bales of hay! suitable for piggies?

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paul1960

paul1960

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HI with the cost of hay, on the increase, I have been told it would be far cheaper to purchase a bail of hay from a farm, and use it for bedding hay for the guinea pigs... Now before i rush out and buy one. I would like to hear from people in the know first.. WOULD a bail of hay be suitable for bedding of piggies? thanks for answers.
 
i've always bought bales of hay from a nearby farm - i've never had any problems with it at all. it costs £5 and lasts some weeks, where as buying small bags from a shop would cost a lot more.
 
Yup we use hay bales here for bedding (and plenty of munching too!) and add "posh" hays to hay racks/balls etc.

If you can find a farm shop or livery near you that will probably be the most cost effective place to buy a bale from. If you can't find anywhere in Borough Green or Sevenoaks, Tanyard Farm Livery in Tonbridge do hay by the bales. They also stock large bags at reasonable cost if you don't have room for a bale. Another stockist is Broadfeed in TWells they do both full and half bales and they will wrap them up in black sacks to make transporting them easier. Prices seem to range between £6 and £8/per bale in this area at the moment.

Hope that helps:)
 
I use bales of hay from my brother in laws farm. I have no problems as at all with it and it is sooo much cheaper than buying it from a pet shop/agricultural supplier.
 
bales of hays are great value for money, if you have space to store it. My piggies love hay as bedding :))
 
We tried a bale from a farm localish to us and the piggies liked it so apart from having to store it in our cubby hole, were happy.
The second bale though, the piggies were scratching like mad so we threw it out and resorted back to smaller bags from shops.
Couldn't spot any unwelcome visitors on them but it just made me paranoid - most people seem to be lucky with bales...guess we weren't...:x ;)
 
Guinea pig slave, have you thought about trying Oxbow timothy hay if you prefer buying larger amounts?

A 50lb box costs around £75.00 with delivery, although there are smaller sizes avaliable too. The quality is top notch, the pigs love it, it's lasts ages (I have six piggies) and best of all it is heat treated before being exported from the states so there are no nasty critters to be found! :)
 
RolyPolyPigs said:
Guinea pig slave, have you thought about trying Oxbow timothy hay if you prefer buying larger amounts?

A 50lb box costs around £75.00 with delivery, although there are smaller sizes avaliable too. The quality is top notch, the pigs love it, it's lasts ages (I have six piggies) and best of all it is heat treated before being exported from the states so there are no nasty critters to be found! :)
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I bought some for Christmas and they don't like it :x
Having 18 of the little divas, I now buy Wilko's Meadow and Timothy hay which they love...works out a wee bit more expensive per month but they're happy with it ...for now :))
Tried almost every brand recommended - they won't even touch the Timothy Western hay which was £30 for two small boxes and beautiful long green stalky stuff :x
mallethead
 
Typical isn't it? you fork out all that money and they turn their little noses up at it! :)) Have you given Orchard Grass a go? not as stalky but still lovely and green.

My pigs used to have wilkos hay but ended up catching lice :{ I think it was bad luck more than anything, it's a shame as it is pretty good quality but I don't fancy the pigs having to go through all that again (this was a good few months ago though so hopefully all those bags have gone now!)
 
I would rather buy local hay than anything imported and get bales from our nearest equestrian store, £5 a bale, lovely meadow hay and never had any problems with nasties in it :)
 
I get my bale for nothing off a work colleague who does pest control on a local farm.
 
flips said:
I buy bales of hay. The quality can vary quite a lot so it's worth shopping around. :)
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this is what one person has told me.. quote..


Hay is just hay really, it's all just about the same.
But i don't think Haylage (which is often given to horses) is suitable for guinea pigs, though, as it's fermented.

i had one outbreak of lice (only one in 5 years!) in the first year i had guineas, which could have been in the hay, but it cleared up easily with a topical insecticide spray from pets at home.

since then though, i've not had any infestations which could have come from the hay at all.

the only real down-side to baled hay is that it's not dust extracted and can have bits and bobs mixed in with it (sticks, stones, feathers, bones etc.)
as a result, it's a bit dustier than shop bought hay, but that's something which has never caused any trouble for my lot (i, on the other hand sneeze for an age after dealing with it!)
 
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