Getting worried about Beauty

[ldoerr]

Beauty has been off hay for over a month. Shiny Things has gone off hay for the past few days to a week. I origanaly was feeding some left over 2 year old Timothy hay, but that ran out. I then bought a bale of Costal (only thing I could get in Brenham). Neither one would touch it. Then I bought a bale of Timothy and hauled it 1.5hrs. Shiny Things would eat it but Beauty still will not eat it. Then I was at Petsmart and they were having a sale on Vitakraft hay ($3 for a 28oz bag) so I bought a bag of the Orchard grass and a bag of the Timothy. Shiny Things LOVES the orchard grass, but not the Timothy. Beauty will not touch either. Shiny Things has now stopped eating the bale of Timothy. It is getting me worried. I have waited a week in between offering new types of hay (often times longer). What should I do? Both rabbits eat their veggies each night and eat their pellets as well.

 

[missyscove]

Remind me how old they are, how much they weigh and how much you're feeding them, pellets and veggies wise.
I wonder if you cut down on the pellets and veggies if they'd go for the hay.

 

[ldoerr]

The last time they were weighed Beauty weighed 2.6lbs (according to the vet). Shiny Things weighed 3.8lbs (according to the vet). I have not really been measuring their food lately. I just put a bit in their bowls. When Shiny Things was in her E-Collar (for all of 12 hrs) I put a 10oz bowl full of food in her cage. I did this last Saturday. She has just today finished those pellets. For veggies the ammoung they get varries. It is normally at least 1-2 pieces of Romain, 1/4-1/2 bunch of each parsely and cilantro, 1 piece of Kale, and 1 leaf of turnip greens. All that is per rabbit. I put it in before I go to bed and it is gone by the time I wake up the next morning. I give pellets in the morning before class and they are gone by the time I give veggies normally.

I was actually thinking of taking them off the pellets for a day or two to see if they would go for the hay. (that thought crossed my mind while I was typing the original post).

 

[ldoerr]

Forgot. Beauty was born in January of 2011 and Shiny Things was born June 2010.

 

[Imbrium]

you might have to just keep trying hays if cutting back on pellets doesn't work ><

I recently got a variety pack of six different hays (all oxbow brand) from leith petwerks while ordering some stuff for my emergency kit. my bunns were far from excited over most of the grass hays, but have REALLY taken a liking to the oat hay. (the variety pack came with timothy, alfalfa, orchard grass, botanical hay, some meadow mix thing and oat hay)

the oat hay smells and tastes quite different from the other types - it's a little sweet and it's softer than timothy; overall it just seems closer in taste/texture to their beloved alfalfa than the other grass hays do, so I think I might look for a way to buy it in bulk once they've outgrown the alfalfa hay.

if you want, you can PM me your address and I can mail you a little bit of oat hay so you can test it out on beauty

 

[JBun]

I have a bun that loves oat hay too. She doesn't get it anymore though cause I was worried about her getting too many carbs from the oats in it.

 

[missyscove]

It sounds like they're getting a lot of pellets and veggies. For adult rabbits that small (assuming those weights were adult weights since I don't know how recent they are), I would limit them to 1/8 to 1/4 cup of pellets per rabbit per day.
I'm also curious about their body condition (aka are they fat?)
I'm not sure about in rabbits, but I know in dogs their metabolism decreases after a spay which means they require less food to maintain their body condition. That might also be something to keep in mind if they were recently spayed.

 

[ldoerr]

Neither one is fat. Those weights are from a little over a month ago. I do not think that I trust those weights. My vet weighed them in kilograms and in grams, so I had to convert them to lbs. I also think that my vet got the wrong weights for them.