse bedding pellets from the local feed store as litter for my bunnies, and just have their hay in a hay rack for them to eat. they eat way more hay that way, and you don't have to use hay as litter. Hope that helps

At least two of my three buns can't be trusted to not eat litter. (We use the non-treated wood-stove pellets.) So we've put a grate--made from fluorescent lighting grid panels--over the pellets. And those two girls would have horribly sore hocks if they stood on the grate. (They get hock issues when the grate is covered with hay.)

 

[Jenk]

Korr_and_Sophie wrote:

I know that one of your rabbits does have diet issues, but could you get local farm hay for the others to help save money? A bale of really good hay costs me $10 and lasts about 2 months. Even if you still need to give Oxbow, it would at least be a bit cheaper as it would last longer.

I would LOVE to spend only $10/month (or even less frequently) for hay. But we tried a local farm hay--purchased through a supplier--just once and wound up spending over $1K to treat our house for mites. (The hay brought in a type of grass mite, as evidenced by when our pets started scratching and the fact that silk worms and moths were later found in/around the hay bale.) So I'm a super-leery of trying another generic farm hay.

Plus, I'm in a metropolitan 'burb and would need to rely on a supplier to provide such hay.

I should also mention that in spite of my one girl having CPS, it's actually my male Cali whose gut is super sensitive about any hay changes. And he's the one who requires the most hay in his box.

 

[elrohwen]

I use litter in the boxes and only have hay in hay racks. I do take hay that has fallen out of the racks and throw it in the litter box, so it builds up over the week.

I add new hay once a day usually, unless I fill it so full one night that they still have a lot by the next day.

I have two buns and a 50lb box from Oxbow lasts 3-4 - going through one box a month, even for 3 buns, seems like a lot.

 

[Jenk]

elrohwen wrote:

I have two buns and a 50lb box from Oxbow lasts 3-4 - going through one box a month, even for 3 buns, seems like a lot.

It is a lot, no doubt. Our girls are small--the largest is about 4.5 lbs.--but our male is 9 lbs.; he eats quite a bit of hay.

We've long been putting a lot of hay in their litter boxes--restaurant bus pans for the girls and a mortar-mixing pan for our boy. We fill them thoroughly so that they have plenty of hay for a 24-hour period and so that they're not standing directly on the fluorescent grid/grate for long periods of time. (Our girls' hocks get sore/inflamed even if they stand on 1st-cut hay!)

The first solution I can think of to try, having read all the responses thus far, is to put a smaller/thinner layer of hay on our girls' grates (for cushioning) and putting hay in their hay racks. (We've not used their hay racks in a long time.) For our male, I suppose we could try giving him less hay--or placing it on one side of his box--though I'm nervous that he, too, could wind up with sore hocks.


Jenk