Switching to orchard grass hay

[Cati]

I have a rabbit coming on 7 months here soon, and I have been trying -- somewhat unsuccessfully -- to switch him from alfalfa hay to orchard grass hay. Any advice?

Rune was eating Viking Farmer's alfalfa, and I've been slowly adding Small Pets Select orchard grass hay to his alfalfa with middling success. He will eat a little, but he mostly just throws it around in favor of getting to the alfalfa. I've also tried mixing it in with his pellets and vegetables -- still mostly just throwing it around.

I've recently tried removing all of the alfalfa, but I got a bit worried because he wasn't compensating by eating more orchard grass hay, only whatever pellets and vegetables I gave him, which was much less food. Any tips? Do I just need to tough it out by giving him only the new hay and wait for him to get hungry?

I would like him to go orchard grass over something like timothy because of family allergy issues. He actually used to eat orchard grass before I got him, but I switched to alfalfa because he was a young bun. That was probably a mistake, haha.

 

[Watermelons]

This is exactly why we recommend people dont feed alfalfa hay at all. Oops!

How much are you giving him for pellets?
I might be inclined to cut him off the alfalfa cold turkey but you will need to make sure he continues to eat other stuff and not mostly pellets.
You can also try other types of grass hay. Oat, bermuda, etc.

 

[JBun]

I really wish pet rabbit websites would stop suggesting to new rabbit owners, to feed their baby/young rabbits alfalfa hay. It's unnecessary when feeding an alfalfa based pellet, and just causes problems like this.

If cold turky doesn't get him eating grass hay, and trying different types of grass hay doesn't work, you may just need to do a gradual reduction and transition to the grass hay. So always have plenty grass hay in there, then you would feed slightly less alfalfa each day, gradually reducing the amount over several weeks, until you're completely switched over. It may help to mix it with the grass hay. It's worth trying it. Or keep separate if it doesn't seem to matter.

 

[Cati]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I got more alfalfa today, so I'm going to try to mix it more thoroughly with his other hay and food and see what happens. If that doesn't work, I will look into other hays, I guess my horse will enjoy the orchard grass if Rune won't eat it.

 

[Cati]

Made some progress with this -- I've tried to switch over to the alfalfa more slowly and been mixing it in more thoroughly, and he's doing a much better job at eating the orchard grass hay.

The only problem is, when I let him out of the cage, he immediately runs over to the box of alfalfa and acts frantic. He knocks down everything that is stacked on top of the alfalfa box and chews and scratches at the box until he can get in. It's not *really* an issue, but he seems a bit worked up about it and I feel bad.

 

[JBun]

Could you move the box of alfalfa to somewhere else where he can't smell it?

 

[Cati]

Could you move the box of alfalfa to somewhere else where he can't smell it?

I didn't think about that! Yeah, I can move it somewhere else, should be less of a problem since he's eating so much less of it.

 

[Cati]

Hey all, it's been a bit. Rune is still being pretty stubborn about the orchard grass hay and will only reliably eat it when I mix it with alfalfa.

Today I decided to try oat hay, and it's been a huge hit! But I want to double-check, is oat hay a good choice as his regular hay? Does it contain the nutrients he needs?

 

[Fairy Trail Rabbitry]

Hey all, it's been a bit. Rune is still being pretty stubborn about the orchard grass hay and will only reliably eat it when I mix it with alfalfa.

Today I decided to try oat hay, and it's been a huge hit! But I want to double-check, is oat hay a good choice as his regular hay? Does it contain the nutrients he needs?

That is awesome that you got Rune to eat something other than alfalfa! Buns can be such picky eaters and alfalfa is particularly hard to wean them off of so congratulations!! Fiber, Protein, and Calcium wise Oat hay is very similar to Timothy so it should be good (definitely better than alfalfa for adult buns). Plus Oat hay is commonly used by families that are allergic to Timothy and especially for buns that are picky eaters since they seem to enjoy the taste of it. The only thing to watch out for is if he only eats the oat head parts and not the stems since those can be higher in fat, and in that case you may want to try mixing in a little orchard. However, in general if he seems to be thriving on it and has healthy stools and everything then I wouldn't worry too much! The most important thing is that he is eating a lot of hay and keeping his gut moving and that is always easier when they enjoy the hay so if oat hay is something he likes then I would recommend continuing to feed that to him ❤

 

[Nancy McClelland]

Peter only got orchard grass, so, on the second day he ate it without problem--tried transition/mixing with a couple of others before and all they ate was the alfalfa. Going "cold turkey" seemed to work best for us. Our really big girl Serena did not seem to mind the switch at all--rabbits can be really confusing at times, but consistency seems to work best.