not eating hay

[glittergoldfish]

my bun is 5 months old now and i've got her about 2 months ago. she was a good hay eater at first and there were no such problems before, but since i've let her free roam (maybe three weeks after getting her) and changed the feeding rack for the one that isn't suitable only for pens, she has somehow lost her interest in hay and gradually decreased the amount she consumes till the point where she won't touch it as long as i keep giving her pellets (always a small amount, about two heaping tablespoons two times a day). i have to stop doing it regularly to make her have at least a little bit of hay, but obviously i feel bad for 'starving' her, but i know that pellets are less important and she can deal without them at all. i'm very worried at the same time, becuase her droppings are getting very small often and sometimes she stops pooping at all for a period of time that become a concern for me. the less hay she eats, the more dry and chewed cecotrophes i can find outside her litterbox. should i really make such a big deal out of it?? how to encourage her to have a more proper diet? i've tried changing a brand and type of hay as well as putting her favourite herbs in it

 

[Popsicles]

If she stopped eating when you changed the hay rack the best thing I can suggest is you need to present it differently. My bunny won’t eat much hay if it is in a rack because she likes to eat with her head down, like they would eating grass in the wild. Try putting tasty forage in with the hay like dried dandelion leaves etc to encourage her. But best thing for her probably would be to change what you feed it in, my bun has hers in a basket that she can just sink her head into and since then she eats waaaay more than she used to out of the rack. It is a medical emergency if buns don’t poo for a long time so we need to avoid that for definite.

 

[Blue eyes]

I agree. Eating hay is very important and she clearly didn't like the switch to the different hay rack. Do you have a photo of the before and after racks?

I don't use a rack at all. I put the hay directly in the litter box. But I put fresh hay in twice per day. Rabbits like it best when it is first put in the cage. They seem to bore of the hay that's been sitting for several hours. I'd suggest making the hay as accessible as possible and putting fresh hay in at least twice a day to get her eating it again.

BTW, what kind of hay have you been offering?