The Importance of Timothy Hay for Your Rabbits Whether you’ve just got a pair of rabbits, or your warren is rather on the large size, you’ll need plenty of Timothy Hay in your home. Although there are still a few retailers that sell muesli as pet food, this is not the right food for your rabbit. It simply doesn’t have the nutrients that rabbits need. More than that, it can be downright bad for your pets to snack on as it severely disrupts healthy digestive processes. However, Timothy Hay is one of those things that rabbits simply cannot have too much of. It’s filled with all the fibre that your pets need for optimum health – and they love it too. And that’s a bonus because rabbits have a special digestive system that’s completely driven by their need for fibre.
The Digestive Systems of Fibrevores Your rabbits are part of a special group of animals known as fibrevores. This group of pets includes rabbits, chinchillas and guinea pigs. Fibrevores are vegetarians, and their bodies cannot handle animal products when it comes to digestion. But, more than that, they need a great deal more fibre than you can imagine. Hence, the name and hence the need for so a great deal of Timothy Hay. Timothy Hay doesn’t just contain fibre. It contains a lot of fibre. And, it has both digestible and indigestible fibre. That’s important because rabbits need both types. Offering them a food rich in either digestible or indigestible fibre will lead to problems as both are absolutely essential for proper digestive health. That’s because rabbits have a very special digestive system which is almost complete designed around digesting and extracting nutrients from fibre. Although it may seem as though rabbits (or any animal, for that matter) would need something called indigestible fibre, little could be further from the truth. This is where proper rabbit digestion may actually begin. That’s because indigestible fibre passes through the stomach and intestines without breaking down. Instead, it stimulates the development of healthy enzymes throughout the digestive process. It also ensures that everything keeps moving through the body. That’s important when there is such an intricate digestive process at work. Digestible fibre, on the other hand, doesn’t just whisk its way through the body the way indigestible fibre does. In fact, it doesn’t even follow the same path as indigestible fibre. It travels on a route all of its own. After food becomes partially digested in the stomach, the digestible fibre that a rabbit consumes makes a special journey, rather than passing directly through the intestines the way waste products do. That’s because it is really rather difficult to extract all the nutrition that’s needed from Timothy Hay. So, from the stomach, digestible fibre moves into a special, appendix-like organ called the caecum. In this appendix, fibre is fermented until it is much easier for fibrevores to digest. However, because this fibre has already passed through the stomach (which is like the control centre that moves nutrients around the body), it’s now got to leave the body. In order to get to all the good nutrients, rabbits then excrete the fermented fibre in the form of sticky balls (not to be confused with
waste products). In this form, the balls of fibre are known as caecotrophs. Rabbits must eat these caecotrophs in order to extract all the fibre that they need. With such a delicate digestive process, it’s easy to see why rabbits cannot stomach muesli and instead require a great deal of Timothy Hay. But, although it is primarily required as a nutritional source, Timothy Hay has a number of other benefits too. Rabbits Need Timothy Hay for Proper Oral Hygiene (and Playtime Too) Just like you, rabbits eat most of their food by chewing it up and down. And, for the small amount of fresh vegetables or other tasty (specially formulated) treats that you may give your rabbit to eat, this is fine. But, unlike humans, rabbits have teeth that continue to grow throughout their lives. Chewing all their food up and down would mean that their teeth would be sharpened into fine, painful points. Not only would this make it rather painful to eat, it may just make it impossible. On the other hand, when rabbits eat Timothy Hay, they grind it from side to side. This is a big difference and terribly important for rabbit oral hygiene. In fact, it’s crucial because rabbits don’t need to brush their teeth. Instead, they need to wear them down appropriately. But, as hay is the only food that rabbits eat that allows them to grind their teeth, it’s easy to see why they need so much of it. And, they love it. Your pet rabbits absolutely love living with and playing in their favourite food. Now, that seems a little strange as we would never think of sleeping in our food, but rabbits are quite content to do just that. They will happily move it from one side of their hutch to the other and back again. For them, it is a game. And that’s good news for rabbit owners, because these pets can be quite demanding when they want something to do. Feeding Your Rabbits Enough Timothy Hay Your rabbits need a lot of Timothy Hay every day. In fact, they need a pile at least as large as themselves to eat every day. And, keep in mind that’s just the Timothy Hay for eating. They will also need some of this wonder product for sleeping in and playing with. Don’t forget that every rabbit in your warren needs this amount of hay – and they need it every day. There are other foods that you can use to supplement your pets’ diets, but it cannot substitute the hay at any point. And, don’t forget that all pets need access to fresh water at all times. This is especially true for rabbits, with emphasis on fresh for them. After all, they can be very busy when they want to be and, as much as they love their Timothy Hay, they don’t prefer it in their water bowl. Fortunately, once you’ve got this Timothy Hay thing down, you’ll have no problems keeping your rabbits happy and healthy for the rest of their lives.
For any more information, please visit our rabbit page on our Burgess Pet Care website: http://www.burgesspetcare.com/your-pet/rabbits/ #burgess #petcare #rabbits #timothyhay