This is a specific conversation about Rabbit food and hay — getting the diet right — ask about yours and get one honest answer for your exact situation.
inparticular.ai
Dental spurs are a serious flag — they form when teeth aren't wearing evenly, and the fix is more grinding, more often. That means long-stem, coarse hay that actually makes your rabbit work for every mouthful. Hay should be 80% of a rabbit's diet anyway: it's what keeps the gut moving and what keeps the teeth worn down properly. Pellets are a small supplement, not a staple. Before I point you to a specific hay, a couple of quick questions: is your New Zealand Red eating hay at all right now, and has the vet done a dental procedure to file the current spurs, or are you still pre-treatment?
He had the spurs filed last month under anaesthetic. He's eating hay but not loads of it — he seems to prefer his pellets. The vet said we need to cut pellets right back and get him chewing more hay, more consistently.
inparticular.ai
Good — the filing gives you a clean slate to work from. The pellet preference is really common and it's exactly the problem: pellets need almost no chewing, so they don't help the teeth at all. Cutting them back is the right call. What are you currently giving him for hay, and roughly how much pellet are you offering per day?
He's been getting meadow hay from a local pet shop, and probably about a large handful of pellets morning and evening. Maybe too much I suppose.
inparticular.ai
Yes, two large handfuls a day is a lot for a rabbit who needs to be driven toward hay. Drop that to about one level tablespoon once a day — enough that he gets the nutrients but not enough to take the edge off his appetite for hay. On the hay itself: meadow hay is fine but it's softer and shorter-stemmed than what you want here. For a rabbit with a history of dental spurs, you want Timothy hay — specifically first-cut Timothy if you can get it. First-cut is harvested earlier, so it has thicker stems and more seed heads. That coarser texture means more lateral jaw movement, which is exactly the grinding action that wears the molars down evenly and helps prevent spurs reforming. The product I'd go with is Oxbow Western Timothy Hay. It's consistently long-stemmed, smells fresh, and rabbits who are picky about hay tend to eat it well because the aroma is strong enough to get their attention. It's widely available on Amazon UK in 425g and 1.13kg bags — worth going straight for the larger bag given how much you need him eating.
That makes sense. Is there anything else I can do to encourage him to eat more of it rather than just waiting for the pellets to run out?
inparticular.ai
A few things that work well: put hay in multiple spots around his space, not just one rack — rabbits are more likely to graze if it's always within reach. Some owners put a hay rack right next to the litter tray, because rabbits almost always eat while they toilet. You can also mix a small amount of dried herb or a few dried flower petals into the hay at first to make it more interesting, then phase that out once he's in the habit. The key is making hay the only option for most of the day. If the pellet window is small and fixed, he'll shift. Most rabbits do within a week or two.
Really helpful, thank you. I'll order the Oxbow Timothy and cut his pellets back straight away.
inparticular.ai
That's the right move. Give it two to three weeks on the reduced pellets and consistent Timothy hay access before his next vet check — your vet will be able to see whether the chewing pattern is improving. If he's still reluctant after a fortnight, it's worth mentioning to the vet in case there's residual mouth discomfort that's putting him off chewing. But most rabbits come around quickly once the pellets aren't filling them up.
