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 isn't just part of a rabbit's diet — it is the diet. It should make up around 80% of what your rabbit eats every single day, not as a nice extra but as the foundation of gut health and the only thing that keeps teeth wearing down the way they should. Pellets are a small supplement at best. GI stasis is often a slow build caused by not enough long-stem fibre, so the fact you're thinking about this now, at two years old, is exactly the right time. How old is your Vienna rabbit, how are they doing health-wise, and what are they currently eating day to day?
She's just turned two, a white Vienna female. She seems healthy — good energy, eating well. She gets a bowl of pellets in the morning, some fresh veg in the evening, and hay is always available but honestly she doesn't eat a huge amount of it. I want to make sure I'm setting her up properly to avoid GI stasis as she gets older.
inparticular.ai
That's a really common pattern — and it's worth addressing now because two is young and habits are still easy to shift. The problem with a morning pellet bowl is that rabbits will fill up on the easy, calorie-dense food and then graze less hay throughout the day. Hay needs to be the thing she reaches for constantly, not the thing she nibbles when the pellets are gone. How much in the way of pellets is she getting each day, roughly? And is the hay you're currently using Timothy or meadow hay, or something else?
She gets probably a small cereal bowl of pellets in the morning. The hay is just whatever was at the pet shop — I think it's a mixed meadow hay but nothing specific. It's fine quality I think, she does eat some of it.
inparticular.ai
The pellet portion is too high for a two-year-old healthy rabbit — you want to bring that down to about one to two tablespoons per kilogram of body weight per day, no more. That reduction alone will naturally push her toward eating more hay. For the hay itself, I'd move her onto Oxbow Western Timothy Hay. It's consistently cut long-stem, low in calcium, and the texture and smell are good enough that most rabbits genuinely prefer eating it over cheaper blends. Long-stem Timothy fibre is specifically what keeps gut motility going and keeps teeth grinding correctly — both of which are your core defence against GI stasis long term. A rabbit eating a solid volume of good Timothy hay every day is doing most of the work for you.
That makes sense. Should I cut the pellets suddenly or do it gradually? And how do I actually know if she's eating enough hay — is there a way to measure it?
inparticular.ai
Reduce the pellets gradually over a week or two — halve them first, then bring them down to the correct amount. It stops her feeling the change too sharply and gives her time to start grazing hay more. For measuring hay intake, the rough guide is that a rabbit should eat a bundle of hay roughly the size of their own body every day. The clearest practical signal is the litter tray — if she's dropping plenty of firm, well-formed droppings consistently, she's eating enough fibre. If the pellets go down and the hay rack empties more quickly, that's the system working. Keep the hay rack full at all times and position it right next to the litter tray if you can — rabbits eat and toilet simultaneously and it dramatically increases hay consumption.
I hadn't heard the litter tray tip before — that's really useful. I'll switch to Oxbow Timothy and start cutting back the pellets this week. Thanks.
inparticular.ai
You're in a good position — she's young, healthy, and you're making the change before there's any problem to fix. Oxbow Western Timothy Hay is widely available on Amazon UK and comes in sizes up to 2.26kg, which is worth getting if she takes to it well. Stick with the hay-beside-the-litter-tray setup, keep pellets as a small daily supplement rather than a meal, and her gut should stay in good shape for years. Good luck with her.
