For those who buy the Haybox Timothy Hay, do your piggies *only* eat the ears of the hay? The stalks are of no interest to them as they rummage through the hay rack to pick out those titbits. I don't know if it is worth buying another box (I find it expensive) even if the foraging does give them so much pleasure. I guess I should wait to see if the stalks are of more interest once every last ear of hay has been picked out from the original 2.5 kg! (Needless to say, they are given other hay -- the Pillow Wad meadow hay and the Haybox meadow hay, which is everywhere else.)
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Ears of hay
- Thread starter KHBz
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PigglePuggle
Senior Guinea Pig
Initially my piggies were quite picky with it but they have adjusted well and now eat much more of it! If I put in a big pile after breakfast at 7am then when I come home from work they have gone back to the coarser strands, mine get meadow hay too and order of preference is usually the tastiest bits of timothy, then every scrap of meadow hay, then they are usually eating the rest of the timothy by about 3pm or 4pm. I top up all the hay again after dinner and poop scooping, 6-7pm 
I did wonder to start with if it was worth it but as we have a piggy who previously had dental issues and another piggy prone to bloat I like them to get lots of coarse fibre, and it is usually these two piggies who prefer the coarser timothy bits!
I did wonder to start with if it was worth it but as we have a piggy who previously had dental issues and another piggy prone to bloat I like them to get lots of coarse fibre, and it is usually these two piggies who prefer the coarser timothy bits!
That's interesting that they respond to it in a similar way but that they then *do* eat it when that's all that is left. I was thinking that I don't have the heart to stop buying it given that they will even accept a carefully selected, particularly juicy ear of hay in place of (or as) a treat! Good point that it's so good for them. They had better start eating the coarse bits too! I'll be interested to see what happens now that almost all the ears in the box have gone. As for the HayBox meadow hay, they adore it -- it's so different from all the other meadow hays I have tried.
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Mine just hoover up the whole lot
They know what's good for them! Sensible piggies.
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Greedy more like!
eileen
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you can get soft/2nd cutting timothy hay from Timothyhay.co.uk.mine eat all of this,it is very green.my piggies will not touch the 1st cutting /course hay !
So that's what a second cutting means! I didn't know how the first and second cuttings differed! I think I'll have to take a look at Timothyhay.co.uk if they really won't even eat the hay-minus-ears out of desperation. Thank you.
Posyrose
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I bought my first haybox of Timothy hay a few weeks ago. Lovely quality hay but difficult to store. It's not a hay to play in. I might get the mixed meadow/Timothy hay in future
eileen
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1st cutting is course with seedheads and not so much leaf.2nd cutting is later in the year,it has more leaf and is less course.2018 we had a hot summer that produced a 2nd cutting !in the uk we do not have the best climate for growing timothy hay.american timothy hay has 1st,2nd,3rd cutting.oxbow and small pet select do 2nd cutting......not cheap !ive a box of 3rd cutting timothy hay from small pet select,its so soft mine will not eat it,ive a 10kg box !fussy piggies.
My first box was mixed and in the time the piggies haven't eaten the stems of the Timothy Hay, I have ordered a couple more boxes of just the meadow hay. It is really lovely: long, soft and green, just so different from other hay. (After a hay poke, this is perfect.) However, I just use it as top layer on the various piles of Pillow Wad hay as it would just be too expensive at the rate they get through it. (They'll eat the normal hay too but this, they love. They also don't burrow in the hay -- just lie ontop of it.)
Thank you -- that's really interesting to know. I never imagined that certain types of hay could cause such excitement and joy in little creatures! They are straight out of the sleeping area when we replace newspaper, shavings and hay in the morning, leaping ontop of the fresh stuff despite a sleeping area still full of it. (They are in a hutch and in an insulated outbuilding / shed for the winter.) Lovely that is so easy to give so much happiness!
