How much hay do your rabbits eat?

[Loopsy]

Our bunnies are about 11 and a half weeks old so they are on alfalfa hay and unlimited pellets (the pellets are Timothy based as no one here had alfalfa based, and from what I've read as long as they have plenty of alfalfa hay that's fine. Please tell me if you feel differently.) Next week we'll be slowly introducing greens to the, but for now I'm trying to get a feel for how much hay we need. They each weigh just over 3# right now. On Tuesday I'll be getting a 65# bale of alfalfa but I just have no idea how long that will last us and I'm pretty sure I'll need more hay to hold us over until then, too. How much do your rabbits go through?

Oh, and I read that the hay bales are usually a mix of hays and grass but the bale I'm expecting is only alfalfa. Is that okay or should I cut it with something?

Thanks for your help!

 

[OakRidgeRabbits]

Alfalfa is fine for babies, but you will probably want to switch to a grass hay around 6-8 months old. Alfalfa is higher in calcium, which adults don't need quite as much of. However, if you're on a timothy pellet, they may be just fine sticking to alfalfa anyway.

I offer my rabbits a full handful of hay daily. They eat most of that, but there is still some waste.

 

[Korr_and_Sophie]

How many rabbits do you have? A 65 pound bale will last a while with just one rabbit and that is even feeding a lot. If you have 2 or 3 needing alfalfa, then you should be able to use up the bale before they don't need the alfalfa any more. I usually budget about 1 bale per rabbit per year. Some go through more and some less, but that seems about average for my rabbits.

When you know the alfalfa is running low, it could be a good time to get a bale to timothy or other grass hay. Young rabbits only need alfalfa until they are about 6 months old, and after than do better on a grass hay.

 

[Loopsy]

There are two of them. They're brothers, so the same age and roughly the same size.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

You'll probably have some alfalfa left over. Walmart has pellets with the highest content being alfalfa, but if they get alfalfa strait from the bale, that should be more than enough for thier growth requirements. Now, we need to see some pics.

 

[ldoerr]

When I had my rabbitry I would go through 1 bale (over 100lbs) every year. That was with 30 rabbits. I can not imagine 1 rabbit eating anywhere close to 1 bale in a year. The rabbits that I have currently eat barely 1 handful every 2 days between the 2 of them.

 

[mochajoe]

My bunnies have access to hay 24/7. I also have horses and I just grab hay at the barn when I need it....so I am not sure how long a 65# bale will last you. My guess would be well beyond the time when they should be switched a to Timothy or mixed hay.

 

[Loopsy]

Thanks for the feedback! I think I will wait on the bale for now; don't want to end up with a lot of unusable hay and also, wasn't sure where I would store it. This morning I was a little concerned about the expense of hay, since yesterday they emptied their hay rack twice. If they were going to keep going at that rate it would get pretty pricey to keep buying it in smaller amounts. But then today they barely made a dent in it, so maybe they were just really hungry for it yesterday or something.

As for pictures, happy to oblige! ;-)

 

[Blue eyes]

I have observed that bunnies eat much more hay when it is refreshed often. I used to try to wait until it was mostly gone before refilling. But then I discovered that if I put fresh hay in, they tend to just dig right in.

I bought a huge bale last March for my 2 rabbits. I'll be out before the end of this month.

@Idoerr, try putting a new handful in every morning and evening, regardless of whether they still have some left, and see if they don't start eating more.

 

[ldoerr]

Thanks I will try that. Last night I added an aditional hay rack to 1 cage and put a little big of hay in it. It was all gone thismorning while the hay in the other hay rack had not been touched (that hay rack had 3 day old hay in it).