# Hay waste help



## Treewhisper (Nov 24, 2010)

I have tried all sorts of ways to prevent all the hay i put in their cages ending up in the manure trays. I tried stuffing boxes, fashioning small wire hay cages, hay racks but a good 50% of all the hay i put in ends up falling through to the floor. 

Anyone found a good way to conserve hay???


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## CasieD (Oct 27, 2010)

I like to use the small wire suet feeders for hay in my cages. They just pull it out as they eat it. Not much waste except for one doe who always plays with hers no matter what I do.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

what kind of hay are you feeding, if it has alot of brittle leafy parts that can break and fall thru leaveing the long stems then yes there will be alot of waist from that, a wire basket is generally the best though to keep it all togather and still let them eat


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

I have goats who waste lots of hay so I guess I don't notice much waste with my rabbits. This time of year the wasted hay is better for more insulation against the cold too since mine are in outside hutches.


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## Treewhisper (Nov 24, 2010)

i have timothy hay


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

I'm with Backforty - I have horses and so the amount of hay the rabbits use is minuscule.

I would think if you have 50% falling through the floor, you've got "fine" hay. When I use grass hay, I have to be careful because it will build up a layer on the bottom of the cages (not fall through) and then nothing else will fall through either. OK for the winter as those caged rabbits can end up with a very snug pen. I wasn't using any type of feeder - just tossing in a handful of hay so it was on the floor to begin with. 

For my big pens I have baskets and cram them full of hay. They are made for goats so the rabbits could pull out lots if they wanted to. Unless they are nesting, I see very little hay on the pen floor - they pull an inch or two out and eat, then pull a bit more and eat that. 

If your rabbits are pulling a lot of hay out of the feeder, I don't they aren't doing it to eat it. Maybe they are bored and have taken to playing with the hay. I had one buck that liked the clicking noise of the nipple on the water bottle. 

Though I don't have this with the rabbits, my horses will get real picky and dig through the hay for the choicer bits (I have some alfalfa mix) and make a mess of the rest. I feed them large rounds though. They do this when they aren't really hungry. By the end of the week when the bale is almost gone, they'll be cleaning up a lot of what they discarded when they felt they could be picky.


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## susieM (Apr 23, 2006)

make compost out of it....no waste


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## Treewhisper (Nov 24, 2010)

I had never thought of them pulling it out to play with it. Not sure if timothy is a "fine" hay but everything does go into the compost. It all gets used somehow


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## Guest (Feb 13, 2011)

Switch to hay cubes. Can't fall through the wire until the cube is literally the size of the wire space. Cubes are more expensive to buy, but there is little to no waste.


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

I feed Alfalfa and was getting frustrated that all the best leafy goodness just simply could not be contained.

I'm experimenting right now with a smallish rubbermade tub with a metal wine glass rack attached to the top. The bars are spaced so that they are just about the right width for adult rabbits to reach their head in, but too wide for them to sit comfortably on top, so it works kind of like a creep feeder or something I guess.

Obviously, it wouldn't work well for does with litters, and I'm not sure how I am going to translate this to individual cages if it works. The larger feeder is currently being used in the colony. :/


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## SaratogaNZW (Feb 10, 2009)

I feed alfalfa hay, with lots of the best stuff is a fine leaf that falls through. So, I put the hay in a hayrack, and put one of the standard 12"x12" foot boards under it. The momma pulls out big pieces, and the small stuff falls onto the board. Babies come and gobble it up! Some that I have that were raised like that still prefer a treat of a handful of fine alfalfa leaf on their footboard over an apple slice or scoop of calf mana.


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## notasnowballs (Dec 28, 2010)

Well I Googled, looking for an answer to the wasting hay question. What I am doing currently, is scooping up the hay that falls out underneath and that goes in my chicken pen and in my garden and compost. "Sometimes" my pig will get some. I'm a little wierded out by them eating hay that might be having poop in it, though. I try to use everything twice but I eat those pigs. Garbage in, garbage out.


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## Dead Rabbit (Oct 30, 2010)

they arent hungry enough. cut back on your feeding. a hungry aniimal is a healthy animal. if hungry they will eat it and not waste so much.


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## arnie (Apr 26, 2012)

in order to conserve hay you have to only give em a little more than they can eat in a few mins. they will sit on or play with . other wise a hay feeder attached to the outside where they have to pull the hay through the wire .it gets complcated to fix an old fachioned v-shaped hay feeder with a trough underneath to catch the broken leaves as its pulled through the wire.


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