She's Just Not Interested!

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Hey everyone! We've had our new bunny now for acouple days and I know it takes them awhile to adjust and get back into their "normal" habits, but my bun (Dove) doesn't seem to be interested at all in eating her hay. Tt's not store bought we get ours from a farm and its a mix of all types made just for buns (bournefreefarms). She will eat her greens no problem and wont even LOOK at her pellets! I get her the martins less active ones.

Also she is/was litter trained but she wont go to the washroom at ALL in her cage, we have a nice sized litter box and we use wood stove pellets (same type as rescue) and I placed both hay and some greens in it and she wont even look at it. Which is causing her not to go to the bathroom at all. The only time she went to the washroom was when she was out of her cage and on my boyfriends pillow. She went a lot as well.

So are there any suggestions as to get her to go in the litter box or at all? is it just getting used to the place and she will get back in tune with time? and how long did it take for your buns to get used to their new home?

Mind you she isn't nervous she's used to us, she binkys up a storm and loves to be petted, so discomfort and anxiety I don't believe is the case. Also the rescue told us she doesn't drink a lot of water and could that reflect the amount of hay she eats?

Thanks everyone!

 

[jcottonl02]

If she is not eating her hay or her pellets, and only veggies, then that would suggest to me a teeth issue. BUT she has just come from a rescue, so I would assume that she has had a thorough health check there, including her teeth.

A bunny's diet should be 75-80% hay, and the rest pellets, veggies and fruit treats etc.
Try reducing the greens she gets, and she'll have to start eating her hay. Hay is incredibly important, and if she isn't eating any then that could not only cause a problem for her teeth, but for her GI tract too. Do you know if she ate hay at the rescue?

If she doesn't drink a lot of water then that's good you are supplimenting her with lots of veggies, to get as much water into her as poss. One of my boys doesn't drink that much water, but he has never drunk very much, and makes up for some of that with his veggies .

As for the litter tray habits- it could be just the stress from 'moving home'. I wouldn't put veggies in her litter tray- this may confuse her. Bunnies don't want to soil their food, so she may be reluctant to 'go' in there if it looks like her food bowl.
Try putting some of her poos into her litter tray, to encourage her to use it. Also, soak any of her urine up with some newspaper or kitchen towell, and place that in her litter tray too. That will help her to know this is the place to go.



Jen

 

[Runestonez]

Hi and welcome!:biggrin2:

How old is the little devil?
Since she is new and in a new environment she will want to mark everywhere!
The easiest way to encourage her to use the litterbox is to put her hay there so she can eat while she uses the box...well seeing as she isn't too interested in hay right now...that makes it a bit harder! LOL:biggrin2:

When she makes a mess...clean it up with a Kleenex and then put the dirty Kleenex in her litterbox...same goes for the poops! You may want to let the litterbox "go" for a bit...don't change it everyday right now...it will smell of her scent and she will get the idea eventually!

Depending on where and how she was raised she may not have been exposed to hay while she was young...keep making hay available to her. There are several different tpes of hay rabbits enjoy...we feed a mix of timothy, orchard and brome to our kids...some of them prefer the thicker chewier stalks while some seem to only eat the softer grassier bits!
We used to play a game with our boy Solembum...he wasn't a big hay eater at first either...I don't think he was ever given hay before we adopted him! We would pick up a piece of hay and gently slide it along his whiskers teasing him...not enough to annoy...but he would grab it and chew it to bits on us...it made him insanely happy! As he got older he eventually decided to eat hay! I know some people try to flavour the hay a bit to make it more interesting...I haven't tried so I can't say if it works or not. I was going to suggest trying a bit of alphalfa hay...alot of bunns seem to find this type more palatable/tasty...over the age of 9 months she shouldn't necessarily be on alphalfa hay anymore...but you may be able to use it to tempt her to start eating hay, then switch to timothy again!
The same with the pellets...if you are concerned you could start her with a mixture of the regular Martins and then slowly move her back over!

I would give her at least 2-3 weeks to get used to her new home...change is very stressful for bunns! She just needs to adjust...but the binkies are a wonderful sign!
Just hold off and wait for a few more days to see if she will settle and eat hay and pellets on her own...then you can start to worry and adjust things!:biggrin2:

Congrats onyour new girl!:biggrin2:

Danielle

 

[Pipp]

Not reading the above posts thoroughly, sorry, but what were her habits at the rescue? Is this unusual for her?

My non-hay eater never drinks water. With the others, the mare hay they eat, the more water they drink.


sas :bunnydance:

 

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At the rescue she was in a foster home and they said she didn't drink much water and the first few days they had her she wouldnt eat or drink or go to the washroom at all, they thought she had a blockage but it turned out she was just being stubborn and was fine within the week.

My concern is that she is eating her greens but she wont go to the washroom at all when shes IN the cage, the only place she seems most comfortable is on the bed in a certain spot, I've tried putting the litter box there and that didn't seem to interest her. I knew about putting all her droppings and such in the box been doing that from that start as well as putting hay in there. She just looks in it and walks away she hasnt even been inside it yet lol!.

I tried something new yesterday evening though we were putting her food in a bowl and like most rabbits she would end up throwing the bowl around rather then eating whats in it. I took some pellets and put them on the shelf without anything and she ate them that way. So I'm thinking maybe she doesnt like eating out of bowls?

I was quite excited when she drank some water infront of me as well! So maybe my worries were premature, I do hope they were! I know she was litter trained and was eating hay and all that in her foster home, I'm not using the same type of litter box though and I was thinking maybe that had an effect? Should I get the same kind or just wait until she gets used to mine?

Thanks!