How can i get my bunny to eat more hay ? : Natural Feeding for Rabbits

My bun jasmine , has not eaten much hay today , and her poops are getting tiny .
I was wondering how to get her to eat more hay , she has a kit by the way..

How would i get her to eat more ?

__________ Wed Jun 17, 2020 8:05 pm __________

I mix timothy , oat and alfalfa together along with herbs .
Is that okay ?

It sounds like you are doing OK, it's a good mix. I've seen some other posts of yours talking about your bunnies, and I can tell you are worried. Does she have other foods besides hay?

Zass wrote:It sounds like you are doing OK, it's a good mix. I've seen some other posts of yours talking about your bunnies, and I can tell you are worried. Does she have other foods besides hay?

Yes , pellets , oats , veg and forage .

Unless your doe is nursing, you can cut back pellets, oats, and veggies to amounts that can be considered as just treats. Forage IMHO is actually the better, fresher version of hay, whenever feasable mine get mostly that, and eat little hay.

Preitler wrote:Unless your doe is nursing, you can cut back pellets, oats, and veggies to amounts that can be considered as just treats. Forage IMHO is actually the better, fresher version of hay, whenever feasable mine get mostly that, and eat little hay.

She does eat most the forage , but her poops are also tiny , and mainly cecotrobes every time i feed pellets ..

If you think there's something wrong, see a vet. With the information you give we here can not tell if something is wrong, or what. There might be an issue, or everything could be perfectly ok.

How much of what exactly do you feed, what forage, how much does she actually eat, what size is that rabbit, is she skinny or plump, how is the living situation and history? Even with all that information all we can do is guessing.

Smaller than usual poops is a surefire sign of some amount of gi slowdown, and she is right in thinking the bun needs to eat more to keep her systems moving.

I would definitely pay attention to what she does eat, and give her more of that for now.

Preitler wrote:If you think there's something wrong, see a vet. With the information you give we here can not tell if something is wrong, or what. There might be an issue, or everything could be perfectly ok.

How much of what exactly do you feed, what forage, how much does she actually eat, what size is that rabbit, is she skinny or plump, how is the living situation and history? Even with all that information all we can do is guessing.

I feed her :
60-80g of forage , 15% flowers 20% grass 20% dandilion 20% clover and 15% other plants.
She's skinny , around 3 pound , supposed to be 4-7pound.
She lives in my dining room right now .
I don't know her history she's from P@H.

Hm, that's just a handful. I free feed that stuff, at least min. 1kg per rabbit and day, and they get 6-12 hours garden time to graze additionally. Of course they don't eat all of it, rabbits are selective, a lot of what I bring home ends on the compost pile. But they wouldn't eat all even if I gave them less. There should be so much food that they can pick what they want, and still get full.

She always has a full hay rack, right? And gets pellets and other stuff?

Oh yeah oh course
Also i think she may have liver disease.. what should i do?

See a vet.

What kind of liver disease, and what makes you think she has it?

Use the search term "allium" here, and start reading some pages of results.

Preitler wrote:See a vet.

What kind of liver disease, and what makes you think she has it?

Use the search term "allium" here, and start reading some pages of results.

Okay .

Shes showing all the signs of it , hepatic lipidosis.

https://burgesspetcare.com/blog/post.ph ... 20problems.

Like , loss of weight , anorexia ( shes not eating hay ) , poops small , dehydration and lethargy.

Is she eating other foods besides hay? Will she eat plain old fashioned oatmeal? If so, I wouldn't worry so much about the hay, and give her more of the foods she will eat. If it's a fatty liver issue, she needs glucose anyway, and not as much the long fiber right now.

Zass wrote:Is she eating other foods besides hay? Will she eat plain old fashioned oatmeal? If so, I wouldn't worry so much about the hay, and give her more of the foods she will eat. If it's a fatty liver issue, she needs glucose anyway, and not as much the long fiber right now.

Okay , she will eat oats .

Not all breeds will meet the weight they are supposed to be. You can't go by just weight. Can you easily feel your bunny's back bones? There should be a layer of flesh on their bones, but not too much. Some bunnies will have bony hips that stick out even when they're at their proper weight, but you shouldn't feel much of a bumpy spine or individual ribs.

Bunnies eat pretty low on the food chain. Grasses and leaves instead of fruits and grains, although they can have a small amount of fruits and grains, it just shouldn't be the majority of their food. For our bunnies, they can eat as much hay or grasses as they want and a lot of other folks do the same type of feeding. A lot of folks will have a hay rack they can always nibble from if they want. We have trouble with hay (note: it's hay and not straw, there's a difference) mildewing because we have a lot of humidity so the bunnies get fresh forage (grasses, ti leaves, mulberry leaves) since we have fresh forage all year. The bunnies here sometimes get alfalfa cubes (the big ones) as edible chew toys so that gives them entertainment with their food. They also get mulberry twigs and branches to chew on. There's a whole variety of trees they can eat so look around and see what you have that is bunny edible in your area. If you're getting forages, just make sure they're from an area that hasn't been sprayed with pesticides.