Where People & Piggies Thrive

Newbie or Guinea Guru? Popcorn in!

Register for free to enjoy the full benefits.
Find out more about the NEW, drastically improved site and forum!

Register

Hay comparisons, questions

twofinepigs

Well-known Member
Cavy Slave
Joined
Jul 12, 2005
Messages
227
I am still working on being able to store a larger quantity of timothy. When I do, I will see who sells it baled locally. I have a recommendation from a friend that one can keep it well in a dry garage inside an old duvet cover (for dust and dirt). We have many feed stores here.

Until I do -

I have been feeding KayTee Timothy. It is green, has very long strands and lots of interesting "stuff" - the things we call "fuzzies" which they go for first, and double strands. It is a long-cut hay. About the last fifth of the bag is waste, as I do not like to give them all the short strands with the dust, so I toss it.

I bought also one bag of Hartz. I KNOW this is bad, I describe it here for comparison only. It was green, too, but a browner green. However, the very first handful out of that bag looked like the last handful of the KayTee. It was very short cut, straight, dusty stuff. Looked like dried lawn clippings. Yechh.

I went to look today at the Oxbow timothy. It is all brown, no green at all. I did not buy any 'cos I wasn't sure about it.

Questions: I know you all recommend OxBow products. Is this brown hay all right? Is it appetizing for pigs? I thought timothy hay, like alfalfa, was supposed to be green. Has the distributor just kept it too long? For anyone buying OxBow in bags, is yours green?

I would prefer not to mail-order hay if I can avoid it. I like to see it and buy it in person, so I want to find the right stuff and the right distributor.
 
It isn't suppossed to be brown it might have been a bad batch or had sat their too long it is normally better than Katee.
 
I also used to buy the Kaytee timothy hay but recently bought oxbow. I have to honestly say that the kaytee I was buying was greener than the oxbow I have now. As far as smell, I cannot tell the difference; they both smell great and my piggies gobble both down. However, the brown strands in the oxbow do NOT get eaten. I end up cleaning them out and throwing it away. I would say that out of a 40 oz bag of oxbow, about a third of it is brown and going to waste. So I am essentially wasting more of it than the Kaytee I previously used (the very small dusty bits at the bottom of the bag). I must say that overall, I am VERY disappointed with the oxbow and will likely look for something else. I would love to try KM's but refuse to pay the outrageous shipping charges to get it from one coast to the other.
 
I agree with you NewGPMom. I bought a 50lb box of Oxbow and threw a large portion of the brown strips away. It isnt worth buying again because so much was wasted. And with KM I would absolutley love to get some of her bluegrass, but I am in the most expensive shipping rate too.
 
Try (broken link removed) for the best hay anywhere. No hay is supposed to be brown, it should be green and fairly soft. If you can get better hay locally than you can from oxbow, I say go for the local hay. I buy my pigs bermuda grass hay and they love it, it's a good crop here this year. I can't get other hays locally.
 
I was thinking of going to a place here in town to see if they sell hay. What should I ask them specifically? Do I need to worry about pests or disease in the hay that I buy? The place is called Orscheln's (or something like that) they sell farm and hunting, etc stuff. I could also call around town to see if anyone sells hay, but I need to know what to ask.
Thanks!
 
Bales of second cut Timothey Hay is what you should ask for
 
Your best bet would be to call around your local equine feed stores, then take a visit out to the ones who sell second cut Timothy hay and do a comparison for yourself. Look at both quality and price. The outside of the bale is usually more stiff and brown, but if you can pry the bale open and get a look at the inside, it will give you an idea of what you're getting. I usually toss the hay on the outside of the bale and use the inside only.

If you buy from a reputable feed store that sells quality hay to horse owners, and if they keep their hay stored under a roof to prevent rain from molding it, the hay should be pest and mold free. You can always ask if you feel uncertain. I have been buying hay by the bale for over a year now ($30 for 130 pounds of their BEST timothy) and my chinnies and guineas love it, and we've never had any problems at all.

Before I bought by the bale, I used both Oxbow timothy and KM's timothy/bluegrass. Honestly I never had much of a problem with browning on the Oxbow hay. It's possible the distributor left the hay outside in the sun or it has been sitting on the shelf too long. If I was unable to find quality hay locally, I would still be ordering 50# boxes from Oxbow. I was very happy with their product. I would never recommend Kaytee or Hartz hay.
 
You can use any good quality grass hay like Timmy, Orchard, Bermuda, etc. Pigs don't have to be fed timothy hay exclusively. Just make sure anything you buy is nice and green, good smelling and fairly soft.
 
On a different note, I also ordered a bag of the orchard grass from oxbow and it is very green. So far, I have not found one strand of brown. Tonight I gave them a handful of both orchard and timothy and they did gobble down the timothy hay first then went to the orchard grass when the timothy hay was only brown strands left.

Like I said before, I would love to try KM's but will not pay that outrageous shipping charges. So far I have been unable to find anything locally at our feed stores but am still looking. I did find an add in the newpaper for hay last week that was only $15 a bale but it was a 5x5 foot bale. I unfortunately have no place to keep that amount dry as my basement and garage are somewhat more subject to being damp and humid.
 
I just went to buy some Oxbow Orchard Grass this weekend. I checked out the Timothy, since I was there, and saw that about a quarter of it was brown. The orchard grass, on the other hand, was very green and yummy-looking with just a few brown pieces. However, the bigger bags had some weird black dust on the bottom. (What the heck was it?) I ended up getting just a small bag.

I think it's bizarre that Oxbow has such good pellets but junky hay sometimes. I'm sure part of it has to do with how the shop stores it, but still.
 
It could be that if oxbow's hay is sold in plastic bags, it can't get the air circulation it needs and therefore turns brown and dusty.
 
Oh, that sounds benign enough. I was worried that the black dust was mold spores, which would have been really gross.
 
Oxbow doesn't store their hay as well as km. It tends to get more light and less air circulation which leads to brown hay. Also in shipping the hay can be cooked on the truck or left sitting on the sun and you don't know how long it's been sitting on the shelves. Lastly the hay you get early in the year before the first cutting has sat for at least a few months. I don't know about warmer climates but the last cutting we get here sits for at least 5 months before the next cutting is ready. That hay is the worst. Now if you look at my hay in may through november it's gonna be really green. By Jan at least 1/4 of it will be brown. By the 1st cutting of the year what's left of the hay from last fall will be 90% brown. The fist cutting will also contain the most weeds.
 
Status
This thread has been closed due to inactivity. You can create a new thread to discuss this topic.

Similar threads

B
Replies
2
Views
248
Brownie and Mama
B
MamaOfKayaNLassya
What breed? Hay m kaya :)
Replies
6
Views
475
C
Our girlz&theirworld
Replies
4
Views
357
needaguru
needaguru
DreamsInPink
Replies
7
Views
1K
Guinea Pig Papa
Guinea Pig Papa
L
Replies
3
Views
532
4boipigs
4boipigs
Top