Feeding Hay for Rabbits

There are all sorts of temptingly tasty feeding hay and dried grass for rabbits to eat and enjoy, and individual bunnies will no doubt have their favourites.

It’s important to feed your bunnies the right type of hay, which means giving them the high-quality feeding variety. Bedding hay, which is only suitable for rabbits to sleep on, is cut later in the season and is less palatable but is a great, snuggly complement to their paper bedding.

Burgess Excel rabbit feeding hay is an excellent choice for your bunnies. It comes in a choice of fully recyclable cardboard boxes or easy-open bags, both of which will keep each batch fresh until it’s all been eaten up. Why not mix and match to see what varieties your buns like best?

• Meadow hay for rabbits:Naturally high in fibre and dust-extracted to protect respiratory health.
• Tasty Timothy hay: Always a favourite with small furries.
• Long stem feeding hay: A perfect part of your rabbits’ diets.
• Sweet-smelling Timothy hay with dandelion and marigold: To aid urinary tract health and help build a healthy immune system.
• Dried fresh grass: Ideal for that time of year when your lawn’s past its best.

Dust extracted means, dust-free hay at the point in the process of removing dust from the field and soil dust, but transport and handling can cause the grass leaves to break resulting in a small amount of grass dust.

Dust-free hay is the best hay for bunnies as it helps them stay healthy and doesn’t irritate their airways. Eating lots of nutritious dust-extracted feeding hay provides all sorts of bunny benefits too:

• Vital fibre: Top-quality feeding hayfor rabbits is an excellent source of fibre and plays a vital part in digestion. Rabbits need to keep their digestive systems busy with a mix of two kinds of fibre (digestible and indigestible) moving through the gut at all times. They get this fibre mainly from high-quality feeding hay.
• Dental health: Munching on delicious hay also keeps continuously growing rabbit teeth in check, thereby helping prevent dental disease.
• Mental wellbeing: Chomping on rabbit feeding hay does wonders for your bunny’s emotional wellbeing. In the wild, rabbits spend around 70% of their time foraging and eating grass and other plants. Being allowed to forage and chewkeeps them physically and emotionally stimulated and enables them to express their natural behaviours.
• Overall health: Feeding plenty of high-quality hay for rabbits, some grass-based nuggetsand a few fresh greens will help your rabbit maintain healthy skin, coat, eyes, teeth and digestion.

Having fresh, irresistibly tasty fresh hay for rabbits each day is an absolute essential and it should make up the bulk of their diet. In fact, around 85-90% of a rabbit‘s diet should be high-quality feeding hay and grazed grass. That’s equal to their own body size in hay every day!

Top-quality feeding hay and grasses for rabbits are an excellent source of fibre, which is really important for buns to be healthy and happy.

Most buns like to play and throw toys around, so incorporating hay as part of play activities is a great way to encourage your rabbits to enjoy their tasty Timothy or meadow hay.

A willow ball or cardboard tube filled with grass hay for rabbits is ideal for batting about. Or try putting a bunch of fresh hay in a sheet of brown paper and tying the ends with a strand of hay to look like a Christmas cracker. Your rabbits will love chucking this around and then ripping it open to get to the feeding hay inside!

Rabbits generally prefer to munch on hay while they’re resting and they also like to ‘poo and chew’, so put a pile of hay in their favourite resting places and hang a hay rack above their litter tray.

Individual bunnies will no doubt have their favourites, so spend some time having fun and finding out their personalities!

While hay should be the main component of your rabbits’ diets, you should also include small amounts of other nutritious foods.

Supplement high-quality feeding hay or grazed grass hay for rabbits (not grass cuttings as these will make your rabbits ill) with a small portion of nuggets. RAWF, the Rabbit Welfare Association & Fund, recommends around one egg cup full of rabbit nuggets.

Look for a variety that’s suitable for your rabbits’ needs and life stage:

• Indoor rabbits can require a specialist diet with added vitamin D.
• Junior rabbits have a higher metabolic rate than adults, so look for a junior rabbit food with a higher protein level.
• If you’ve got some golden oldies, they may benefit from mature rabbit food with added glucosamine to support healthy joints and ginseng for increased vitality.
• If you have rabbits that are prone to weight gain, ingredients such as L-carnitine can help promote lean body mass.

Alongside meadow or Timothy hay for rabbits, your buns will also enjoy chomping on nuggets with tasty natural flavours such as mint, oregano and cranberry, along with hedgerow ingredients such as dandelion, nettle and lemon balm.

Offer the occasional healthy treat and also provide a small handful of rabbit-safe fresh greens, such as broccoli, fennel, parsley and rocket, and plenty of fresh water. Our Excel Feeding Plan will provide your buns with a perfect daily balance of fibre and nutrition.

Subscribe & Save up to 15% on every order of selected Burgess Excel rabbit feeding hay and rabbit food and have your packs delivered straight to your door >>

Unlike cats and dogs, rabbits don’t need to be starved before surgery, so there is no need to withhold their food or water. The PDSA advises taking some of their own food, hay for bunnies and fresh greens to the vets with them.

Burgess are a family-owned independent business based in the heart of Yorkshire. We have a long tradition of supporting British farmers and work with local farmers to source high-quality feeding hay

When you choose fresh hay for rabbits from Burgess you can be sure your buns are getting nutritional, rich, tasty, hay that is grown especially for eating.

Our rabbit food range also includes tasty nuggets, the perfect addition to your bunnies’ diets. Did you know it was Burgess Pet Care that developed the UK’s first single component nugget for rabbits to prevent selective feeding, and the world’s first food specifically formulated for indoor rabbits?

If your buns haven’t tried it yet, we’re sure the Burgess Excel rabbit range will soon become their favourite food! Shop feeding hay and grass for rabbits online today and save up to 15% with Subscribe & Save. Plus, you’ll get free delivery when you spend over £30.

Such is our dedication to rabbits that we established Rabbit Awareness Week (RAW). With the aim of increasing rabbit welfare, RAW brings together hundreds of retailers, vets and charities to promote the right rabbit diet, health and environment, as well as educate rabbit owners on the need for companionship and risks relating to inappropriate housing, space and diet.

Rabbits are one of the most misunderstood animals around and therefore we feel that it’s our duty to look out for them. You’re always welcome to take part and find out more about RAW.