My bunny does not seem to eat his hay?

[Minnow]

I really don't see him eating it. He's made a bed with most of it. I shoved some into a tolet paper roll for a play thing and that seems to have gone down, but I rarly if ever see him eating hay.

Thay hay is good quality horse timpothy with some alpha in it. It is a little coarse though, more coarse than grass hay. Could that be the problem?

 

[SweetShuga]

possibly, if your bunny is a younger one.
I bought square bales of hay for my bunny and he didn't seem to like it as much when he was younger (4 months and younger).
He did eat a bit of it (just the fine hay not the coarse hay), but not much, so I ended up going to the pet store to buy still green alphala hay which he really liked, though I noticed he didn't eat the brown hay.
Then I slowly introduced Timothy hay and he eats that (leaving some of the brown behind, but eating the coarser pieces).
I've recently re-introduced the hay bales to him again (now 5 months old) and he eats more of it (the coarser stuff too).

 

[Nancy McClelland]

:yeahthat:

 

[MikeScone]

You might try a different sort of hay, too. The different sorts of hay taste different (I assume - not that I've tried eating the stuff myself), and different rabbits have different likes and dislikes.

My late Scone MacBunny wouldn't touch Timothy hay in any form, but he wolfed down Orchard Grass or Peter's Meadow Mix. Oat hay was more of a toy to him than a food - he'd eat the immature seed heads, but just throw the shafts around.

Natasha, on the other hand, just loves Timothy and Orchard Grass, but shows no interest in Oat Hay or Sweet Meadow Grass.

 

[BrittanyandFruFru]

In my experience hay is like an acquired taste especially Timothy which is not as sweet as Alfalfa, kind of like coffee. This is especially true if you give your rabbit much yummier thinks like fruit. So my advice is to kind of teach your bunny to like it is to provide more hay and a little less of the good stuff, not to the point you are depriving her of her nutritional needs but she may be too full and doesn't eat the hay because in her option there are better options. She will eventually come around, but if she never develop a taste for it I would make sure to replace it with vegetables with a lot of fiber and roughage. My boy goes crazy for oatmeal, but only old fashioned not instant, and it provides a lot of fiber.
Good Luck.
-Brit

 

[Bunnylova4eva]

BrittanyandFruFru wrote:

In my experience hay is like an acquired taste especially Timothy which is not as sweet as Alfalfa, kind of like coffee. This is especially true if you give your rabbit much yummier thinks like fruit. So my advice is to kind of teach your bunny to like it is to provide more hay and a little less of the good stuff, not to the point you are depriving her of her nutritional needs but she may be too full and doesn't eat the hay because in her option there are better options. She will eventually come around, but if she never develop a taste for it I would make sure to replace it with vegetables with a lot of fiber and roughage. My boy goes crazy for oatmeal, but only old fashioned not instant, and it provides a lot of fiber.
Good Luck.
-Brit

:yeahthat:


p.s. BrittanyandFruFru, I L-o-v-e your avatar! That's just what Charlie looks like!