Not eating hay

[ava]

I have a slight problem with Pikachu and Dmitri... they seem to have gone off their hay. They eat very small amounts but that's it. They eat all their normal food... I'm worried as I thought they needed to eat hay (or similar) for their teeth to wear down. I don't think they chew as much anymore either, but they stopped most of their chewing when they got their new wheel so I assume that's ok? Not really sure what to do... could it be that the hay isn't fresh? I've had it since October because it's taken so long to get through the bag. Or maybe they're bored of it?

[degualot]

what kind of hay are you feeding them, Medaow?, Timophy?, maybe a change in brand will make their interest in eating Hay return.

[degus123]

As Degualot suggests maybe a change in brand my be all that is needed. I switched from plain old Timothy Hay to Timothy Hay with Herbs and noticed a huge increase in their intake.

[yasmin]

Hopefully it was just the brand of hay.

Do watch for drooling though. One of my degus stopped chewing and eating hay, and also began drooling. When I took her to the vet, he discovered that she was suffering from lingual malocclusion – an inherited condition where her back molars were growing towards her tongue and pinning it down. They can eat pellets with their front teeth but need their back molars for chewing hay (I think).

[abirose]

Maybe you could try added dried herbs into the hay? I have seen on the chinchillas2shop website that you can buy meadow hay in like cubes? My girl Tinker was a major chewer and destroyed everything! Now that I have switched her wheel from a flying saucer to a metal wheel she's no way near as interested in chewing I think sometimes they might chew out of boredom so the new wheel is probs tiring them out enough

[scoobos]

I had this problem, but didnt notice because the hay was disappearing (but only for use as bedding in the nest, the rest being spread about to look like less!)

I did a couple of things to make it better:

1. Changed my brand to one that contains marigold and dandelion too (excel herbage)

2. Added a pinch of oats to the hay

3. When they stopped eating that I stopped giving hard food for a few days and they got the idea

For the past 2 months they've been fine with the hay

[smithomatic]

I also suffer from this problem, I have gotten around it by using a different brand of hay every week, i tend to rotate between about 5 -6 different kinds of hay every 2 months. The other thing is that if you are supplying a large amount of hay its difficult to tell how much they have eaten.

My degus never eat hay when im watching becuase they are far more interested in what im doing. But I set up a camera and found they are eating the hay when im not around, must be a bordem thing?

hope this helps

[moletteuk]

Mine eat more hay if I give them small portions 3 or 4 times a day, they only eat it much when it's freshly put in the cage.

[ava]

We're feeding them Timothy hay at the moment, degualot - but is meadow hay ok too?

Yasmin, thanks for the warning. Luckily, I've been giving them a little less food and they seem to be eating more hay now, so hopefully there's nothing wrong with them.

I'm going to look for some different hay, I think, although I saw this on Zooplus:
www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/small_pets/snacks_supplements/natural_treats/jr_farms/13320

Would it be ok to use any of those as an alternative? I confess, I'm not actually sure what ribwort is or whether it would be safe for degus.

Thanks for all the advice, by the way... it's reassuring to know that if I'm worried about the degus I can come here and ask about things and there are people who can help

[moletteuk]

meadow hay is fine.
the coarse feeds from zooplus are all great for degus, mine prefer the garden herbs to the ribwort, but they like both. They make a good supplement to hay, and make the hay less important. The chinchilla flower garden is good too, you could sprinkle some of that on ordinary hay to make it more appealing.

[Maravilla]

ribwort = buckhorn

Hey Ava,
have you changed your degus' nutrition to a more natural one? This could be an explanation. My degus mainly eat hay when I put it in the cage freshly. As far as I can see it (what is hard because of the huge amount of hay they have in their cages), I would say that hay makes only 5% of their whole nutrition. They prefer all the other things.

[malteser60]

Hi ava,

I would also suggest ordering a sample pack from www.thehayexperts.co.uk/

That way you can see if there is any particular hay they like. Mine have taken a huge liking to readigrass for example, as well as orchard grass. Also slightly underfeeding them a bit will push them to eat more hay. However, as Maravilla said, if you have a more natural diet then a lot of their hay eating will be replaced by eating the various leaves that you provide for them.

[Deleted]

Mine weren't eating a lot of hay either. Then I found a new type (in Sweden) called Vitakraft VitaVerde, alpine meadow hay. My girls went absolutely crazy for it! No wonder, it smells so
good I'm rather tempted to taste it myself I've been giving them a handful every day and
now I see them eat hay all the time

[ava]

I'm not feeding them a natural diet - they have the JR farm degu premium food. I do want to, but unfortunately can't at the moment for multiple reasons.

Good news! I ordered some hay with calendula and it arrived today - smells wonderful, and Pikachu went straight for it when I put it in the cage. Last time I went in there they were both munching away

Thanks for the tip, malteser60 - I might try that at some point. I think I'm going to try a few different hays over the next few months or so and see which they like best.

[malteser60]

Hi ava,

The JR farm food does have quite a bit of plants in it too, so it's semi-natural in that way. Glad they like the hay with calendula though