Hay for rabbits

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Blessed with pets

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Hello, so I want to know y’all’s opinion on feeding your herds hay. I’m raising Holland lops for show and I’m not new to raising rabbits but I’m new to raising for show purposes so I’m wondering how hay, specifically Timothy hay, affects the body condition of a rabbit and if y’all feed it or don’t feed it and why. IMG_8804.jpegAnd just a peek at my new project bun Apollo 🤍
 
I go with Illinois grass hay square bales. I don't give my Cali/Rex cross kits alfalfa hay. 16% pellets for everyone, hay and whatever greens I can harvest for them. For a cheap grow I have asparagus beans which they seem to really like. They grow vertically.
 
I don't agree that rabbits always need hay if they are fed an appropriate pellet.

Over my years of raising rabbits I've heard

From the show people: If you feed hay or grass you won't have rabbits in quality condition for showing. It's easiest if you feed a hay free diet to maintain them in peak condition.

From the pet people: If you don't feed hay your rabbits will die!

Hogwash I say to both DEPENDING ON YOUR HERD and how it has adapted to your method of feeding. THIS is the key. Every rabbit herd adapts to how the owner feeds them. I know some herds that are fed beef cow hay and pellets and thrive. Others that are fed calf starter, grains, straw and a bit of pellets and thrive. Some that are fed pellets only ALL the time. And yet others that are fed timothy hay and pellets. And starting more I'm hearing of only fed produce and hay.... but the jury is still out on them as it's fairly new here.

.
My approach: Feed a varied diet. My diet for the rabbits includes occasional hay, mixed grains, pellets, and lots of produce from the grocery store I work at. Don't fuss too much if your hay is ONLY grass hay. Having a mixed grass hay I find it the best option.. as long as you know what the rabbit unfriendly weeds are!!! IN MY HERD.

In my herd hay is used as a "oh, I don't have produce today...here have some hay". "OH, it's the first major snow fall of the year.... have some hay." "oh, this stressful event happened (taken to a show, cleaned the entire rabbitry, neighbour cut down a tree... etc) ... have some hay."

My herd is a mix a show and pet quality rabbits. They move well into most any environment because I deliberately mix it up for them.

I've gotten rabbits from pellet only herds and found it nigh to impossible to help them through transition in my herd if they struggle with the move. I don't want other people having that same struggle.

You need to experiment with your herd to see what works for them. and it might take some time to finetune what you do. But you might just have to work it out in your mind how you want to feed and then keep the rabbits that do well on YOUR system of management. Over the years I've culled out the "I only want produce rabbits" and the "I don't like produce rabbits" and the "my kits get sick if I eat grain rabbits". I want rabbits that thrive on how I choose to feed... since I've seen how adaptable herds can to be how their owners manage them.
 
I don't agree that rabbits always need hay if they are fed an appropriate pellet.

Over my years of raising rabbits I've heard

From the show people: If you feed hay or grass you won't have rabbits in quality condition for showing. It's easiest if you feed a hay free diet to maintain them in peak condition.

From the pet people: If you don't feed hay your rabbits will die!

Hogwash I say to both DEPENDING ON YOUR HERD and how it has adapted to your method of feeding. THIS is the key. Every rabbit herd adapts to how the owner feeds them. I know some herds that are fed beef cow hay and pellets and thrive. Others that are fed calf starter, grains, straw and a bit of pellets and thrive. Some that are fed pellets only ALL the time. And yet others that are fed timothy hay and pellets. And starting more I'm hearing of only fed produce and hay.... but the jury is still out on them as it's fairly new here.

.
My approach: Feed a varied diet. My diet for the rabbits includes occasional hay, mixed grains, pellets, and lots of produce from the grocery store I work at. Don't fuss too much if your hay is ONLY grass hay. Having a mixed grass hay I find it the best option.. as long as you know what the rabbit unfriendly weeds are!!! IN MY HERD.

In my herd hay is used as a "oh, I don't have produce today...here have some hay". "OH, it's the first major snow fall of the year.... have some hay." "oh, this stressful event happened (taken to a show, cleaned the entire rabbitry, neighbour cut down a tree... etc) ... have some hay."

My herd is a mix a show and pet quality rabbits. They move well into most any environment because I deliberately mix it up for them.

I've gotten rabbits from pellet only herds and found it nigh to impossible to help them through transition in my herd if they struggle with the move. I don't want other people having that same struggle.

You need to experiment with your herd to see what works for them. and it might take some time to finetune what you do. But you might just have to work it out in your mind how you want to feed and then keep the rabbits that do well on YOUR system of management. Over the years I've culled out the "I only want produce rabbits" and the "I don't like produce rabbits" and the "my kits get sick if I eat grain rabbits". I want rabbits that thrive on how I choose to feed... since I've seen how adaptable herds can to be how their owners manage them.
Thank you!! And for me some of my rabbits gained condition when I cut out hay and some lost it. So I’m currently in an experiment to see how they do with it. I’m also thinking about switching pellets
 
I want rabbits that thrive on how I choose to feed
Absolutely. Someone on here (I think it was you!) mentioned someone fed their bunnies on corn and they thrived. It's amazing to see.

When I first began my rabbit journey I ran into a plethora of misinfo about rabbits being extremely sensitive dietary wise. And I suppose that's true in a lot of instances but I've also noticed how adaptable they are. Mine are fed food scraps, soak grain, and free-access timothy hay. I also keep a piece of charcoal if they need to nibble on something to help their tummies. They're quite like little goats, aren't they?
 
I see my rabbits nibble on odd stuff now and then, they are pretty good at learning what helps, and what not. Activated charcoal is used to capture toxins in the digestive tract, I would use that if there is an acute problem of that kind (rare), normal charcoal isn't that effective.


Although I feed green forage whenever available I always keep a small rack with fresh hay, in case they have tummy issues.

I think they can even deal with more plant toxins then goats, given the chance to learn it, and they evolved to handle some toxins like that in butterbur and such that are harmful to most mammals - good thing, since those toxins do not break down when dried and hay can be contanimated, making it unsuitable for cows or sheep.
Goats are pretty hardy too though.
 
Here is someone who has experienced both hay and no hay diets explaining their experience

To add to this my experience is similar. I have had rabbits for a little over 15 years and have never fed hay in their every day diet (I’ll feed hay as a treat avenging once every 3-5 months, mostly huts if I need to empty out the can to put fresh stuff in). I have never had problems with GI stasis, tooth problems, and other things people say will happen. Their condition (both when I had Rex and now with my calis). Has been quite nice as well, they do slip coat bad around august more then a normal molt, but we did a little experiment and found out that it was most likely our water quality.

Quality of the pellets, the nutritional balance, and the mounts you feed extremely important, which is something that most people seem to overlook, and I assume this is where the misinformation of ‘pellets make rabbits fat and/or die’ came from.

(Link to picking the right pellets coming soon)
 

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