feeding hay

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ChaoSS

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Ok, I have just a stupid question here. How am I supposed to feed hay without losing most of it? I've tried putting it in a bowl, it ends up being harder for them to eat, and the babies end up sitting in it and pooping in it. there also isn't enough room in the bowls I have to give them much. When I put it in the floor of the cage, most of it ends up under the cage. This makes it hard to collect p oop for fertilizer, and wastes tons of my hay. I'm assuming I can't reefed them that hay, since they've probably peed all over it.
I'm reluctant to cut holes in the cage a for large j feeders, since I imagine having the same problem with babies pooping in it. What us everyone else doing to avoid wasting so much hay?
 
I don't have a picture of it, but I took some of the left over wire from building my cages and made feeders that I attached to the outside of the cage and the buns just pull the hay through the wire. To fill it i just stuff hay into the top. I will try to get a picture of it tonight. There is still a little that gets wasted as they pull it out, but not as much as if they had full access to it!
 
I'd thought about a hay rack style feeder, but i've read that they end up eating less hay using them. I'm trying to get these guys eating less pellets and more hay, but I take it this hasn't been a problem for you?
 
Sagebrush":1fmwiimi said:
Like ek.blair I use homemade racks for my hay. Chunk likes to sit in his to eat his hay. :roll:
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That looks awesome, I just imagine that the babies would poop in it a lot. I also imagine that there would be a lot of loss of hay with mine. I'm not sure why mine lose so much hay, it can't be just falling down through half inch by one inch hardware cloth so I imagine they are rooting through it.
 
Feeders on the outside lose the least hay. I've also thrown a slice on the top of cages and let them stand up to pull it through the ceiling. Usually with loose hay I'm not concerned about waste. A 50lb bale of organic alfalfa is $10. Now that all my animals are inside I've gone to mostly hay cubes. It's just too annoying to clean hay up off the floor and I have solid bottom cages now instead of wire. Tried some indoor wire bottom cage setups and it just didn't work for us. Got a bunch of high quality marchioro cages on sale and with an extra discount.
 
10 dollars per 50 pound bale is 20 cents per pound. Mine is closer to 10 cents per pound (not organic) but sheen I say they waste a lot I mean I'm guessing at least two thirds of it is going to waste, it's got to be costing me as much as pellets do right now.

I'm looking at other options right now, some is going to compost but that's an awful lot of browns with not enough greens to balance a pile. When I have chickens outside I'll probably recycle the hay into their run and coop, but still, it seems a bit of a waste.
 
I'm used to feeding horses. About 2 bales a day with around half pawed around in and peed and pooped on. We used to put up several hundred bales of alfalfa a year. The rabbits eat and waste miniscule amounts compared to that. 20 bales would last ~60 rabbits close to a year.
 
ChaoSS":wl8qhdl6 said:
I'd thought about a hay rack style feeder, but i've read that they end up eating less hay using them. I'm trying to get these guys eating less pellets and more hay, but I take it this hasn't been a problem for you?
Click to expand...

We have the large 11" hay racks that attach to the outside of the cage - we have one doe who currently is going through an overfilled hay feeder worth of hay every DAY! Our other doe empties hers every other day. They seem to have no trouble getting to it..:D I think that it also gives them something to occupy their time.

For bigger rabbits - we also will take a small handful of hay, bend it in half tightly and then tuck it halfway through an opening in the roof of the cage. Our buck in particular seems to enjoy standing on his hind legs and eating the hay from his "ceiling", and I think it gives him good exercise as well!
 
My does and litters are I'm cages with wooden roofs. My buck, however, seems healthy but sort of despondent at times. I think he's lonely. The previous owners kept them out of cages on the side of the house. This led to a couple of deaths from dogs, but they lived together and were probably happier that way. the ceiling thing could be a great way to give him something to do. Thank you.
 
I just use leftover pieces of wire and build my own racks.
Make them rectangular sizes. Attach to the outside of the cages
with zip ties. When I get the cages the way I want them setup,
then I will use j clips to attach.
My outside hutches, I made racks with all the sides in place.
Basically a box with the top open.
I put them inside the cages and again zip tie to hold in place.

One I just experimented with was a rectanguler piece of wire.
Zip tie the bottom to the cage in 2 places. I have 2 hooks in the
top part. Unhook the 2 hooks, put hay in, and then rehook.
The top part is roughly 1 inch out. So on the cage I have it on,
there is 2 racks. One is a regular box. This is a growout pen.
So now, there is more feeding area.
 
One other question. The alfalfa is a combination of stems and the crushed, almost powdery leaves, I guess. Usually I try to pile that stuff on top of some other hay so they can eat it before it falls through. I don't know if they really eat it though. If I use a feeder outsideof the cage, they won't really get that part. Should I try to pile it in one if the bowls or do they not eat it much? I'm no expert but I'm guessing that that is where a lot of the vitamins and probably protein are at.


Important?
 
ChaoSS":1mht4173 said:
One other question. The alfalfa is a combination of stems and the crushed, almost powdery leaves, I guess. Usually I try to pile that stuff on top of some other hay so they can eat it before it falls through. I don't know if they really eat it though. If I use a feeder outsideof the cage, they won't really get that part. Should I try to pile it in one if the bowls or do they not eat it much? I'm no expert but I'm guessing that that is where a lot of the vitamins and probably protein are at.


Important?
Click to expand...

You're right. Most of the nutrition is in the leafy part of alfalfa. The stems provide fibre and some nutrients. Feeding the leafy parts in a bowl should work.
 
Well, that was an easy experiment. When I got home this morning I put a small amount of hay into the cages, (most of the leafy bits fell through) and then scooped up some of the leafy bits from the ground by the hay bale and stuck them in the bowls. They were much, much more interested in the stuff in the bowls. Guess I should shake the hay out a little bit to separate it before feeding, and then put the stems in a rack and the rest in a bowl. We'll see how that goes, how much waste there is. I think I may need a few more bowls/troughs.
 
That's how some companies make hay cubes. They sweep up the leaves or for timothy cubes the softer, shorter grass bits that fall off the hay and compress it into cubes.
 
I have NOT tried this yet but I liked the idea.

Take a piece of mesh (hardware cloth or whatever) and zip tie or J clip it to the outside of the cage on the bottom only… so it basically forms a 'hinge.' Stuff hay in it and fold it against the cage so that it is pinching the hay against the outside of the cage. Bungee cord across the wire mesh keeps it pushing the hay into the cage.

Seemed easy and simple to me, and keeps the hay where the rabbits can reach it, theoretically.

ETA I can't remember where I saw this, somewhere on this forum maybe? It was during a massive search.
 

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