!HELP! bunnies no longer want hay

[trisho]

Hi all!

So one day, while I was out for the evening, my bunnies had managed to hop up to the top of their cage, where I had their food (treats, pellets, hay) stored and helped themselves to the pellets.

It’s totally my fault for storing the food somewhere accessible to them but I didn’t think they could jump that high up just yet.
And it’s not like I left them starving; I had put plenty of hay in their cage just before I had left.

I ended up having to relocate their food somewhere else that’s not in their enclosure.
The issue is, they no longer go crazy for alfalfa! They only eat it if they hop up and find that there are no other yummy treats.. I know that hay should make up the majority of their diet but ever since this little incident, they haven’t been eating as much.

Help!

I’ve attached a photo of Juno caught in the act.. her sister Ellie was with her just a couple seconds before I took the photo and sensed that she was about to be exposed, therefore jumping off. Juno did not care one bit.

 

[zuppa]

Hi, can you give more info, how old are your rabbits, what food (brand, name, ingredients), what snakes, what kind of hay? Do you only feed alfalfa or grass hay as well? When did it happen, how long they weren't eating, are they pooping as usual?

 

[trisho]

Hi, can you give more info, how old are your rabbits, what food (brand, name, ingredients), what snakes, what kind of hay? Do you only feed alfalfa or grass hay as well? When did it happen, how long they weren't eating, are they pooping as usual?

Bunnies will be 10 weeks old tomorrow.
I’ve been feeding them Oxbow alfalfa hay mixed with grass hay.

I haven’t yet introduced them to their snacks just yet because of their age but it’s the Versele-Laga Nature snack mix. It’s supposedly a medley of natural vegetables that’s available in a nature setting. I got it in the instance that they were old enough to try it out.. I didn’t think they’d get into it so soon !
The pellets are the Oxbow young rabbit food pellets. It has primarily alfalfa pellets in it as well, but i can’t account for the other ingredients.

It happened just 4 days ago. And they’re not completely going on a hunger strike or anything, they’re just reluctantly eating the hay mix I give to them. They‘re not as hyped whenever I refill their bowl and they’re not eating as much as they used to. They still somehow manage to poop a lot though!

 

[zuppa]

Just reduce pellets for a few days, basically leave them on hay and water, as I understand you mix grass hay with alfalfa, actually if they are not underweight you can start decreasing alfalfa and increasing grass hay, they have alfalfa in their pellets and it's not necessary to give extra, and you will have to transfer to grass hays in like 6-8 weeks anyway. What I would do I would just keep them on grass hay and water for a few days, up to one week. But I never feed alfalfa hay my babies, and generally it is not good making big changes in their diet suddenly, so I would probably keep mixing alfalfa and grass hay but would reduce alfalfa, or if you have ready mix maybe just add more grass hay to it.

So lean diet for 4-7 days, unlimited hay (reduced alfalfa) and unlimited water, and they should go back to normal. But again, when you go back to normal, give them reduced portions first couple days.

By the way, how is it going with cecotropes, you see them around sometimes or they eat them all?