Hay Small Pet Select

It's fine. I've used it before.

Thanks! It's such a good deal and they ship it to my house!

Remember if you're switching pellet brands to do it slowly by mixing it with the old brand first, and upping the ratio of the new brand over time.

jaycriae said:

Remember if you're switching pellet brands to do it slowly by mixing it with the old brand first, and upping the ratio of the new brand over time.

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I don't think that's true, at least not with piggies. When I got my boars (they were rehomed) they hardly had any pellets left, so I didn't have the option of switching them onto their new pellets, since the new pellets arrived right when I ran out of the old stuff.

I was worried about it, but later saw various posts on here saying it didn't matter. I could have given them the new stuff straight away even if I hadn't run out of their original stuff. (especially since their old stuff was cruddy pet-store pellets)

Nazgul said:

I don't think that's true, at least not with piggies. When I got my boars (they were rehomed) they hardly had any pellets left, so I didn't have the option of switching them onto their new pellets, since the new pellets arrived right when I ran out of the old stuff.

I was worried about it, but later saw various posts on here saying it didn't matter. I could have given them the new stuff straight away even if I hadn't run out of their original stuff. (especially since their old stuff was cruddy pet-store pellets)

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I think it partially depends on the pigs. I've tried to change pellet brands quickly before and one of my three will eat anything, but the other two get picky and one of them started having diarrhea (I now think it was because of bladder stones, but the sudden change in diet and how finnicky she was certainly didn't help matters).

jaycriae said:

Remember if you're switching pellet brands to do it slowly by mixing it with the old brand first, and upping the ratio of the new brand over time.

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I would say this is one of those things that is best to do if you can, but if you can't then it's is okay (in most cases, anyway).

I am currently switching over my pigs and am using this method, and I think they appreciate it since they are not experiencing a big jolt in what foods they're eating, but I have switched brands before without mixing the foods and without slowly increasing the ratio of the new brand and it worked out fine.

In some cases, you really might not want to continue using the old brand. If the old brand went stale or was moldy or something bad like that happened to it, obviously you wouldn't want to keep feeding it to your pigs. When I got my second pig, her previous owner gave me the food that she already had for her. This food was a very low quality brand and smelled absolutely rotten. I could not, in good conscience, give this food to my pig ever again. It smelled like litter. I immediately switched her over to the brand of food that my first pig was eating, and she was very grateful for the better quality, smell, taste, and overall healthier nature of this new food.

I just received a box of Orchard grass hay from Small Pet Select. My pigs really like it. However, it had more brown pieces than I would expect. But this is the first time I've ever ordered Orchard, so not sure what is typical. This is also only my second hay order ever - my first order was Timothy from KMS and that had practically no brown pieces. My pigs will not eat the brown pieces, they pull them out and leave them on the floor.

The shipping was very fast! I live near Chicago and got it in 2 days.

CavyChrissy said:

I just received a box of Orchard grass hay from Small Pet Select. My pigs really like it. However, it had more brown pieces than I would expect.

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My guess would be that there were brown pieces because it's later in the season so the hay isn't as fresh. But that's just a guess.

allieh26 said:

Has anyone used the pellets and hay from Small Pet Select?? The lady from the rescue where i got my 2 two newest piggies swears by it. they have some good prices and deals. You can get a 10lb box of hay and a 5lb bag of pellets for $40. I just want to make sure it's good stuff before I order it.

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Hey @allieh26 I received my first 10lb box of 2nd cut Timothy Hay from SPS about two weeks ago and my pigs LOVE it! They literally run to the hay bale when they smell the hay coming, so cute. I recently read some reviews on the pellets that SPS carries and from what I can tell pigs drink less water when eating these pellets (instead of gulping down the water after eating some other pellets that are dry), there have been many reviews saying that their pigs prefer these pellets over any others they have bought. That being said I ordered my first bag of pellets today and only paid around $10 for the whole order ($10 off coupon applied). In the next few weeks I plan to have the combo you mentioned (10lbs hay, 5lbs pellets) shipped to my house on auto shipment. My boys love it and they seem happier so the verdict is in!

CoppersMom said:

I received my first 10lb box of 2nd cut Timothy Hay from SPS about two weeks ago and my pigs LOVE it!

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About a month ago I also got a 10lb box of 2nd Cutting Perfect Blend Timothy hay, and my pigs and I love it. We are still enjoying this box since it has lasted us this long and we haven't run out yet! The box was shipped very fast (arrived in 2 days), the hay was very fresh, and it was the greenest and softest hay I've gotten so far. They are so much happier with this hay than any hay I've had before (although before trying Small Pet Select I have only tried pet store brands, so it's no surprise that this brand is so much better).