Rabbits don't really eat hay?

[krjones3]

I have two rabbits, 8 month old lionhead Ernie and 5 month old mini lop Rita.

I also have several guinea pigs, and the guinea pigs are like non stop hay-eating machines, but Ernie and Rita barely touch the hay? I have tried several different types of hay from the cheapest to the most expensive but they just don't eat it...

Any advice?

For info the rest of their daily diet is: 'Burgess Excel Tasty Nuggets Adult Rabbit Food' they get one bowl each per day (around 50g for Rita and 60g for Ernie), and a handful or 2 each of some combination of kale, cabbage, broccoli, basil, bell peppers, pea pods, carrots (once a week or so).

I'm just a bit concerned as they should be eating about 80-90% hay and they're probably eating less than 10% currently.

FYI I have been to the vets recently and asked her opinion - neither rabbit is underweight or overweight and both of their teeth and poops are fine. Rita has a tendency to occasionally not eat her caecals (once a week or so), but the vet assures me this is normal as she's still young and was ill with a respiratory infection when she was younger in the pet shop so her development is a bit delayed.

 

[Watermelons]

Try different hays. Refresh with new hay daily. Maybe they like orchard grass better.
Some of those veggies are a bit gassy for bunnies.
What does 50g work out to in cups? Calories? It sounds like theyre filling up on other things so hay is on the bottom of the list for them.

 

[ladysown]

Some rabbits DON"T LIKE HAY. They don't. That's okay. There are TONS of ways to get long-stem fibre into rabbits...So utilize those. A good quality pellet will do the trick as well.

 

[Blue eyes]

Rabbits are considered adults at around 6 months of age. That means that their diet should be different than it was when they were babies. (Your 5 month old can just about start the transition to an adult diet. The 8 month old can start already.) They are both, however, still young enough that you should be able to get them used to hay. I do not suggest giving up on hay yet.

When I convert cups to grams, it looks like you are feeding double or triple the amount of pellets they should get. Adult rabbits that are 5-7 lbs (average mini lop is 6 lbs or less) should be getting no more than 20 grams of pellets (nuggets) per day. Ernie is already an adult, so he's been getting fed triple that amount. No wonder he's not eating hay!

Once the nuggets are reduced they should start liking the hay more. Be sure to refresh the hay each day - whether or not there is still hay left in the cage from earlier.

 

[Aki]

Some rabbits DON"T LIKE HAY. They don't. That's okay. There are TONS of ways to get long-stem fibre into rabbits...So utilize those. A good quality pellet will do the trick as well.

No offense, but that answer really surprised me. I don't see how you could replace hay with pellets, considering the quantity of hay a rabbit is supposed to eat to get his guts moving and to wear his teeth. I might be wrong but in the long run if you want your rabbit to be healthy I think you can replace part of the hay with grass but that's about it.

About the problem here, the answer is obvious. One rabbit not liking hay might happen, but both of them shows that there is a problem with their diet. Those rabbits are eating too much pellets - that's generally the case in this situation. Not eating cecals is also the sign that their food is too rich. Considering they are about grown up and that they eat vegetables, pellets should only be a supplement. To give you an idea, my 1,3kilo rabbit eats about 100g of vegetables and maybe 10g of pellets a day. If your rabbits don't want to eat their hay, you can take the pellets away completely for a while. Kids who don't eat their veggies, don't get cake. You might also want to introduce new vegetables. You don't have enough leafy greens and cabbage / broccoli are high in oxalic acid and shouldn't be given too often. http://rabbit.org/suggested-vegetables-and-fruits-for-a-rabbit-diet/

 

[ladysown]

unlike many I don't subscribe to the feed them about a tbsp a day of pellets , all the hay they can eat and a mass of veggies daily theory. I think you do people all over the world a disserve when people INSIST that's the only way to feed rabbits.

I believe that rabbits need a fully balanced diet. A GOOD pellet provides long stem fibre, a poor pellet does not. A GOOD pellet provides a balanced diet, again, a poor one does not. The key of course is finding a good pellet and then feeding it appropriately. too many people overfeed the pellets and the rabbit gets fat, but you can't make blanket statements of .. All dwarf rabbits should only eat 1/3 cup pellets daily as some will eat that and thrive, some will eat that and get thin. You need to tailor your feeding to the rabbit. Of my current lot of dwarf rabbits one barely eats 1/3 cup pellets, a small tsp of grain mix and won't touch hay or fresh greens. It gets offered (occasionally now due to continual refusal and my "not going to waste food" mind set) but won't eat it. he's a healthy 5 year old. The others eat between 1/3 and 1/2 cup daily... depending on their activity levels.

Hay is for long stem fibre. Long stem fibre can be found in black oil sunflower seeds, branches, a variety of fresh greens and the like. Hay cubes can also be used.

Hay is NOT a requirement for the longevity of rabbits, but is a useful supplement. If hay were a requirement for long life my 13, 11, 8, year old rabbits would be long dead with over grown teeth. They aren't. If a rabbit can eat.. they wear down their teeth on the food they are given through using them.

Not knowing the weight of the lionhead or the lop we can't truly say if they are getting appropriate amounts of pellets or not. I've seen lionheads that are fully 6 lbs and lops ranging from 3 lbs to 9. a proper lionhead will be 2-3 and proper mini lop 5-8...but I don't know if her's falls into that category.

50 g is about a 1/4 cup, 60 g about 1/3 so they aren't getting too many pellets. they might not be getting enough, depends on their size eh? Don't know.

There are lots of ways to feed rabbits.. many of them good, some questionable.

 

[majorv]

I will have to agree more with ladysown, but then my rabbits aren't 'pet' rabbits either. A good quality pellet has the hay in it. Just look at the ingredients list...the first thing listed should be some type of hay - either timothy or alfalfa.

Given the OP's rabbits ages I still think pellets are important to their growth, especially the younger one. You can keep trying different varieties of hay or grass...many like orchard grass. We had one rabbit that ate very little hay and he was almost 6 years old, but he was on a good quality pellet, and healthy. After getting some fresh timothy hay to give to some of our kits, I gave him some, and he ate it. If you want your rabbits to eat hay just keep trying different things.

 

[Nancy McClelland]

All of ours are rescues and some did not know what hay was. Peter would only eat pellets when we got him, so I cut it down to 2 tablespoons a day. 2 days later he's a hay eating machine--I also use Orchard Grass as I'm very allergic to Timothy.