Eating a great deal of hay

[Access]

This site and most of the other literature I have read said unlimited hay or as much as they want. I have two pigs and just yesterday they finished off a big (40 oz.) bag that was about 1/5th full. Both of my pigs are adults and I've been feeding them timothy hay throughout their lives.

They eat pellets only when there is no hay. They seem to self-ration the pellets, eating them occasionally but prefering hay or romaine lettuce. But they really like their hay, and every time I leave a handful out it's gone within the hour. If I am to always keep fresh hay in the cage, I will go through one 40 oz. bag a week or more.

Is there ever a point where I should start limiting the hay or should I just start getting the 200 oz. bags?

[VoodooJoint]

Don't limit the hay. Instead buy in bulk or bale.

[fairysari]

A 40 oz bag of hay in one week doesn't sound like too much. I'm not sure if you meant they ate the rest of the bag too? Because if you just got a bag with a little left, the bottom tends to be dusty, with not as much edible hay as say the first 1/5th of the bag.

I know that when I first put fresh hay in the cage, the pigs run over and eat a bunch of it, maybe a handful's worth. But they don't empty the entire hayrack. Maybe if you put unlimited hay they would 'self-ration' like they do the pellets.

My four pigs eat about three pounds of hay a week all together.

[this_lil_piggy]

Have you tried buying your hay in bulk?
My pigs were putting away a 24 oz bag of hay a day at times. At 3.00 a bag it wasn't very cost efficient. I started ordering in bulk from Kleenmama's and it is much easier on my sanity and budget. Her hay is made up up nice long strands rather than lots of stalky pieces taking up the "weight". A 25 lb box is huge and stuffed full...it ran me about 30.00, and lasted me almost 2 months with 7 pigs! That is about half the cost I was paying using the store bought bags of hay, and the quality is unmatchable!
My pigs don't care for pellets either, and only very rarely pick at them. I don't feed pellets anymore at all. I just keep their hay racks stuffed full, and I feed them 2 cups a day each of veggies rather than the recomended 1 cup each. They have done fine on this diet and are quite happy.

[Access]

Okay thanks, if that amount is perfectly normal I'll just start to buy in bulk.