More Hay Questions

[JennG]

Ok I have a friend who brought me a small bag of hay. She feeds it to her horses but forgets what kind it is. It looks really green and smells very nice. My question is that it seems tough. When I buy the small bales from Wallyworld of Kaytee hay it's not like the hay she brought.

Question: Should I try and feed it to the girls? Or just continue with my store bought Kaytee? I don't want to give them the wrong stuff. Thanks.

[Ly&Pigs]

Jenn, can you post a picture of the hay?

[JennG]

Yeah, I'll have to do it tonight when I get home. I still have my mom's digital. Thanks.

[JennG]

I'm hoping these aren't too big but here's the bag of hay that my friend gave me to try out on the girls but it seems awfully stiff.

[JennG]

Ok as much as I've tried, I just don't get this whole posting thing. Sometimes my pictures are too small or just right or too big like the hay pic. ARGH!!

[Ly&Pigs]

I can't really tell from that pic or the other pic on your photobucket account exactly what kind of hay it is. If it's very stemmy it could be 1st cut timothy. Maybe pick out the softer strands and throw out the hard stemmy stuff?

[JennG]

I don't think it's Timothy cause she knew it wasn't that but it all seems tough. I'll probably just be safe and give it back to her. I don't want to give them anything that will hurt them. Thanks for trying.

[aqh88]

When you go to edit and resize in photobucket look at the numbers at the top. For fairly large detailed pics make the highest number around 800-900, for medium pics around 500-600, and for a small pic that you don't need to see in detail under 500. The resize options make the picture 75%, 50% or 25% of the originial so if you edit a pic with the highest value of 1000 by 50% it would now be 500 or if you want it more detailed resize it to 75% and it will be 750. When I post 1 pic of something I usually resize it to around 600-800 and when I post lots of pics I put them closer to 400-500.

If you want someone to look at a really big detailed pic like 1200x900 then post the link instead of directly posting the pic. I have a very fast cable connection and I doubt you can manage to upload anything big enough that I can't have it all loaded in under 1minute.

[JennG]

Thanks for the tip aqh88. I'll have to give it a look.

[NewGPMom]

Is there any hay that they really can't have anyhow? I wasn't aware if there were.

JennG, I thought it looked good from what I could tell of the small picture. It's got a very nice green color. If there isn't any hay they can't have, then I say go for it. The worse it can happen is they won't eat it if they don't like it. It might turn out to be a better buy for ya if you can find out what it is.

The last bag of Kaytee I bought must've been first cut because it was stiff enough to take an eye out (seriously). I've been through alot of different hays and so far the box I got from BunnyBale has been the best in my opinion. My girls wouldn't eat half of the oxbow timothy I got them. Could have something to do with much of the bag being brown rather than green. But they do like oxbows' orchard grass.

[Ly&Pigs]

Adults shouldn't get alfalfa if they have bladder sludge/stone problems. Otherwise, they can have alfalfa now and again as a treat but not everyday or they will probably end up with bladder problems because of the higher calcium levels. Hays that are very stemmy/hard shouldn't be fed. They are also dangerous in a hayrack as stemmy hay can result in an injury.

[aqh88]

Hay high in clover would be grouped along with alfalfa but clover hay is rarely made. I've never actually seen any. It causes excess salivation in at least horses and I think in other livestock as well which can lead to a few problems.

When I have to feed kaytee between hay orders I spread a thin layer along the bottom of the cage to lessen the chance they'll poke themselves while trying to dig through it.

[JennG]

Yeah this hay is very hard and stemmy. I'm going to find an alternative hay.

Do spiders like hay? I was just wondering because if I were to get a bale from somewhere and keep it in the basement (or anywhere in my house), will spiders get in it? We have alot of them around here.

[aqh88]

The spiders occasionally like to spin webs from the sides of the hay especially stemmy hay but it's never been a very big issue in my stable. Most of the hay stays spider free aside from gaps between bales that they'll spin webs across. They aren't really attracted it in any way but will take any good web opportunities they can find. Being in Illinois you probably have much the same spiders as we do and none of those giant killer things I saw down in GA. If you are really concerned you can get a hay bale bag which hold one bale and most zip up but they cost around $30-$40. www.tack-wholesale.com might have a fairly cheap one. SLT and Dover would have them but would probably be closer to the $40 range. That might also allow you to store it somewhere else in the house without making a mess.

Found one on horse.com for real cheap but I don't know how good it is http://www.horse.com/products/gift-0__sku-BRA40.html. It might not have good enough air flow so you'd have to leave it partially unzipped.

[JennG]

I wonder if I can get one of those bags at Farm & Fleet or BigR stores? I was just afraid of the spiders getting in there and get comfortable. I'm glad to hear they're not into hay. Thanks for all the great info aqh88. I really appreciate it.