Questions about ***Hay***

[bunbunbinkie]

Okay, so Merlie is now 10 months old and she was spayed last month. I started gradually weaning her off of her "free feeding" schedule with pellets (really, she used to only onlyconsume a little over 1/4 cup a day anyways) I have split the feedings into two, half in the morning and half at night, and I really haven't reduced her amount by very much yet. I am having some "picky eater" issues and have a few questions;

I have always fed her this hay called Meadow Mix by Marshal. It is a mix of: Fescue Hay, Brome Hay, Ryegrass, Timothy hay, Trefoil hay,red clover, bluegrass, and white clover. It has 9% crude protein, 2% crude fat, 38% crude fiber, 12% crude moisture. I kept reading about how it was actually better to provide different types of hay, rather than just timothy hay (wich I also give her). Is this really the case? I just want to make sure I'm doing this right

My mainconcern is, that when I give her the plain timothy hay (I guess it's really not plain, its the botanical stuff from Oxbow) she wont even touch it. And, most of the time when I give her the Meadow Mix,she only eats what she wants (which seems to be the cover hay) and leaves the rest which is about 90% of what I gave her. When I go to give her more (because I'm a sucker) she jumps all over the bag, like she's starving, then eats the clover hay, then leaves the rest again,as if to say "I'm too good for this stuff". She wastes SO much hay. I honestly think I throught 80% of the hay I give her away because she wont eat it. Is this normal? Or is she just spoiled and I need to show her some tough love?

Also, I give her fresh veggies (romaine, bok choy, raddichio,cilantro, parsley, rose petals) about three times a week on average, and she always has fresh water. She gets Oxbow Papaya tablets as treats, and maybe a peice of carrot or bite of banana every couple weeks). She gets nothing other than that.

I would appreciate any helpful tips!!! Thanks!

Kayleigh:huh and Merlie:raspberry:

 

[Baby Juliet]

My bunnies usually ignores the hay but it disappears overnight when they run out of veges and pellets. So if they don't eat the hay they're really not that hungry.

 

[Maureen Las]

she's spoiled...
she likes the clover and picks it out so she really is eating only one kind of hay and you are wasting a lot of good hay.

I would change her hay by taking the meadow Mix and mixing in a little with timothy . You could also try other types from oxbow like oat and orchard grass. try different kinds and let her go without the clover hay for awhile

Hopefully she will eventually start eating other types if she only has access to them. I would phase out the meadow mix because you are basically wasting most of it anyway.

 

[bunbunbinkie]

I think thats a good idea. I gave mostly timmy hay last night, with a pinch of the meadow mix and she actually ate most of the timothy. The little booger. It's my fault though for letting her get away with it for so long!:headsmack

 

[kherrmann3]

My bunny is like that. He will only eat Oxbow's Orchard Grass. He does LOVE kleenmama's timothy hay (3rd cut is what treasuredfriend gave me a sample of). He will only eat the green strands, though. I haven't figured out how to get him to just eat the darn hay! I pretty much just give in and give him what he wants (orchard grass). Maybe you could just get the kind of hay she picks out of the mix?

 

[bunbunbinkie]

If I let her have her way, she'd only eat the clover hay, which I don't believe is high enough in fiber (plus its probably not the best to help with the grinding down of her molars). Im going to have to figure out something, I think mixing the oxbow timmy hay with a tiny bit of meadow mix (as a treat really) is what I'm going to try.