Pigs refusing to eat out of hay bin?

MichelleM

MichelleM

Junior Guinea Pig
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I have the Xtra Large Living Worlds rabbit hutch that I use for Ganon and Dibbler, and it has a hay bin attached to the side. They used to have no problem eating out of it, but lately they've absolutely refused to. They'll nibble at it occasionally, but mostly they just won't eat hay unless I put it directly in the cage for them. Putting it directly in the cage doesn't work for me because it creates a huge mess on the floor around the cage, inside the cage as it gets trailed everywhere (I use fleece so hay being everywhere means the pigs don't have anywhere soft to lay down), it makes cleaning the cage a huge pain, and it wastes so. much. hay. Now when I clean I end up with one or two shopping bags just full of hay, and not just the crunchy stalks, but soft totally edible hay.

What can I do to encourage them to eat out of the hay bin again? I've considered just not putting any hay in the cage directly at all to show them the bin is the only place it's coming from, but that resulted in a full day where they barely ate any hay at all and I'm worried about unintentionally starving them. Am I overreacting? Will they eventually just eat from the bin if I keep that as the only place hay is available?

They still get pellets every morning and veggies every night, so hay is by no means the only source of food they receive in the day, but I also don't want to mess with their digestion if they're not going to eat it.

Thanks!
 
Have you changed the hay, will they eat the same hay when put in front of them? Need to find out if it hay or location. Has the hay been been washed with anything that might give off an unpleasent smell to them? Changed disinfectant possibly?

I would first find out if it the hay or the location causing issue and address from there

The danger of them not eating hay is teeth issues, believe me you don't want that :( Hay is the most important part of their diet

You could use a plastic tray and put hay on this?
 
They'll definitely eat it if I put the hay from the bin in front of them, no problems eating it, they just don't want it while it's in the bin. Nothing new in how I'm cleaning the bin either, light washing and thorough thorough rinsing/drying.

I've tried switching around where the bin is in the cage, but this didn't change anything. I'm wondering if they're just having trouble these days getting it through the horizontal bars of their cage. I'd like to avoid putting a plastic container in the cage itself unless there's one I can suspend from the cage bars like this one. I don't have the room in my apartment for a larger cage and don't want to reduce the space they already have by adding something else to the floor.
 
None of my piggies like the hay rack, i use a kitten litter tray lined with newspaper.
 
Hay in a rack gets ignored. I use lined seed trays to for them to sit in (and pee in), but any shallow plastic tray they can easily jump in and out will. That keeps any mess down quite a bit! You can place the tray underneath the rack; that can do the trick. You will still have to do the daily quick clean, but it is much more easily done.

Hay should make over 80% of the daily food intake. If your piggies are not eating as much, please switch from the weekly weigh-in to a daily one at the same time to monitor them closely. It is the fibre in the hay and grass that keeps the guts steady and is key to logevity; it is the silica in the hay that keeps the crucial back teeth ground down - piggies have evolved on eating mostly dry grass with berries and other greens thrown in as a happy windfall if they come across them.
The Importance Of Weighing - Ideal Weight / Overweight / Underweight
Long Term Balanced General And Special Needs Guinea Pig Diets

Please also make sure that it is not any hot weather that is the appetite killer.
Hot Weather Management And Heat Strokes
 
@Wiebke, respectfully, I know all this already. But I need a solution to my problem, I don't have room in the cage to add an extra bin/tray on the floor. I need a way to encourage them to eat from the bin. They eat plenty of hay but keeping it directly in the cage is not an option.
 
MichelleM said:
@Wiebke, respectfully, I know all this already. But I need a solution to my problem, I don't have room in the cage to add an extra bin/tray on the floor. I need a way to encourage them to eat from the bin. They eat plenty of hay, there is no change in how much they eat, just that they'll only eat the hay I put directly in the cage when they used to be just fine eating out of the bin. Now suddenly they won't eat it from there but keeping it directly in the cage is not an option.
Click to expand...
 
MichelleM said:
@Wiebke, respectfully, I know all this already. But I need a solution to my problem, I don't have room in the cage to add an extra bin/tray on the floor. I need a way to encourage them to eat from the bin. They eat plenty of hay but keeping it directly in the cage is not an option.
Click to expand...

Have you tried a variety of hays to perk their interest or the creation of a mezzanine in their cage for a hay loft, which you can do even in a small traditional cage with a little ingenuity?
 
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