Dusty Hay

[sophistacavy]

Is there any way of getting "cleaner" hay? I have a younger female cavy who recently recovered from kennel cough (Bordetella), and I don't want overly dusty hay irritating her or my other 2 girls, for that matter. The bedding (I'm in the slow process of switching to fleece, don't worry ) is dusty enough(carefresh is so dusty, and gross when its wet, in my opinion).

I just recieved my order from drsfostersmith.com of Oxbow hay, the timothy kind. It appears rather dusty. I recently finished a bag of Oat Hay from Oxbow that was a lot of dust and small annoying hay fragments also.

What should I do?

[Ly&Pigs]

There is no dust free hay. I can suggest that you get the hay ready for your pigs in another room where you can sift the dusty parts out of the longer strands before giving it.

[sophistacavy]

Hey, you know thats a pretty good idea. I should shake it out onto something, and put back (in my storage container thing for hay) only the long strand non dusty parts. Why didn't I think of that, .

Thank you! I think Noel's respiratory tract thanks you too!

[Ledasmom]

I wonder if putting the hay in a mesh bag and then shaking it vigorously might be an easy way of sifting it? It would be easiest, of course, if you have access to a yard, and if you did it on a slightly breezy day a lot of the dust would be blown away from you.
It would probably be a good idea to wear a dust mask yourself if you're sifting quantities of hay; I doubt the dust is good for people lungs either.

[naturegal592]

I am not trying to steal your thread but I recently bought a 9#box of timothy hay from Oxbow. It is really dusty and mostly small pieces (1"-3"). It mostly just falls out of the rack and into the litter box. Is KM better? When I used to buy the Oxbow 15 oz bags I loved it, but this is really disappointing.

[sophistacavy]

Ledasmom- Thanks a lot, the mesh bag idea is a really smart one, I actually have a nice sized mesh bag.

Naturegal592- Thats ok, don't worry you aren't stealing my thread at all. Do you really think the 15 oz size bags are less tiny pieces in your experiences? I might just buy those if you really think that.

I think I'm going to go with the mesh bag idea, thats a really good one. I can do it in my backyard. Lol, I forgot to pull my sleeve up when I was getting hay out of the bag yesterday, and the edge of my sleeve came out dusty. It was a dark colored purple shirt too. =)