Best hay for Satin rabbits to prevent obesity

Good thinking getting ahead of this — Satin rabbits are prone to weight gain if their diet isn't well balanced, and hay is the single most important lever you have. It should make up around 80% of what your rabbit eats: not as a side option, but as the foundation. Hay keeps the gut moving and keeps teeth properly worn down in a way that pellets simply can't replicate. Pellets should be a small supplement — a tablespoon or two a day at most. So, your rabbit is two years old — are they currently healthy and at a good weight, and what does a typical day of feeding look like right now?

That's a really common pattern — and the pellet bowl is almost certainly why she's not eating much hay. If she can fill up on dense, calorie-rich pellets in one go, she has no reason to graze on hay. At two, she's at the age where this starts to tip into weight gain and dental wear issues without obvious symptoms yet. The fix is to cut pellets back significantly — one to two tablespoons a day for a Satin of average size — and let hunger drive her to the hay. What hay are you currently putting out for her?

That explains a lot. Supermarket hay is often dusty, low-grade, and cut too coarsely — rabbits will avoid it if given the choice. The type of hay matters too: for an adult rabbit focused on weight management, Timothy hay is ideal. It's lower in calories than meadow hay and has a higher fibre content, which is exactly what you want for long-term gut and dental health. I'd recommend Oxbow Western Timothy Hay — it's consistently fresh, fragrant, and cut at the right stage so it's genuinely palatable. Most rabbits who've been ignoring hay suddenly become interested when you switch to it. You can get a large bag on Amazon UK, which works out well cost-wise for daily top-ups.

Hay plus a good variety of leafy greens covers almost everything. The small amount of pellets you keep in — that tablespoon or two — tops up any micronutrients and gives you a easy daily routine anchor. What you want to avoid is relying on pellets for nutrition and treating hay as optional. Flip that relationship: hay is always available and unlimited, greens come in the evening, and pellets are a small daily measure, not a bowl she can eat freely from. For a healthy two-year-old Satin, that setup done consistently now is genuinely the best thing you can do to prevent obesity and dental problems down the line. Oxbow Western Timothy Hay is the one I'd start with — it's the easiest way to get a fussy hay-avoider actually eating it.

Perfect. Reduce the pellets gradually over a week rather than all at once — it avoids any digestive upset and gives her time to shift toward the hay. Within a week or two of switching to the Oxbow, you should notice her grazing on it properly. Keep the hay rack full at all times, and if she's still reluctant, try offering it loose on the floor of her enclosure rather than in a rack — some rabbits just prefer foraging at ground level. You're doing exactly the right thing by sorting this before any problems appear.