When my wife and I became first-time bunny parents, we had no idea what we were in for. We added Peanut to our family in 2015 and then added Beanie to our family one year later.  Our bunnies gave us great joy and we found that we would do just about anything for them.  We began the enormous job of conducting research on the care of bunnies and found the most difficult part was finding the right hay feeder. My wife and I tried the DIY feeders, but that just ended with a big scare for us when my wife came home to find Beanie’s head stuck in the DIY feeder.  Who knows how long his head had been stuck in the feeder!  If that wasn’t enough, we had another scare when we purchased a feeder where wooden dowels were used to hold the hay.  Our bunnies would chew on the wood, which created a point on the wood that could pierce their head or neck. 

We’ve purchased multiple feeders online, DIY feeders, plastic feeders, metal feeders and wood feeders and found they were all inadequate due to stagnant hay, unsanitary living space, the constant clean-up, and the list goes on and on.  I then found out that I was severely allergic to hay, which closed off my airway and caused me to break out, so my wife stepped up doing all of the feeding and cleaning of our bunnies. When my wife had back surgery, I had to take over the bunny chores, so I masked my face, took my allergy pill, and bucked up. One day as I was cleaning the bunnies’ room, I noticed I could make the job easier by changing the design of the bunny feeder. After talking with my wife and doing some research, I told her “I am going to make a feeder for you.” I eliminated all of the pain points and added my own features, making it easy to clean, eliminating the waste, incorporating a circulating hay system, and creating a sanitary feeding environment. Needless to say, she loved it! She said she could interact with our bunnies more and spend less time worrying about the mess and if they needed hay. She didn’t have to lift or dump the feeder or get frustrated about constantly cleaning it. 

One day my wife took Peanut to see Dr. Boehler for an annual checkup. My wife showed Dr. Boehler the feeder I built.  The word began to spread and the requests for my hay feeders started to come in, as the bunny owners at the facility could see the many benefits. The positive feedback gave me the passion to take it to the next level and I spent the next two years perfecting my HeyStax feeders.  I am proud to say I can now give bunnies and bunny parents a feeder that takes less work and gives them more time to play with their bunnies.