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
Hay needs to make up around 80% of your rabbit's diet — not as a rough guideline, but as a non-negotiable foundation. It keeps the gut moving and wears the teeth down naturally; without it, both systems start to fail quietly. Pellets are a small supplement on top, not the main event. The fact that you're living with an asthmatic housemate changes which hay you should be buying, so that's a very practical thing to get right. How old is your Miniature Satin, is she in good health, and what are you currently feeding her?
She's two years old, seems perfectly healthy, good weight. Right now I'm buying a supermarket own-brand bag of hay but it's really dusty and my housemate has been struggling. I want to switch to something dust-extracted but I don't really know what that means or whether it's actually better for the rabbit too.
inparticular.ai
Good — a healthy two-year-old Miniature Satin is exactly the easiest situation to work with. Dust-extracted hay is genuinely better for both of them. The process uses air or vibration to remove the fine particles and spores that cause the respiratory irritation. For your housemate, it dramatically reduces airborne allergens. For your rabbit, those same fine particles can irritate her own respiratory tract and eyes over time, so it's a straightforward upgrade all round. Can I ask: where does she live in the flat — is the hay being opened and topped up in a shared living space, or in a more contained room?
She's in the living room, so yes, right in the main shared space. The hay gets topped up twice a day so it's quite a regular source of dust.
inparticular.ai
That's the worst case scenario for dust, so switching matters more here than it would in a separate room. My recommendation is Burgess Excel Feeding Hay with Chamomile. It's a proper dust-extracted Timothy-based hay, so it ticks every box nutritionally for an adult rabbit — high fibre, the right texture for dental wear, no added junk. The chamomile is a mild addition that most rabbits seem to enjoy. It comes in a large resealable bag, which also helps contain loose particles between top-ups. For a Miniature Satin at maintenance you'd be going through roughly a large carrier bag volume per week, so a 2kg bag will last you around that long. It's widely available on Amazon UK and competitively priced for a dust-extracted product.
That sounds ideal. Should I be doing anything else differently — like storing it somewhere specific to cut down on the dust even more?
inparticular.ai
Yes — store the bag in a large airtight container or zip-seal bag rather than rolling the top down and leaving it open. Top up her hay rack using a scoop or tongs rather than grabbing handfuls, which throws particles into the air. If you can, do the top-up near an open window or with the extractor fan running. None of this is complicated, but combined with the switch to dust-extracted hay it should make a real difference to your housemate's symptoms. The rabbit will benefit too.
Perfect, really helpful. I'll order the Burgess Excel today.
inparticular.ai
Good call. Stick with unlimited hay as the base, keep pellets to no more than a tablespoon a day for her size, and she'll be in great shape. If the chamomile variety is ever out of stock, the plain Burgess Excel Timothy Hay is an identical product nutritionally — just without the herb mix.
