I\'m the proud owner of a 10 week old mini lop and was just wondering what the best way would be to present the Timothy Hay Alfalfa to him. Right now I have it in a bin and he does eat it, but I\'m afraid he\'s not eating enough. Should I put some in with his regular food?
Help!
:-)
Beanbunny,
By regular food do you mean pellets? If you look at the ingredients listed on the side of bag of the pellets it should state that Alfalfa is one of the ingredients. If this is the case, I don\'t think that you need to add more. Besides, your bunny will not necessarily eat more Timothy and Alfalfa mixed hay it even if you put some in it\'s bowl. Just keeping the bin full at all times should be sufficient.
What I do sometimes if my buns arent eating their hay is put a batch of it right in their litter box, in a corner they dont use. This gives them something to chomp on while they\'re in the box...plus also gets them to use the box more often.
If you are feeding an alfalfa based pellet, you should not be feeding more alfalfa as it is high in calcium and can cause a sludge to accumulate in their kidneys and bladder. Excess calcium is the white stuff you scrape off your cages or litterboxes when you clean. A good grass hay like timothy, orchard grass, prairie grass, oat hay, or even straw is a good choice to feed your rabbits. You just want them to have alot of fiber without adding alot of unnecessary nutrients. How much they eat is up to them. Don\'t worry so much about it. If you offer it and they nibble it, then you are both doing your part. Some of the rabbits in my barn clean out their hay racks every night and others will nibble at the same rack full throughout the week. Let them decide what they want and how much.
i use timothy hay for the litter in the litter box since rabbits eat where they go....that way she gets all she wants and she eats around the wet hay...
as for alfalfa i would only recomment as the bag says on the directions one small handful a day....
your rabbits stomach is only as big as its paw...
or a small toddlers fist...
the pellets actually have all they need besides the timothy hay...alfalfa , apples, carrots, lettuce, etc are just extra treats however i would also recommend daily getting a small handful of dandelion leaves for bunny...this helps in food digestion and keeps them from getting constipated but also does not give them diarrhea
wave of fire