Not eating hay?

[Stone_family3]

So Belldandy is a 2 year old female mini lop. When I got her she loved hay, however she's stopped eating it. I even went out and bought a bale of fresh cut hay thinking that might do the trick.

Her diet is lots of fresh water, about 1/2 a cup of pellets (most ends up on the ground), lots of fresh veggies and a few bits of fruit.

She's outside mainly during the warmer months and nibbles on a lot of grass.

 

[Seraphina]

She may not need to eat hay if she's eating grass? although i don't really know. i'd start to get creative (hay balls, hay blocks, squeezing juice such as tomato or a fruit over the hay to make it more desireable).

as with the pellets. my bigger rabbit is 5lbs and my vet suggested she only eat 1/8 cup of pellets a day. which seems like nothing but its healthier that your 'pet' rabbit eats more hay and veggies than pellets.

 

[hillrise]

Hay is usually offered as a supplement, not a staple. It might make up the bulk of the diet by volume, but it doesn't make for the nutrients, really. Some rabbits just eat less when it's warmer outside, anyway. It could be that she just doesn't feel like eating hay lately, and is satisfied with just the pellets (although maybe not considering she's not eating most of them...) and likes the grass better than the hay.

Is she still eating the same amounts of everything else?

 

[naturestee]

She's probably just eating a lot more grass, and that's ok. Grass= fresh hay. If she's not eating hay during the winter, too, or if she goes off any other type of food, it would be a good idea to have her molars checked for spurs by a vet.

Hillrise- the "bulk" is important for rabbits because their intestines are designed to process large amounts of low-nutrient, high-fiber food such as hay. It also helps keep their teeth worn down, which pellets do not. Many of us, per vet recommendation, feed pellets in small amounts as more of a supplement and feed hay, grass, and green leafy veggies as the majority of the diet.

 

[Seraphina]

lol, my rabbits would be satisfied by having pellets all day, but then they'd be fat and lazy.

 

[gmas rabbit]

Benjamin eats almost no hay and pellets in the summer months. He eats mostly grass, dandelions, clover and whatever fresh vegetables there are. If you don't supply him with enough fresh cut stuff, he just goes out in his giant yard and russles up his own.

 

[Stone_family3]

Thanks everyone, Belldandy doesn't eat hay in the winter (aside from a nibble or two) but we feed her a lot of fresh stuff in the winter as well.

If I cut back on the fresh stuff will she go back to hay?

 

[gmas rabbit]

Benjamin does in the winter because the quantity of fresh stuff is not available. In the summer if you don't provide it for him he just goes out in the yard and grazes. Part of the reason is that he doesn't like anything but alfalfa hay and we took him off of it because of his weight. Will have to balance the weight and health concern against alfalfa in the winter. He hates timothy grass and oat hay.

 

[golfdiva]

Hershey eats very little hay also. He does eat a lot of fresh veggies though. The vet said that is fine. After all, which would you eat, moist, fresh, chilled veggies, or hay? lol!

 

[Stone_family3]

LOL, true. I bought some greens for Belldandy and made baggies of mixed veggies and fruit froze them. I'll pull one out and it's like a big bumpy ball. She rolls it around and pounces on it and chews on it. She's in heaven.

Seemed like a good way to beat the heat.

 

[gmas rabbit]

What a great idea. Sometimes it is very hard to find really choice veggie and fruit at a decent price in the winter. I wonder if most of it would go abit soggy if you thawed it too much. Benjamin is a big vegetable and fruit guy, X the hay, but will eat a few pellets if he is starving. We have tried him on everykind possible since taking him off alfalfa, he just doesn't like it. Maybe in the winter when the fresh grass and stuff isn't so available.

 

[Must_Love_Pets]

Thor barely touches his hay lately. I blame the heat and the sparse grass growing in his run. He also tends to nibble on the straw that is in his rin from time to time.

 

[Stone_family3]

I've found in my area that all the big bags of dark greens and barely touched produce goes on clearance, I buy it up fast and freeze it, doesn't last long enough to get soggy. I can't help it though when I go to the store I just have to buy a treat for bunny

 

[Seraphina]

wow, i didn't realize i had it so easy. my rabbits loooooooooooooooooooooove timothy hay and hay blocks.