Not eating enough

[sabrina92]

Hello everybun!

My bunny Cleopatra recently stopped eating her hay. She has a few bites here and there but she used to eat a lot and now I am concerned. She is still eating the oxbow young rabbits pellets but not the hay. I gave her the oxbow alfalfa hay and then got her oxbow western Timothy hay and mixed them together and at first she seemed to enjoy the hay but now she won’t eat either. I am very worried and wondering what can I do to get her to eat more of the hay.

 

[odyssey~]

Hello everybun!

My bunny Cleopatra recently stopped eating her hay. She has a few bites here and there but she used to eat a lot and now I am concerned. She is still eating the oxbow young rabbits pellets but not the hay. I gave her the oxbow alfalfa hay and then got her oxbow western Timothy hay and mixed them together and at first she seemed to enjoy the hay but now she won’t eat either. I am very worried and wondering what can I do to get her to eat more of the hay.

heyo!

if given the choice, most rabbits would probably choose pellets over hay. how much pellets are you feeding her?
some things to consider- is the hay fresh? how much do you give?

you could add in herbs to the hay and mix it to entice her. 101rabbits has a good video on her channel on how to encourage your rabbit to eat hay as well!

it also could be that she likes the alfalfa better and she's just picking and choosing the alfalfa out. that's what my rabbit did, so I just straight on cold turkey gave her 100% timothy after having her on 50/50 alfalfa/timothy for a while and she was only eating the alfalfa, and it worked.

good luck!

 

[Blue eyes]

What is her age? How much of the pellets does she eat each day? Is she fed anything else too?

 

[sabrina92]

heyo!

if given the choice, most rabbits would probably choose pellets over hay. how much pellets are you feeding her?
some things to consider- is the hay fresh? how much do you give?

you could add in herbs to the hay and mix it to entice her. 101rabbits has a good video on her channel on how to encourage your rabbit to eat hay as well!

it also could be that she likes the alfalfa better and she's just picking and choosing the alfalfa out. that's what my rabbit did, so I just straight on cold turkey gave her 100% timothy after having her on 50/50 alfalfa/timothy for a while and she was only eating the alfalfa, and it worked.

good luck!

I give her 1/4 cup of the pellets, the hay seems fresh and I change it out everyday when I clean her litter box. I just put a couple of handfuls down. She usually eats a lot but it seems after a few days of trying the Timothy hay she was not a huge fan and only went for the pellets. Adding herbs to the mix definitely helped entice her to eat more but it seems like the alfalfa hay is all she wants to eat!

 

[sabrina92]

What is her age? How much of the pellets does she eat each day? Is she fed anything else too?

She is 4 months old and I put 1/4 a cup in her litter box and usually refill it at night depending on how much she had. I give her oxbow alfalfa hay and tried to incorporate the Timothy hay but after two days of trying the Timothy she stopped eating it and only went for the pellets. I also feed her some herbs and started to introduce some veggies. When I separated the Timothy hay and alfalfa she went straight for the alfalfa so my guess is she’s just picky with the hay and just will not eat it unless it’s alfalfa