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Post by Sef on Nov 29, 2020 17:17:23 GMT -6
Let's talk hay! What brands have you bought lately? What's the quality?
I just got 10 lbs. of Small Pet Select, and it was largely brown with very long stems. The boys are eating it, but it's not the same quality as earlier in the season.
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traci
Newbie Pigaholic
Posts: 45
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Post by traci on Nov 29, 2020 17:25:00 GMT -6
It's been a rough year for hay, I think.
I'm interested if anyone has tried GuineaDad's hay.
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Post by Sef on Nov 29, 2020 18:29:47 GMT -6
I might order some next, just to see.
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pigjes
Junior Pigaholic
Posts: 76
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Post by pigjes on Dec 3, 2020 10:38:13 GMT -6
I have bought different types of hay which were available for home delivery to Belgium. Binky never ate any hay up to a few months ago. I think he has PTSD from hay, given that he has many bite marks from the 4 places where he lived before he arrived at our place, and somehow often got attacked from a pig hiding in a hay pile. It has finally improved after almost 3 years of being here. He's a loner pig with many health issues, which always seem to get him attacked by others.
Hay quality is always meager here, this year has not been worse than before. I have rarely ever seen real green hay in my entire life. Binky did discover green oats from the moment he arrived here, which was normally given as a treat only, about a handful for 4 pigs a day. But as he refused any hay, even without green oats, that has kept him alive, so he gets served plenty. Green oat is very lovely here and all pigs have been extremely fond of it. It has less fiber than hay, but at least it has fiber enough to keep him going, apparently.
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Post by Sef on Dec 3, 2020 13:59:50 GMT -6
Aw, poor sweet guy. Oh, well at least he likes that and will eat it. That's good! I am running low and need to decide which brand to go with this time around.  |
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Post by renonvsparky on Dec 4, 2020 2:15:50 GMT -6
One of the local feed stores here in Reno has a mixture of mountain meadow and Timothy. I buy it by the bale and one usually lasts about a month. It's about a 50/50 mixture on average. They all love it. When you have 7 little mouths to feed, buying by the bale is the most cost effective way to keep them fed with hay.
During the spring and summer months, I've been known to make a trip or two to the Midwest and pick up 50 lb bales of straight Timothy hay from Rural King, but I didn't get to do it this year and I believe you already know why. Hopefully I'll get to go this coming spring. If I do, I'm filling up the back of my truck with as many as I can get. That was the best Timothy hay.
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Post by Sef on Dec 6, 2020 22:20:52 GMT -6
I wish I had the space to store that much hay at a time. Definitely more cost-effective! When we moved to this house, I lost quite a bit of storage area. 20 lbs. is pretty much the max I can handle.  |
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Post by Sef on Dec 8, 2020 20:20:27 GMT -6
Ordered 10 lbs. of Oxbow hay from Amazon.com over the weekend and it arrived today. Yikes! Highly compressed, very small strands. Not what I was expecting...
I guess I'm going to need to bite the bullet and go back the pricier Rabbit Hole Hay.
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Post by renonvsparky on Dec 9, 2020 16:43:31 GMT -6
The bales I've gotten from the feed store so far have been a good mixture of small and large strands. I kind of like it that way. The guinea pigs all like to forage around for food. I think that comes from having them outside to graze. The small pieces of hay give them something to forage for in their cages when it's too cold to have them out there.
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Post by Sef on Dec 11, 2020 22:49:17 GMT -6
I'm debating which brand of hay to order next time around. SPS was mostly brown; Oxbow was pokey and mostly short strands. I might buy a bag of orchard grass to mix with timothy, just for variety and for something a little softer.
ETA: Has anyone bought oat hay recently?
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Post by renonvsparky on Dec 12, 2020 4:28:01 GMT -6
I used to mix Timothy hay with meadow grass. That was before I discovered that the feed store has it already mixed and baled. The guinea pigs love it. They also loved the orchard hay, but I had to abandon it when it caused my wife's allergies to really flare up. I'm pretty sure it would be very good for the piggies to feed them an orchard and timothy hay mixture.
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pigjes
Junior Pigaholic
Posts: 76
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Post by pigjes on Dec 13, 2020 1:37:06 GMT -6
I buy oat hay since many years from Futterparadies in Germany. Excellent quality, always. I buy hay on Amazon. I haven't found any local store in all these years, meaning in surrounding countries of Belgium, which deliver either decent hay, meaning not smelling fungal, not being brown and hard stalks, offer opened up bags, not ship after payment, etc.
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