rabbit wont eat hay

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earsnted

earsnted

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Montgomery, Illinois, USA
hi, i am new to the forums, and me and my girlfriend have a 2 year old rabbit that just wont eat hay..

he gets between 1/4 cup and 1/2 cup of pellets every day, he has unlimited hay.. like all the time, and it gets changed out with fresh hay.

he seems to only like the alfalfa, but thats not healthy for this age rabbit.

he wont touch orchard grass hay, he will nibble on timothy hay.. very rarely.

and we arent sure what to do? its been about 2-3 days that hes been acting like this, and we want him to start eating some kind of grass hay sometime soon, just not sure what to do.

should we try oat hay? or meadow hay? not sure if those are equally as healthy for him, we've tried the mixed hays with the dandelions and other stuff like that inside the hay, and he just digs for that and soils all over the hay.



anyone have any tips or suggestions it'd be greatly appreciated thanks!
 
with oat hay, you want early cut hay (that has few or no actual oats in it) - if it's not early cut, you'll want to pick out the oats by hand because they add too much carbohydrates to the bunny's diet. with other "cereal" type hays like wheat and rye, you also want early cut. oxbow's oat hay is early cut... it tastes quite different from other grass hays (yes, I've tasted their hays, lol).

mine eat mostly alfalfa because they're babies, but I've also got timothy, orchard grass, some meadow mix thing, botanical hay and oat hay - out of all of them, oat is their second favorite (alfalfa being the first).

there's a LOT of grass hays to choose from... in addition to the ones I've mentioned, there's coastal and bermuda and I'm sure a few others I've forgotten. ANY grass hay is suitable for adult rabbits (alfalfa's a legume hay).
 
okay awesome! looks like after i get off work its time to hunt down some oxbow oat hay haha
and i guess we'll have to go from there, i dont mind spending the money on all these hays to try and figure out his favorite as long as he actually finds one that suits him because i dont want his health to start to decline, as we are getting him fixed in a few weeks :/
 
I hope he likes it! hay is SO important for them and unfortunately, with some bunnies knowing they need unlimited hay is the easy part - the real battle is convincing *them* that they need to be eating lots of hay!

if you just can't find a hay that works (or while you're searching), you can also feed fresh, hand-picked (ie not mowed) lawn grass that you're sure hasn't been treated with pesticides or fertilizer. it's not quite as good as hay, but it's better than nothing.
 
yeah i definatly agree, its like kids and their veggies sometimes.

but thats actually a good idea because i know when we bring him outside to play in the backyard he eats grass, so i think if we cant get him to eat any by the end of today then well give him some of that to hold him over

thanks!
 
My rabbit Beauty for a while would not eat hay. I ended up changing the way that I gave it to her and now she is eating it. I tried 5 different hays and she would not eat any of them. When I finally changed the way that she got it she ate a lot of it. You just need to experement with it.
 
Is he new to you? (aka did he used to eat hay and stop or has he not eaten hay since you got him?)

How much does he weigh? I'm guessing that if you cut down on the pellets, he'd eat more hay.
 
@missyscove
well he used to eat timothy then all of a sudden he stopped one day so we kinda mixed his timothy with alfalfa and orchard but then he stopped eating all but the alfalfa.

we cut his pellets down and spaced his feeding time out by 2 hours.


edit: we've had him for about a year and a half.


@imbrium thanks for the info!!
went searching for some oat hay today, finally found a bag at my girlfriends work (petsmart) and as soon as we put down a handful he jumped off his shelf and went crazy for it. hes still been eating it like crazy, so hopefully it continues past today!!

if he does eat it, is it fine to give him this for forever instead of the timothy??
 
yeah, as long as you're getting the early cut stuff or hand-picking the oats out if you end up getting a later cut (the oats can lead to a chubby bunny, plus too many carbs can cause health problems), the oat hay can be fed instead of timothy permanently.

I'm so glad to hear he loves the oat hay!
 
Imbrium wrote:
yeah, as long as you're getting the early cut stuff or hand-picking the oats out if you end up getting a later cut (the oats can lead to a chubby bunny, plus too many carbs can cause health problems), the oat hay can be fed instead of timothy permanently.

I'm so glad to hear he loves the oat hay!
Click to expand...

yeah i didnt see any oats, but its the oxbow oat hay

and meto, thanks again
 
My rabbit was the same until I changed the hay rack I was using and made one myself. My bun likes to pull out all of the hay in the rack, eating the "best" pieces, and I shove it all back in every morning until it's almost gone.
 
ears is back at it again, he stopped eating the oat hay about 2-3 days ago, hell nibble it, but wont eat much of it.
any idea why he would eat the orchard, timothy, or oat hay?

what should we do? does he need to have his rear cheek teeth checked? and if so do you know how much that could cost??

any info would help, thanks
 
Is it possible for you to get timothy hay from a local farm? My buns were ok about their hay, but mostly just picked at it. Now they devour it until it's gone.

If you have space to store a bale, it's much cheaper, and usually mixed with clover and grass which bunnies go NUTS over.

A bale from a local farm stand cost me $7 (compare that to pet store prices!). The bunnies like to pick out their favorite pieces of clover, then eat the timothy hay. The freshness and softness of the hay is wonderful, and it's not crunchy and dusty like pet store hay.

Good luck!
 
Yeah, it seems weird that he would stop eating his hay again. You may want to get those teeth checked. Cost just depends on your vet. I had my rabbits checked when they were already asleep for their spays.
 
i know its not the pellets, he has had his pellets cut down numerous times and is at the bare minimum he can be, already went through that like 2 months ago.

and he did fine eating the pet store hay for pretty much a whole year, and hes never had farm hay, so i dont think he'd just up and decide that he wants the good stuff instead since hes only had the petstore kind and thats all he knows. only thing he'll go for is alfalfa, but i dont want to let him do that because of the health risks for adult rabbits.

and also if there is ANYTHING mixed in with his hay, u might as well just pick it out for him because he'll eat every last flower and seed in it and kick the hay to the side and poop on it..


i think im going to take him to the vet in the morning when i get off work and see about getting his teeth checked, i would wait till he's asleep for neuter but thats like 2-3 weeks away.. so i wouldnt feel safe waiting that long.

thanks everyone for the responses, if anyone has anymore advice or feels im wrong about anything please let me know!
 
Sometimes you just have to tough it out with them. Beauty was HORIBLE about eating hay for over a month. I bought 2 full sized bales and 2 mini bales trying to find something that she would like. What ended up working was giving it to her in a different way and having a friend to share it with. You could also try giving him it in 2 different places in his cage. In one place you could put some hay and leave it there till he eats it no mater how long that takes. In the other place you could replace the hay each day so that it is always really fresh. (this works out better if you buy your hay by the bale, MUCH cheaper).
 
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