Buying Hay

RingoandOlly

RingoandOlly

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Okay, I know there are a lot of threads on hay and this is just going to be another one to add to the pile but I can't find any specific answers for what I'm trying to find out. Since I got my guinea pigs in February, I have been buying Burgess feeding hay from my local pets at home but it's getting very pricey. I wondered if anyone has moved from buying hay regularly from a pet shop to buying online and if it is worth the switch. I have so far found out that hay and straw and dust free hay are good sites to buy from. I was thinking that if I do buy online I will buy the three sample pack from hay and straw to try it out and a box of timothy hay from dust free hay. Is this a good idea and will it be possibly a little less expensive in the long run?
Thank you in advance for any contributions! x
 
Hi @RingoandOlly , I too used to buy the Burgess hay far too regularly and at ever increasing costs, but have recently started using Dust Free Hay - I ordered the two pack of Timothy and Soft Hay, my boys love both of them. The packs are enormous and were delivered next day all-in £21.99, I've had it roughly two weeks and am a little under 1/4 way through each bag (I have two boars who have a constant mound of hay). It's definitely more economical (for me at least)..
 
I use the Burgess hay and I order it off Amazon on Subscribe and Save so it ends up being £13.65 for 3kg. This works out cheaper for me rather than ordering from Dust Free Hay, which I looked into in the past. Pets At Home is pretty much a rip off for everything, so I only use them for hay emergencies.
 
Haha, yeah they are. I think I'll try out hay and straw because everyone says it's great and it's £18 for 9.5kg. I will order the sample pack first though. I love Burgess hay though. x
 
RingoandOlly said:
Haha, yeah they are. I think I'll try out hay and straw because everyone says it's great and it's £18 for 9.5kg. I will order the sample pack first though. I love Burgess hay though. x
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Dust free hay is great, the soft hay is wonderful. The hard hay is in my opinion to hard. Please avoid straw - as it is not good for piggies
 
sport_billy said:
Dust free hay is great, the soft hay is wonderful. The hard hay is in my opinion to hard. Please avoid straw - as it is not good for piggies
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No worries, I would never give my piggies straw, it's just the name of the site. :)
 
Go for samples, let the furry bellies decide :))
 
The Hay Experts have some lovely stuff, although I recently thought I'd try the Selective hay and that is awful. Not their fault though. I just love their dried plant goodie bags! And by me I mean the pigs :))

The best has probably been the bales from Timothy Hay, lasted my 4 girls ages! Think it was £22 and lasted at least 3 months or something? I had to get different hay too just as a bit of a change as they seem to get bored of the same hay!
:doh:

Oxbow hay is great too, I really must try ings as I've heard a lot about it but never tried it. Is it Timothy or Meadow? My girls don't tend to eat Meadow :td:
 
This is what is says on the site about Ings:

'Our speciality top quality ‘Ings’ hay which comes from traditionally managed water meadows. These meadows have no chemical fertilizer or sprays applied. They gain their fertility from regular deposits of silt when the meadows flood and subsequently this organically grown hay is awash with an amazing variety of flowers and grasses and smells natural and sweet.'

So I gather that it's more like meadow?
 
Ooh that does sound nice, yes it sounds like meadow. If it's such high quality they might like it anyway. Worth a go! If they don't like it it'll just become a very expensive hay tray liner :))
 
Cavy Kung-Fu said:
Ooh that does sound nice, yes it sounds like meadow. If it's such high quality they might like it anyway. Worth a go! If they don't like it it'll just become a very expensive hay tray liner :))
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Haha yeah, I'm going to order a sample pack just in case! Some people have said that the ings has twigs in and stuff but others say they just give them to their pigs to chew so I think one really has to try it out before they can decide. x
 
Ings hay is great. It does have quite a few different flowers and leaves in it so it's not so good for piggies with calcium issues but most other pigs love it.
 
Oh, and buying online is waay cheaper. I've had to stop ordering in bulk online because of a change in job and the cost of hay had gone up loads since! And it's virtually impossible to find good Timothy Hay in a pet shop
 
RingoandOlly said:
Haha yeah, I'm going to order a sample pack just in case! Some people have said that the ings has twigs in and stuff but others say they just give them to their pigs to chew so I think one really has to try it out before they can decide. x
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Yea definitely! How much is a sample pack? I have 4 piggies so if it's expensive but small it probably won't be worth it for me :))
 
Jaycey said:
Oh, and buying online is waay cheaper. I've had to stop ordering in bulk online because of a change in job and the cost of hay had gone up loads since! And it's virtually impossible to find good Timothy Hay in a pet shop
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Yeah, I totally don't have 10 spare bags of hay now or anything for precisely this reason :whistle:
 
RingoandOlly said:
Haha, don't worry, nobody knows a thing
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Well, they do now lol. Oops. Never mind.

I used to only buy Burgess hay but price aside I really haven't been happy with it for the last few bags. I bought the 10 bales from Nature's Own, and you can only buy direct from them in bundles of 5, I guess to make shipping more economical. The bags are only 750g each and I'm sure some of them aren't filled as well as others, but the boys love the 5 a Day hay from them and when you're buying 10 at once those things even out, I guess?
 
Lorcan said:
Well, they do now lol. Oops. Never mind.

I used to only buy Burgess hay but price aside I really haven't been happy with it for the last few bags. I bought the 10 bales from Nature's Own, and you can only buy direct from them in bundles of 5, I guess to make shipping more economical. The bags are only 750g each and I'm sure some of them aren't filled as well as others, but the boys love the 5 a Day hay from them and when you're buying 10 at once those things even out, I guess?
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Sounds good. At this rate I may need to experiment with quite a few hays. :))
 
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