Dangerous Behavior Around Hay Rack!

[Snowball_101]

So basically I have this hay rack that hangs at the side of my bunny's cage. Snowball likes to pull out clumps of hay and leave it on his bedding, making a huge mess. However, today Snowball seemed to be a lot more aggressive. He/She began to pull on the hay rack, causing it to fall twice. Snowball also shakes it violently. Then he/she stuck their head in between the wires and couldn't get out for like 2 seconds (I was so scared I cried). And most recently it jumped on top of it, ate some hay, and didn't know how to get off. With a leap of faith, it jumped off and ended up hitting its head on the way down . He/She seems to be fine though, they flopped after a minute and had a comfortable nap. I always keep it filled to the brim with Timothy hay so I don't understand why it would act like this. The hay is easy to get and is always poking out. I'm so worried they'll get really hurt one day. Is there a way to stop this behavior or should I use a different method of feeding hay? If so, what method? Please help me, Snowball is my first bunny and I love it so much

 

[Preitler]

Hm, I would secure the thing with cable ties to the cage, and put a lid on top - just a wooden board with 2 holes for zip ties (I do that to prevent kits from climbing out of their hutch through the hay rack).

If the wires are spaced so that your rabbit can trap its head (still growing?) bending two and two together, so that you get noticeable uneven spaces between them, might help. Or just offer lose hay until he's too big to get his head stuck.

There are other ways to offer hay, a (quickly spoiled) heap in a corner, wooden boxes with a opening on the bottom of the wall, or cardboard boxes with holes cut into the sides, you could try that and see if he takes on that (offer easy to get hay anyway).

It sounds that he's burning off some excess energy, I give mine tree branches to keep them occupied (willow, ash, fruit trees, hasel, forsithya,.... ), I just put those where they are in their way, they gnaw twigs and bark off. Introduce slowly if he's not used to stuff like this. Toys like cardboard rolls stuffed with hay might be worth a try.

 

[Butterscotch]

If I saw my bunny get his/her head stuck between the wires I would take the hay rack out of the cage immediately. It's just not worth the risk of injury or death! My bunnies just eat the hay from their litter boxes. Your bunny is going to explore any object you place in his/her cage and if that object has a weakness, your bunny will likely find it quickly. Now that you've seen the dangers of this hay rack, it's probably a good idea to remove it or modify it to make it safe. There are many safe ways to serve hay, even if you just serve it in a litter box until you can find a better method for your bun.