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Hay Opinions on hay

Mellissa Mae

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I currently am buying timothy hay through Small Pet Select. Has anyone had any problems with finding stray moldy pieces of hay? If so, does that mean the whole batch should be thrown away or not? The last few orders of hay from SMS I've found a few moldy pieces.

I myself have hay allergies and have read about bluegrass hay and how there is a possibility of it not being as dusty. I am considering buying some from KMS, I just wished it didn't take almost two weeks.
 

PiggieWigglies

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I have been ordering SPS and haven't found any moldy pieces. How many lbs. do you order? I get the 20lb box. The only thing that I've found is about 5-6 dried crickets but I throw that chunk away. I heard KMS has wonderful bluegrass. I read on here that if you are switching hay you need to slowly mix the two types of hay first, not like pellets where you can switch cold turkey.
 

LifeAsItMayBe

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I've never got a box with moldy hay, so I don't know what you should do about that. I get Timothy hay from KMS and the only problem I have with it is it tends to be dusty. If you decide to switch to bluegrass I recommend buying a small box first. I bought a nine pound box of it once when KMS ran out of Timothy, and my pigs kept pulling it all out of the hayrack looking for something else. I tried orchard grass once, since that is also supposed to be better for allergies, and one of my pigs loved it while the other two were unimpressed. The "best" hay all depends on what your guinea pigs prefer.
 

Mellissa Mae

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I have been ordering SPS and haven't found any moldy pieces. How many lbs. do you order? I get the 20lb box. The only thing that I've found is about 5-6 dried crickets but I throw that chunk away. I heard KMS has wonderful bluegrass. I read on here that if you are switching hay you need to slowly mix the two types of hay first, not like pellets where you can switch cold turkey.

I usually order the 10 pound box. I've found dried crickets before as well, and like you, I throw those away. I did read about slowly switching the hay, but I've also read that you must do the same with pellets.
 

Mellissa Mae

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I've never got a box with moldy hay, so I don't know what you should do about that. I get Timothy hay from KMS and the only problem I have with it is it tends to be dusty. If you decide to switch to bluegrass I recommend buying a small box first. I bought a nine pound box of it once when KMS ran out of Timothy, and my pigs kept pulling it all out of the hayrack looking for something else. I tried orchard grass once, since that is also supposed to be better for allergies, and one of my pigs loved it while the other two were unimpressed. The "best" hay all depends on what your guinea pigs prefer.

I have seven guineas and it is hard to find something for all of them. I am going to go with the bluegrass, just to start as they didn't really like the orchard grass, granted I was running low on hay and was waiting for my next shipment, so I had to buy pet store hay. Oxbow Orchard grass. They ate it at first and then decided they didn't like it (I think pooping in it was a clear sign, lol) It might also have been because it was dusty. I try to order back to back so I don't have to buy pet store hay, but sometimes things happen. I just throw the moldy pieces away, granted I don't find that many.
 

Artista

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I'm a huge SPS fan and have never had mold in hay. Rather than post here why not contact the company for advice? It's not a SPS hay thing as last year KMS was getting hammered for people finding bugs in the hay. No one sorts through the hay so to find stuff in it is not uncommon.

Contact SPS and see what they say if there's that much mold in it. They have awesome customer service in addition to their top notch hay.
 

Rywen

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My piggies love KMS bluegrass hay. I'm not allergic to it (I am to Timothy) and it isn't dusty. It is very long stranded and will kill a vacuum with a rotating brush.
 

ClemmyOddieIndy

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I've never had moldy hay for my pigs, but with the horses we throw out throw out the bales if they are moldy because in horses it can cause serious health problems.
 

Mellissa Mae

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My piggies love KMS bluegrass hay. I'm not allergic to it (I am to Timothy) and it isn't dusty. It is very long stranded and will kill a vacuum with a rotating brush.

Just ordered some of the bluegrass from KMS. I'm excited to see what it looks like. I am also allergic to Timothy hay.
 

Mellissa Mae

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Yeah, I'll be contacting them indefinitely and I'll see what they say.

I'm a huge SPS fan and have never had mold in hay. Rather than post here why not contact the company for advice? It's not a SPS hay thing as last year KMS was getting hammered for people finding bugs in the hay. No one sorts through the hay so to find stuff in it is not uncommon.

Contact SPS and see what they say if there's that much mold in it. They have awesome customer service in addition to their top notch hay.
 

Mellissa Mae

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I talked with the people at SPS and they said that from what they could see from our video, that it looked like dead stem and that I would know if was mold. Now that I look at it, definitely makes more sense.
 
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