Don't like their hay?

[stevepax]

You may recall, our two 12-week-old nigerian dwarf wethers just came home last week. They have a nice little pen to live in, but the pen doesn't have any browse in it to eat (well, it had a few weeds growing, but they were eaten up pretty quickly). So of course I have plenty of orchard grass hay in there for them. But they don't seem to eat it. One of them will eat a little from my hand, but the other turns his nose up at that too. I see they have picked at it some, because some is on the ground under the feeder, so they know where it is. Is it pretty much a case of "They'll eat it when they get hungry enough?" On the farm they came from, I'm pretty sure they primarily ate on the pasture every day, but we don't have that here, so hay it is. Do I just wait them out? They do get their tiny bit of grain in the morning and evening, since they are still so little and still growing.

Thoughts? I don't really want to try any different flavors of hay - this orchard grass seems to be what is most easily available around here.

 

[SheepGirl]

If they were mine, I would wait it out and see if they get hungry enough to eat it. Watch their condition--if it starts deteriorating, I would up the grain or try a different type of hay, like maybe timothy or alfalfa.

 

[ksalvagno]

They will eventually get used to the hay. I would just wait it out. If you want to up their grain a little you can.

 

[stevepax]

Well, I think they're going to be fine. They wouldn't touch the hay I held out for them, but my wife grabbed a handful and held it out, and they ate it right up from her hands. (I can't blame them if they like her more than me, anyway.) So she grabbed another handful and held it right in front of the hay feeder for them. Our hayfeeder is nothing more than a tall kitchen trash can with a couple of holes cut out the sides at the bottom so they can get hay out, and it's clamped to a wall. I guess they got the idea, because later I came out and there were pieces of hay on the ground under the feeder, and one of them had a single piece of hay on his head as he walked around the pen, which my kids all laughed at. I should get a picture of them up here and introduce ourselves properly.

-Steve