Hay Anyone having trouble with oxbow?

[curlygirl]

I wanted to know if any one else is having trouble with brown hay "oxbow". I have recenty bought 2large bags of oxbow, and both have been brown in the middle. I very frustrated.

 

[kathlaaron]

YES !! I ordered a shipment last month from Oxbow and meant to email them to complain but didn't, I forgot ! Two of the bags I couldn't even, wouldn't even USE !!

Just yesterday, I got my order in from Kleenmama's for the FIRST time too and I was very disappointed with this shipment of hay as well !! I ordered 9lbs of 3rd cut timothy hay and 9lbs of bluegrass/alfalfa mix. I was expecting nice green blades of grass from the 3rd cut timothy and it was not all that great !

I was shocked because I have heard so many many people say how awesome Kleenmama's was, and if you could afford the high shipping costs, it was well worth it. Even though THIS time I plan to alert Kleenmama's about my shipment, however, my conclusion is that this season just may not have been a very good one for the hay !! For I know and believe that Kleenmama's is the best out there. Oxbow is second to them ! I feel so frustrated too ! Boo hoo and Arrrrrggh !!!

 

[nnvjenn]

I looked to buy oxbow timothy yesterday and all of it was colorless and brown very little green. So I skipped oxbow and brought kaytee with a 2013 expiration thinking it should be fairly fresh.

 

[crazy4looney2n]

I was also going to purchase Oxbow Timothy hay about a month ago and it was brown and had many hard twigs in it so purchased a bag of kaytee instead which seemed to be greener with less twigs. I was very surprised. I purchased a couple of bags of Oxbow Meadow Hay due to my mother's allergies last weekend and not a twig and very green.

 

[LightningPig1]

I think Oxbow and KleenMamas are doing their best. Good hay is hard to find right now and even our most reliable companies don't have perfect hay. It's just that time of year.

 

[Holly&Fred]

I had a different kind of trouble with Oxbow. The last bag of hay I bought was really tough -- not like grass at all, straight up, hard, poke-your-eye-out stems. I'm sure they're trying their best to get good quality hay, but I sure wasn't comfortable putting that in my pig cage. I don't want to have to deal with eye injuries, and they couldn't even get it out of the hay loft, so I had to leave it on the floor which made a big mess.

At least it's better than one previous bag I got, which was full of shriveled, dead crickets. Gross!

 

[curlygirl]

Im glad its not just my area. I bought some kaytee hay too, just to get by with. Does anyone use sweetmeadow hay?

 

[curlygirl]

Holly&fred- I would freak if I found crickets in the hay. UGH.

 

[Duffinvt]

Im glad its not just my area. I bought some kaytee hay too, just to get by with. Does anyone use sweetmeadow hay?

I have used it in the past. This year was a good hay year here in the East so I assume they have good hay. I got some local hay as the KM Bluegrass was not good at all. The local Timothy was excellent and my pigs love it. Not so my allergies !

 

[crazy4looney2n]

The two bags of Oxbow meadow hay I just purchased seem fine and the piggies are loving it. It may be wise to purchase the meadow hay for now until Oxbow gets some good Timothy hay.

 

[GuineaLove]

I have switched to the Orchard Hay from Oxbow right now. It is very green and soft and my girls love it.

 

[KiwiCavyAdorer]

I wonder if and how this would differ with guinea pigs - maybe someone who has both horses and guinea pigs could answer for me.

While our horse hay always starts off perfectly lovely and green at the start of the season, by the late middle to end of the season in perfectly dry conditions, bottom airflow too, its usually gone a less green more brown colour. However my insides of the bale are usually greener not browner as mentioned above. Its still beautiful hay but the colour always changes in a barn over time. We still feed it to the horses as its not gone off and smells sweet.

 

[curlygirl]

The meadow hay was really brown , so I didn't get it. I have 4 places to choose from to get hay and they were all the same color "REALLY BROWN". I guess it will get better soon I hope.

 

[Amanda&Pigs]

Im glad its not just my area. I bought some kaytee hay too, just to get by with. Does anyone use sweetmeadow hay?

I purchased two of the largest boxes of 3rd cut timothy from Sweet Meadow just about a month ago. It is really good quality, I was quite surprised. I had been using KM but wanted to try Sweetmeadow due to it being about half the price for me. I have to say the Sweetmeadow I received is just as green and soft as my previous order of KM. The piggies love it.

 

[Stef41]

I purchased two of the largest boxes of 3rd cut timothy from Sweet Meadow just about a month ago. It is really good quality, I was quite surprised. I had been using KM but wanted to try Sweetmeadow due to it being about half the price for me. I have to say the Sweetmeadow I received is just as green and soft as my previous order of KM. The piggies love it.

Interesting! I will have to look around a bit for some Sweet Meadow, as I've never seen it at the few places I get my Oxbow. It's probably there, I've just looked over it!

Do you know the price comparison of Oxbow vs. Sweet Meadow?

Right now I pay around $9.00 for 1.13KG of Oxbow (Timothy)...

 

[Kimberly713]

I switched over to KM's because of Oxbow's hard stemmy hay bags, well that and the bit of savings
I was actually cut by some stems in a bag when I was trying to pry it out of its compression to feed the girls it poked me and I bled a fair amount! That was my "final straw" literally! haha We went to the store and got a few bags of Meadow Grass Hay from Oxbow to hold over til we could order some online. This was easily 5 or 6 months ago though. KM's hay isn't the greatest this year either though, its a tough crop I guess. Second cut is the best I've seen of them all so far though. I had 3rd and i liked the shorter pieces but it wasn't as green as I had expected. I got 3rd cut at the end of last season and it was AWESOME! hehe Piggies love it no matter what though so whatever.

 

[Amanda&Pigs]

Interesting! I will have to look around a bit for some Sweet Meadow, as I've never seen it at the few places I get my Oxbow. It's probably there, I've just looked over it!

Do you know the price comparison of Oxbow vs. Sweet Meadow?

Right now I pay around $9.00 for 1.13KG of Oxbow (Timothy)...

I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with prices of Oxbow at all. There isn't any stores around me that carry any of the high quality hay or pellets so I knew from the beginning I'd be doing my ordering online. I do know though, from doing the math and other posts on the subject, that its generally cheaper overall to order pellets and hay in bulk no matter the brand. Unless you can get a local bale of hay, I've looked, no luck.

I know with Kleenmamas I paid around $150.00 for a 25lb bag of pellets and 45lb box of 3rd cut timothy hay. When I ordered from Sweetmeadow I paid about the same but ordered a 50lb bag of pellets and two of the largest boxes of hay (29-36lb-I think its listed like that based on shipping, it talks about it on the site, but I really don't notice a difference between the size of Sweetmeadow or KM, not a big difference). So I basically got twice the amount from Sweetmeadow for the same price. I know KM is ranked at a higher quality from posts on this sight but I really am happy with Sweetmeadow, especially the hay and the amount I'm saving.

I know I've read here that Sweetmeadow can be bought in stores but I couldn't tell you where. You can get an idea of what it would cost you and look at their products (broken link removed).

 

[sdpiggylvr]

Everyone is suffering this year as far as hay goes. I have 45 lbs of Kleenmama's 2nd cut Timothy right now, and I must say it is pretty nice! There is a bit more stalk to it than blade, but I have found several soft patches. I've found that my local hay farm has excellent orchard grass this year; once this shipment runs out I believe I will be switching to the local hay.

Oxbow was very stalky, hard, and sharp. I bought two bags to tide me over until my next Kleenmama's shipment came but I was very disappointed as well. I do not think they're doing very well with the poor hay season.

Kleenmama's is still really good but is not as amazing as usual. In the meantime, check out a local hay farm. This post should really help you.

Good luck!

 

[pinky]

I ordered 50 lbs. of Oxbow Orchard Grass in December and it was (and still is) nice and green.

 

[pinky]

I'm sorry to say I'm not familiar with prices of Oxbow at all. There isn't any stores around me that carry any of the high quality hay or pellets so I knew from the beginning I'd be doing my ordering online. I do know though, from doing the math and other posts on the subject, that its generally cheaper overall to order pellets and hay in bulk no matter the brand. Unless you can get a local bale of hay, I've looked, no luck.

I know with Kleenmamas I paid around $150.00 for a 25lb bag of pellets and 45lb box of 3rd cut timothy hay. When I ordered from Sweetmeadow I paid about the same but ordered a 50lb bag of pellets and two of the largest boxes of hay (29-36lb-I think its listed like that based on shipping, it talks about it on the site, but I really don't notice a difference between the size of Sweetmeadow or KM, not a big difference). So I basically got twice the amount from Sweetmeadow for the same price. I know KM is ranked at a higher quality from posts on this sight but I really am happy with Sweetmeadow, especially the hay and the amount I'm saving.

I know I've read here that Sweetmeadow can be bought in stores but I couldn't tell you where. You can get an idea of what it would cost you and look at their products (broken link removed).

Pet Supplies Plus ordered 50 lbs. of Oxbow Orchard Grass for me. The total came to just over $60.00 which included tax. There was no additional shipping charge. I picked it up at the store. The box was too large to fit in our trunk, so the stock boy took the plastic bag out of the box and helped us get it in our trunk. I put it into large brown paper yard waste bags to store it. It filled 5 bags plus some left over.