change diet for recently aquired rabbits

[VanUnamed]

Hello there.
I wanted to get into rabbitry, and bought 1 buck (flemish giant) and 2 does, californian pure breed. 7 months and 5 months respectively. The breeder only feed these animals grains. Mostly oats, barley and sunflowers. I do know that is not the diet of rabbits.
I brought them home, put each in respective cage with water, and hay. the male, got immediately into the hay, the two females were more reluctant to eat. it's been 3 days, now both females also eat the hay, but as they were recently moved and i honestly i am not sure how to transition their diet to the REAL diet they are supposed to do, i give 2 handfuls of oats per day.
How do i transition them to having a bit of oats only occasionally, and not the grains be their main diet? I understand they are stressed of being moved.

thanks!

 

[townchicks]

As long as they are eating the hay, you can offer a quality rabbit pellet now. Stop the oats. A rabbits diet should consist of hay, pellets and some healthy greens, in that order.

 

[Stephine]

You can give a few pellets for the transition, but you can phase them out completely if you’re not breeding. They should mainly eat a good green hay, with a few extra fresh greens and the occasional vegetable piece.

 

[VanUnamed]

thanks, but we do not have pellets here, only grains and hay.

 

[Stephine]

Ah, so just slowly reduce the grains you feed and always provide then with more hay than they can eat. Don’t ever make a rabbit finish their hay, they need to be able to pick and chose. And add in the fresh greens slowly if they aren’t used to those.

 

[VanUnamed]

thank you! I figured that they should never be without hay, what they don't like they simply discard it. I also find grasses and fresh things for them too, and are highly appreciated

 

[Stephine]

Sounds great. You can give them the occasional piece of carrot, cucumber, fruit for a treat and variety. Don’t feed cabbage. But there are lots of great forbes (weeds) out there for them: dandelion, clover, sowthistle, plantain… I should have mentioned this is the recommendation for rabbits that are not used for breeding. If you are breeding yours, they will need some extra nutrition. Not sure what’s best, if you don’t have pellets available, but probably oats, alfalfa, some sunflower seeds would help.

 

[VanUnamed]

I dont understand. they seem to be preferring to starve than to eat their hay. they eat some, but discard 2/3rds of it. I dont have anything else to feed them. I got them because i have hay to feed them.
Is it because they were fed only grains since birth and now they don't get used to their regular diet?
they lost significant amount of weight. I will try to give them straw, but i am out of ideas.

 

[Stephine]

Don’t give them straw, there are not enough nutrients in that. What kind of hay are you feeding them? Timothy hay is very good for them, orchard grass hay is good as well. You can also try oat hay (not straw). See what they eat best. Are they eating their fresh greens eagerly?

 

[HeritageFan]

Does anyone on this thread have any thoughts/ suggestions as to how to keep the rabbits from wasting their hay?

I’m not sure what to suggest for the OP without having the ability to get rabbit specific pellets (Purina Pro Rabbit “grain”).
Our rabbits love their Timothy hay.
My friends’ rabbits will only eat oats hay (again, not straw)
But we also both breed, and offer hay as much as 100% in front of them as possible, plus measured pellets daily (less in the summer heat, more in the winter cold)

But the hay waste is an applicable question to this thread, I think
Not trying to hijack the thread. Just trying to (learn as well as) help!

I have slow feeders on the side of hutches, and also always offer some “free” hay inside when I re fill the slow feeders, usually 2x daily.
Pellets daily as I mentioned, not many other treats offered here at all.
I just hate allllll the wasted hay that’s hard to find and very expensive around here :/

I can buy 3-4 (2 string) bales of local grass hay for my horses for the same cost as 1 (3 string) bale of Timothy for the rabbits
The oat hay is a little more affordable- but my rabbits have better body condition and poo w the Timothy and pellets ...