chaff as bedding

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brinkly

mine get chaff as bedding in there cages inside and out side there get some to but as it is something there like to eat is it appropriate to give it to them as bedding or should i stop doing it any views would be really appreciate

I've been told that it is a good grass supplement
 
By chaff i take it you mean the chaff that is used for horse feed?
I have never used this for my guinea pigs but I do use it to slow my very greedy 16.2 mare down when she is eating her feed and i know most of they have mollases in them so i wouldnt think it will do the piggys any good to be eating it at lib
 
i no many poeple that use it in the workhorse mix as food for them it's like hay which has been chopped up very fine

but it porbly isnt good for the piggies bedding as it porbly is a bit like woodshavings iven through it looks nothing like that
 
no its not like wood shavings it is like a brown very fine chopped hay but if you look on the bad they nearly all have mollases in them and mollases is sugar,its like us having access to chocolate all the time ::)
 
it isnt brown its green i dont mean to have a fight or anything but on the cccfa forum most poele use this type of food and one other person i no use it for bedding i relise wat your saying
 
Hi Brinkly,
I am not sure what you are describing,is it dried grass?,.I use dried grass(or ready grass as some people callit) as an additional feed for my pigs.They love it even though they always have hay available.I would not use it as bedding though because it is very rough in texture and I do not think it would be very comfortable.

Mary
 
ok no problem its obviously not what i know as chaff,If its green its now readi grass is it ?Is it a horse feed?
 
i dont no ive been told it is a good supplement for grass but the piggies get it mixed in work hourse mix for there grian
 
Yes,this does sound like dried grass.I use one made by Horrel and Dodson which I buy by the sackful from my animal feed merchant.,who supplies llocal stables.Spillers and Burgess also make this feed.
 
It definatly sounds like one of the ones like readi grass or just grass rather than chaff because chaff is def an oragie brown .
It is quite sharp and i have had it stuck in the end of my finger several times.I wouldnt think it would be a good idea to use it for bedding though
 
In an article titled LET'S KEEP IT SIMPLE, from the CCT Summer 2000 Newsletter Vedra recommended chaff as a bedding for piggies when i asked at my local farm shop they said it was "mollichaff" a horse feed so i didn't buy any.

I have no idea wether all chaff is the same :-\

This is the excerpt from that article
If you have only a few guinea pig's, use Russell Rabbit bedding on newspaper, If you have lots, use Chaff (from farmer's suppliers) on newspaper.

However, this is from 7 years ago & i appreciate opinions change so this may not be relevant now :)
 
I find chaff very sticky due to the mollases in it,Every time i feed the horse i have to wash my hands to get the stickness off them.
I am wondering if the chaff they are talking about is different to horse chaff :-\
 
i dont really no but it isnt sticky but it isnt good wet and as the piggies pea on it i will stop using it as and you oppinons have told me that chaff is bad for there bedding
 
brinkly said:
i dont really no but it isnt sticky but it isnt good wet and as the piggies pea on it i will stop using it as and you oppinons have told me that chaff is bad for there bedding
Click to expand...

I use short-cropped straw, not Russel Rabbit, a different brand but it's lovely & has my piggies approval O0
 
Originally chaff was chopped up hay however a lot of the prepacked chopped hays may contain other things. When I had horses as a teenager there was def no additives.
A horse supplier near me chops his own hay for chaff and also straw for those who want it.
 
You can buy softer chaff that has no mollasses in it (for the fat or laminitic ponies O0). I'm sure that as long as you put a thick layer of newspaper under it, it would be ok. As long as its not sharp and doesn't have mollases it should be ok.

x
 
I get Oat Chaff sometimes, my guineas love foraging in it. I think Badminton make it. Its sot of hay and chopped straw- no mollasses. I've tried Molligrass and didn't like it- too molassed.
 
Hi
I'm new here, but I thought I would just clarify that the Chaff in Australia that Brinkly is referring to is hay that has been chopped up very fine. I wouldn't recommend using it as bedding as it's not very absorbant and when it gets wet it stinks really bad. there is no molassis added to our chaff, although there are some people that sell a mix of grains such as corn & pellets that have some molassis added to them and the the chaff mixed in.

As Brinkly said, many of us on the cccfa add a mixture of different chaff's to our workhorse mix that we feed our guinea pigs. Our grains and pellets are different in Australia and the pellets that have on offer aren't very good nutritionally. Many of us use either Barastoc Workhorse Mix, Gold Cup or Showtorque or something similar and add things such as different chaffs (oaten & lucerne as well as grassy - really what we can get at the time which at the moment isn't very much due to the drought) Lupins for the protein and some people add things like weet bix, cornflakes, bran, oats, rosehip and those sorts of things to make the grains better for them.

Hope this clarifies a few things ...

Thanks
 
You are better off getting hysorb or somethinig similar and using it as bedding. I use it, it is much cheaper then chaff.
As Tanya said we do not have any good priced pellets here in Australia, I have come across one but it is $10 for only 2kg and for 23 guinea pigs that does not go far at all.

Bianca
 
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