Hay & Allergy?

[deltakc]

Hello,

I was hoping that someone might be able to recommend a good quality, not too strong smelling hay? I'm a new piggie owner and so far I haven't done much research. My local pet shop have two different kinds...the normal one is rubbish but doesn't cause me any issues and the other one is more like grass and smells so strong that after just a couple of mins my eyes and throat were itching.

I've had a look at the site and there are a few types of hay that people recommend but I don't want to order it online and find that it is really affecting me. Does anyone else have this problem?

 

[Pigglywinks]

I have quite severe hay allergies too and keep my 4 pigs in my bedroom. I've tried many brands over the years and one that I found not to be too dusty is Pets at Home own brand timothy, the hay is of quite a good quality and is nice and stalky. I have also tried Alfalfa King's timothy, it's lovely and green but I once made the mistake of emptying a bag into another container, I then unfortunately spent the rest of the day wheezing and with a tight chest due to the amount of dust. Burgess Excel do their own herbage which isn't extremely dusty either, many pet shops will sell various meadow hay but the dust levels will vary depending on the brand or farm it has come from. I am going to be investing in an air purifier to see if that makes any difference.

 

[deltakc]

What we do for our pets

I'm not sure it is the dust that is causing me the problem. The pet shop normal hay is very coarse and poor quality and I'm sure it is very dusty but it doesn't really smell (if that makes any sense). However, the better quality hay was supposed to be reduced dust and is more like grass but has a really strong grassy smell and it is the smell that is getting to me. I had to put the bag outside because I couldn't stand it anymore.

Thanks for the recommendation, I might pay a visit to pets at home and see if I can have a wee smell at their hay {:|