nancyo
Junior Pigaholic
Posts: 172 
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Post by nancyo on Oct 20, 2009 22:33:42 GMT -6
Does anybody use this hay? I am kind of peeved with Oxbow right now. All of my pigs favorite hay has always been Oxbow's Orchard Grass. For months it has been terrible. It looks like it wasn't getting watered while growing. I've thrown so much of it out because Brownie won't eat it. I've had to go buy Kaytee's Orchard Grass and I'm telling you it looks better and smells better than Oxbow.
Nancy
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Post by Laura - CCC4 on Oct 21, 2009 5:02:05 GMT -6
I usually feed my pigs on it, but the website I order from did not list any last month. I contacted them to ask why and they said that they refused the latest batch, as it was such poor quality. So even the stuff that is being exported from the US has not been good.
I ended up buying a 22kg box of Timothy to tide us over, and oddly enough my pigs who are normally affected by allergies (some are very sensitive to the dust in the hay) have not had any problems since they've had the Timothy. With the Orchard Grass, it was almost constant symptoms.
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Post by Sef on Oct 21, 2009 20:31:28 GMT -6
I'm not a big Oxbow fan, either pellets or hay. I use a brand called Jo-Jo's Best, which I buy at our local Rural King for about the same price as Oxbow. No problems with it *so far.*
I'm thinking of ordering some Kleenmama hay with my next pellet order, though...
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Post by brendab on Oct 22, 2009 19:33:27 GMT -6
I just got my 3rd cut from KM and I want to eat it myself...yeah it looks and smells that good. The pigs are in Heaven!
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nancyo
Junior Pigaholic
Posts: 172
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Post by nancyo on Oct 23, 2009 15:57:12 GMT -6
I have some of KM's blue grass hay as well. Brownie likes it okay, but really likes the Oxbow. I just bought a small bag of it a few days ago and it finally looks better than it has in months. I won't order it online since I can get it locally.
Nancy
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Post by Sef on Oct 23, 2009 18:03:44 GMT -6
Oh good! I know the quality of hay really varies depending on the time of year. You might have just had an old batch or a bad cutting.  |
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Post by vanillapooh1979 on Oct 25, 2009 12:34:02 GMT -6
I buy my hay locally, usually a bermuda/bluegrass blend that the pigs love. I recently bought a small pack of Oxbow Timothy and gave some to the ratties and hamster to nest in and it had chiggers in it! I had to bathe them all and scrub out the cages because they were just covered in the chiggers. I figured the pigs didn't get the chiggers because they ate the hay so fast, but the others only made it up in a nest so the chiggers had time to hatch. It was Horrible!
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Post by Sef on Oct 25, 2009 16:25:56 GMT -6
OMG, chiggers?? I HATE those nasty things (didn't know you could actually see them, but I've certainly FELT them!!!!!! They itch like freakin' crazy!).  |
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Post by vanillapooh1979 on Oct 25, 2009 17:24:31 GMT -6
Yep and they caused raw patches on our hammie overnight. He chewed at himself to get them off. It was horrid.
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Post by Sef on Oct 25, 2009 20:11:25 GMT -6
I really think Oxbow quality has gone downhill in the past couple of years or so. Sure, any hay can have chiggers or other critters, but I'm just seeing a LOT of complaints these days about things found in the hay and poor hay quality.
Maybe Oxbow needs to spend less time on their fancy new website, and more time on improving their products.
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nancyo
Junior Pigaholic
Posts: 172
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Post by nancyo on Oct 27, 2009 20:44:56 GMT -6
i just bought another small bag of the Orchard grass today - looks like we are back in business. Brownie doesn't like Oxbow's Timothy Hay. And I agree with Sef - I think Oxbow has gone down in quality as well.
Nancy
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Post by Laura - CCC4 on Oct 28, 2009 12:02:59 GMT -6
I wish we had a higher quality hay to compare to over here, but Oxbow really is the best you can get here. We get Alfalfa King imported as well as Oxbow, both are so much nicer than UK hay and more types of hay too! Meadow hay is the standard and you're lucky to find Timothy, I have not seen any other types that are not imported from the US.
I don't think my pigs will eat meadow for any length of time since being changed over exclusively to the Oxbow.
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