Hay diet for senior Dutch Lop — vet review

Your vet is right to flag this — at nine years old, a Dutch Lop's digestive system and teeth need more support than ever, and hay is where that support comes from. Hay should make up around 80% of your rabbit's diet: it keeps the gut moving, prevents stasis, and the constant chewing action is what wears the teeth down naturally. Pellets should be a small daily supplement, not the main event. To point you in the right direction, can you tell me what hay you're currently giving, roughly how much, and whether your vet flagged anything specific — weight, teeth, digestion?

That half-and-half split is almost certainly contributing to both issues. Pellets are calorie-dense but don't provide the sustained chewing that keeps teeth level — only long-strand hay does that. At nine, with uneven teeth and slight weight loss, I'd shift her to almost entirely hay immediately and bring pellets right down to a tablespoon a day at most. The other thing worth knowing: meadow hay is fine, but it varies a lot in quality and strand length. For a senior rabbit with dental concerns, a consistent, high-fibre hay with long strands is better. Can I ask — is she eating the hay readily, or leaving it?

That's very common and it's exactly the habit you need to break, gently. The trick is to reduce pellets so hunger nudges her toward the hay — rabbits aren't fussy by nature, pellets have just trained her to be. For a nine-year-old with dental concerns, I'd recommend switching to Oxbow Western Timothy Hay. It's consistently long-strand, very low dust, and has good fibre content — exactly what an older rabbit needs to keep teeth grinding correctly and gut transit steady. It's reliably available on Amazon UK and it's what many rabbit-savvy vets suggest as a baseline hay. Put it fresh in her space two or three times a day so it's always tempting, and cut pellets to that small daily measure. Within a week or two she should be eating more hay simply because it's what's available.

It sounds counterintuitive because hay isn't calorie-dense, but yes — fixing the diet often stabilises weight in older rabbits because better gut function means better nutrient absorption. The weight loss is more likely linked to the dental unevenness affecting how well she chews and processes food than to a lack of pellets. More hay, better chewing motion, more even teeth wear over time — it's a slow process but it works. That said, keep your vet informed. If she loses more weight over the next four to six weeks despite the hay increase, that warrants a follow-up check rather than just a diet tweak. The dietary change is the right first step, but at nine, it's worth keeping a close eye on her.

Good plan. Reduce the pellets gradually over about a week rather than all at once — it's easier on her digestively and behaviourally. Keep the hay topped up frequently so it always smells fresh, and if she turns her nose up initially, try a small handful of fresh herbs like flat-leaf parsley alongside the hay to make the area more appealing. You're doing the right thing by acting on the vet's advice now — catching this at nine with no major diagnosis is a good position to be in.