Can i feed my rabbit green oat from my yard?

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pashpash

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Hello,

is it OK to feed my rabbit with oat that i picked from my yard. It is not hay, but very green and young oat.

I am asking because when i try to feed my rabbit with oat hay that I bought from a farm, she doesn't like it at all...

Thank you from advance!
 
You can, but you need to be careful in introducing it into the diet, as young early growth grass, is very rich and can sometimes lead to digestive upset, especially if too much is introduced too fast. So if you do give some, start with a very tiny amount for a few days and see how your bun responds, making sure the poop stays normal, doesn't become mushy at all, and there are no signs of an upset stomach. If your bun seems fine after a few days on a very small amount, then you should be fine to gradually increase that amount, a little bit each day.

It would be good for your bun to also be eating hay. If your bun isn't eating much hay, it could be due to getting too many pellets and other foods, or just being picky if you aren't feeding too much of the other stuff. In which case you can try other varieties of hay to see if that makes a difference. You just want to make sure with your bun not eating much hay, that she is still staying at a healthy weight.
 
I live in Israel and there is only alfafa hay in the store, this hay is very expensive and not recommended for rabbits over 9 months. So i tried to get oat hay from a farm but she hates it (I feed her with small amount of pellets once a day), i can see she is very hungry but will not eat the oat hay, i think that it because the oat hay is really not fresh.

So i found out that i have oat field near my house, and i wondered what the different between that and the hay from the farm. I guess rabbits in the nature does not harvest the oat at the harvesting period and wait for it to dry a bit...

Why can't I switch all the hay with the oat from the outside field?

thank you very much for you answer!
 
If your going to harvest some, spread it out so it will dry without developing mold. Did you ask the store if they could acquire something else, like Timothy or Orchard Grass? When Peter first came to us he didn't know what hay was and would only eat his pellet. I cut way back on the pellet and after 3 days he started gobbling down Timothy Hay. Good Luck.
 
You could switch and use the stuff in the field if you let it mature some so it isn't all short early growth oat grass. The difference is that when oat hay is harvested, it has been growing a while and so isn't the very rich young early growth. It's the same for any early growth grass. The young early shoots are very rich. I just mentioned also giving hay as well because if you are only giving the rich young oat grass, then too much, like in the amounts of hay rabbits normally eat, would probably not be good. You want a mix of leafy grass(hay) and more mature hay with some stalks for the indigestible fiber. So if you can collect a variety of growth stages from the field so you aren't just feeding only the young early growth, then that should be fine to feed to your rabbit. You still want to introduce gradually if it is the young early growth, and you also want to make sure this oat grass hasn't been sprayed with chemicals at all.

I don't know if it's possible where you are, but usually you can find quality grass hay that would normally be used to feed horses. You want something that has NEVER been wet and gotten moldy, preferably no weeds, and not dusty. Good quality horse hay is usually fine for rabbits too.

If your bun isn't eating the hay then you do need to make sure it is getting enough nutrition. If the oat hay is bad at all, this may be why your rabbit won't eat it. So if you can get the fresh oat grass introduced and feed enough of that, then it should be fine. Or you will need to find other hay, or even gradually increase the pellet amount. But you don't want your rabbit to be on reduced pellets longterm, when it isn't eating any hay at all, as this isn't healthy for your rabbit and will start to lose weight. Hay/grass is preferable, but feeding more pellets is better than your bun not getting enough food.
 
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