hay portioning

[PickleTheBunny]

I have a decent variety of hay stocked in my room for Pickle to try out, but since there’s a ton i’m wondering if this much would be healthy for Pickle. So far I have alfalfa, oat, western timothy, grass orchard and the average plain timothy. Though the majority of his hay is alfalfa because he’s still a fairly young bunny.

The main thing i’m confused about is if it’s okay to be giving Pickle all these new hays. He seems to be completely healthy and happy but I still wanted to check if this is perfectly safe for him. If so I would also like to know how much of each hay I should be putting in his big hay stack a day.

 

[PickleTheBunny]

I haven’t given him any of the oat hay yet

 

[Blue eyes]

Since he is about 5 months of age, he can still eat limited alfalfa hay. If you offer any alfalfa hay, be sure it is mixed with other grass hays. By 6 months, he should not get any more alfalfa hay (except, perhaps, for the occasional treat). Now is a good time to start decreasing the portion of alfalfa hay and increasing the portion of any of the other hays.

A general guideline is that a rabbit should be eating his body size in hay every day. If he eats more, that is perfectly fine too (not alfalfa). Refreshing the hay throughout the day (2 or 3 times per day) is a good way to encourage hay eating. But do add hay at least once per day. There is something about adding more that encourages them to eat it.

 

[PickleTheBunny]

What is Pickle's age?

He’s about 5 months and a half

 

[Blue eyes]

He’s about 5 months and a half

Thanks. While you were responding, I looked back at prior posts and figured that out. I altered my post above to answer your question based on his age.

 

[PickleTheBunny]

Since he is about 5 months of age, he can still eat limited alfalfa hay. If you offer any alfalfa hay, be sure it is mixed with other grass hays. By 6 months, he should not get any more alfalfa hay (except, perhaps, for the occasional treat). Now is a good time to start decreasing the portion of alfalfa hay and increasing the portion of any of the other hays.

A general guideline is that a rabbit should be eating his body size in hay every day. If he eats more, that is perfectly fine too (not alfalfa). Refreshing the hay throughout the day (2 or 3 times per day) is a good way to encourage hay eating. But do add hay at least once per day. There is something about adding more that encourages them to eat it.

Thanks for the response! This helped me out quite a bit, i’ll start decreasing the alfalfa now so he won’t be having any regularly by the time he turns 6 months.

 

[JBun]

The only grass hay that could possibly cause some digestive issues(mushy poop) is the oat hay, if it has mature seed heads in it with oats. The carbs would be the possible issue if too much is consumed suddenly by your bun. So if it has mature seed heads in it, I would suggest starting out feeding small amounts as a treat hay, and see how your bun does with it. For obvious reasons(the oats), most rabbits love oat hay.