Australia Found Timothy Hay pellets in Sydney!

Banana, are you *sure* that was the price on the pellets!? That is insane! I mean, I am all for splashing out on my pigs, but when their food starts costing more than mine....

If you are ever around Carlingford, there is a feed store near the station that sells decent pellets which are a bit cheaper than Peters (though, I agree, Peters are generally about the best option we have in terms of readily available pellets).

How much are you paying for your hay? I am just about to run out and the place I got the last bale from does not have any grassy hay at the moment.

Yes that is the price this is what i meant by disgustingly expensive ha ha.

I'm quite far from carlingford but i remeber a pet store near me that sells pellets like that but i cant remeber how much they were so i think i may have to check it out. As for grassy hay i have yet to pay for it so i dont know ha ha.

my sister in law is doing vet science at uni and has to go to camden for pracs and a friend she made down there gave her a biscuit for me. Ill be buying more in future so ill post when i found out. it will be a while because i mixed the biscuit of grass hay with a biscuit of lucerne (my girls are 5 months old) so ill be going for a while.

Hah! I found the "something King" timothy hay at Pets Paradise on the weekend too (no pellets). It came in a half kilo bag and cost 10 bucks. Crazy talk!

You see! I tell my girls i love them but i couldnt get them their lovely fresh vegies every day if i had to pay that much...i think they forgive, they are certainly happy (much popcorning) and people tell me they are the most spoilt pigs they know (mainly because they dont know others ha ha)

Theres a large pet store in Melb that has the pellets and bags of timothy hay,
538gram bag of hay ,,,Wait for it...$24.00/////////
500gram bag of pellets $13.00... so your price isnt all that bad!



Now can someone tell me what POPCORNING is?
Is it that funny noise they make? Hard to describe,,,

Hi guineagurl. Popcorning is when your pigs are really happy and they do these jumps and sometimes squeak at the same time. The pigs really look like theyre having a seizure and many people freak out when they first see them do it.

My girls wil popcorn if they hear the fridge and think theyre getting a treat or when theyre out on floortime.

Well i want to see mine do it....
Theyre spoilt, why dont they do it? Is it a adult piggie thing cause mine are only 3 mths or so.
Ive got them a new house to go into but the one theyre in is really big also so it cant
be because theyre cramped & unhappy.

Maybe i need a piggy therapist?!!
They have been a bit skittish for lack of a better word.... bolt when i move. the tiniest thing will scare them and ones blind.. whould that make a difference? My poor babies.

I am not sure if anyone will agree with me here but from my experience, I suspect boypigs are more prolific popcorners than girlpigs. Back when I had two boys, they popcorned all over the place. Now I have 4 girls and one boy and most of the popcorning is done by the male.

Could be a coincidence though.

I found Timothy Hay in Pets Paradise on the Gold Coast - not the pellets - the actual hay! It is by AlfaAlfa King and it was a small bag that lasted barely a week (2 guineas) and it cost $10!! I am obviously not going to spend $10 a week on hay - so would love to hear of anyone who has found suitable hay for their pigs. I asked at the local stock feed place where I buy straw and feed for my chickens and the guy said that sure, he had plenty of hay, but that he wouldn't sell it to me for guinea pigs because it's not 'clean' enough. he said that when they handle the hay they alwasy get itchy because it contains little mites etc so it wouldn't be wise... which was really good to know... I even considered buying a bale of 'something' and microwaving it to zap any mites before feeding it to the piggies but that's going too far hey?

Definately going too far but your heart is in the right place!
If you microwaved it would steam and get wet most likely then be no good anyhow.
I buy a large bail of hay, lasts forever .
I've never heard of mites in the hay, dust yes, that cant really be helped.
Aust-wide Timothy hay is overpriced , I cannot afford it..my local petshop sells it for
like 24$ per 5oogm bag....so I'm sticking with the bails which my piggers love anyhow!

Thanks for that guineagurl... so when you buy the 'hay' what kind do you ask for? Do you have the yellow type or the greeny type with kinda like green 'flowers' on it that look like tiny leaves? There only seems to be 2 types at my stockfeed place.

You're right about the steam etc of course - I thought... small batches...wrapped in kitchen paper...but then that's silly. I am actually surprised that the timothy hay (which is from overseas) actually ever makes it into the country at all. When we migrated here we had the straw cut off our farmhouse style dining chairs - I argued that surely they have something that kills whatever they thought the straw contained and they said 'nope' (bless them!).

Anyway just went to Bunnings again this morning and got 4 more packs x 5 grids (cubes) and have made an outside run - huge... now that the weather is cooling in Qld, I figure I'll sit out there with them an hour a day with a good book and they can run amok! They are both female and expecting babies any day now...

Cheerio from Qld
Dominique

guineagurl said:

Definately going too far but your heart is in the right place!
If you microwaved it would steam and get wet most likely then be no good anyhow.
I buy a large bail of hay, lasts forever .
I've never heard of mites in the hay, dust yes, that cant really be helped.
Aust-wide Timothy hay is overpriced , I cannot afford it..my local petshop sells it for
like 24$ per 5oogm bag....so I'm sticking with the bails which my piggers love anyhow!

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You know, I actually don't know what its called!
Its yellowish' but its much finer than coarse straw, Its basically the same as Timothy in appearance anyhow.
Bunnings is a rip off for grids, do you have a Big W? They sell packs of maybe 16 grids for $11 ..bunnings is like $8 for 5 grids or so if I remember right.

Minique said:

Thanks for that guineagurl... so when you buy the 'hay' what kind do you ask for? Do you have the yellow type or the greeny type with kinda like green 'flowers' on it that look like tiny leaves? There only seems to be 2 types at my stockfeed place.

You're right about the steam etc of course - I thought... small batches...wrapped in kitchen paper...but then that's silly. I am actually surprised that the timothy hay (which is from overseas) actually ever makes it into the country at all. When we migrated here we had the straw cut off our farmhouse style dining chairs - I argued that surely they have something that kills whatever they thought the straw contained and they said 'nope' (bless them!).

Anyway just went to Bunnings again this morning and got 4 more packs x 5 grids (cubes) and have made an outside run - huge... now that the weather is cooling in Qld, I figure I'll sit out there with them an hour a day with a good book and they can run amok! They are both female and expecting babies any day now...

Cheerio from Qld
Dominique

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If you microwaved it it would be dry not wet. A microwave sends microwaves that cause friction in water particles which generates heat you would be drying your hay.

But it's allready dry.
If the microave got hot enough it might create steam, who knows!

Minique
Did your girls have the babies yet?
And how did you manage to have 2 pregnant at the same time?
Have you got a boy too?

Do you reckon they would sell it in Melbourne's Pets Paradise? But I really dislike that store... *shudders* they squish the rabbits and guinea pigs up so much in the stores near my house *shudders again*

Also whats another hay they can eat? Other than lucerne, maybe my pigs are just fussy but they hate that stuff and so do I, it makes them smell funny.

Also (again) is fresh grass okay? because I don't know about everyone else but I just pick heaps of it from a reserve near my house. My pigs love it. I mean it must be fine, if they can eat lawn really they should be fine eating other grasses.

Hi Guineagurl... oh my guineas...it's all we ever talk about at home - we can't wait for them to have these babies! When we bought them 8 weeks ago on Sunday - they were 2 girls who were kept in a mixed pen - the guy at the store bred piggies when he was young (and he was in his early twenties) anyway he said the 2 we chose are definitively pregnant and... having been in a mixed pen with say 15 other piggies...I'd be surprised if they werent. Thing is they actually looked pregnant and since then a friend of my son who has heaps of piggies free ranging (almost) in his back yard has had a 'feel' and they are def. pregnant he thinks one is carrying 2 and the other 3 (they're very young you see) - gestation is 9 weeks or so and we've had them for 8 - so I reckon...it must be any day now....every morning and every time we go out of the house for more than 20 minutes we return and check. It feels like we are pacing in a labour ward!! My friend came round today and sai 'What if they're not pregnant? But I weigh them 1 x week and they put on heaps of weight and they are visibly bulging at the sides and you can feel the hard lumps inside of them. Anyway - as I said, any day now - maybe tonight. I will let you know as soon as they do and will post some pics... although I don't think we're allowed to post pics of anything but cages!!
Thanks for remembering my girls were/are pregnant - have you ever had babies? meaning your piggies not you! Ha! Ha! Oh and....if it turns out that they are not pregnant then we're thinking of borrowing a friends' ginger boy for a fortnight or so...candles....soft music...extra broccoli.... who knows!
Cheerio from the Gold Coast!

guineagurl said:

But it's allready dry.
If the microave got hot enough it might create steam, who knows!

Minique
Did your girls have the babies yet?
And how did you manage to have 2 pregnant at the same time?
Have you got a boy too?

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I have no idea how microwaves work - I just thought that if the hay were a bit damp the heat would 'steam' it and the whole hay would get 'wet' anyway - not to worry - Guineagurl and I have talked each other out of microwaving hay!!! Hairbrained scheme that I had! Now then - about this Lucerne hay - my piggies have Lucerne hay PELLLETS that you can buy in Woolworth on the Gold Coast in the pet food section and my 2 girls LOVE IT and it doesn't make them smell funny. Also, every day we take our girls out in the afternoon for a romp in their outdoor pen (approx. 15 square grids linked together with cable ties which stand up and make a big fenced area) and as we sit nearby on the lawn having a cuppa or reading a book, or the kids do homework, the guineas have a belly full of grass and they love it. I would say as long as the grass is lawn grass (not ornamental) and you know it hasn't been (crop) sprayed or weed on by cats and dogs etc - it would be fine to feed it to them. I have a list on my fridge about what is good and bad for guinea pigs (a friend faxed it to me) and grass (non-ornamental) is good if it's clean and fresh (no lawn mower clippings). Hope this helps...

GuineaPigz said:

If you microwaved it it would be dry not wet. A microwave sends microwaves that cause friction in water particles which generates heat you would be drying your hay.

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I haven't found anything like that (lucerne pellets) In Safeways near my place but maybe I should try a different store.
Hope all goes well with the potential mums and bubs! I do know what it feel like to be waiting. Once we had a mum who was overdue by about a week if our calculations were right. Our house was so tense waiting for what might come out! She ended up having two massive babies. Both fairly healthy. Because they were big babies though they had been cramped up and one was a bit mangled looking but we hand fed her and massaged her back hourly and she came good. We kept her and she grew up to be a small piggy. But very cute and perfectly healthy. Best of luck!

Hi.
I havn't ever had babies but having 2 boys makes it kinda hard and even if I did have a girl I wouldn't anyway.
I really like your how excited you are about these babies coming but should you really be breeding? When things go wrong the vet bills can be a killer, are you willing to do that if the need arises and will you be seperating the boys from the girls when the babies are around 3-4 weeks old? In other words, do you have another cage big enough?
The little hairs on my body rise up when I hear someone intentionally breeding.
Sorry, I just told my dad off for thinking it was a good idea to sell piggies to a pet shop for pocket money, (a friend of his breeds) Grrrrrrrrrrr.....

Still all the best,
I hope they are all healthy and the mother too, pregnancy takes alot out of them.