Hay Help Please! :-)

[obsessedwithanimals]

At the moment I've been getting hay from my local garden centre/pet shop but it has been really hit or miss. Some hay has been really dusty and stalky and other hay has been very green, fine and not dusty at all.

I was very pleased yesterday when I got a bag of hay from there and it was green, not very dusty and there were some thick as well as fine strands. Well of course it was too good to be true and I discovered some kind of thistles/thorns. Some were dried and not sharp but some were pretty sharp and large - anyway I can fish them out but some bits have also broken off and are sticking to strands of hay they're quite difficult to spot as they blend into the hay and are very small, some have surprising sharp needles/points.

What do I do? It's taking me ages to sift through the hay and still the pigs are not getting very much. Do the bits of thistle/thorns matter?
Shall I just feed the less good hay untill I can get some hay 4 pets hay or something similar? Thanks

 

[sharonS]

It was a terrible year for Hay last year and most places must be running short of any good quality hay they do have left.
Having said that I buy from the dustfreehay company and I go direct to him, we have a little discussion about hay every time I go; I buy a large bale of soft meadow hay from him, at the moment it is the french hay that he is supplying me with, I have to say the quality is excellent and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to you. He is not the cheapest but having said that, you get good quality without thistles and the dust.

http://www.dustfreehay.co.uk/index.html

 

[Stewybus]

I get my hay from a woman on a farm. She has a horse & a pony & keeps a small field just for hay. It's really good at £4 a bail which lasts me 3 months for 4 piggies who use it for bedding & eating. This time of year it's the last of last years crop & obviously not as good as the hay you get in the middle of the year. I still personally it's better than the pet shop or supermarket hay which is not stored correctly ie it's in plastic bags which contribute to it getting dusty.

I'd maybe try a local farm that supplies it to horse & pony owners because they wouldn't give their expensive animals any rubbish. You could also ask at your local farm store where to get hay.

As far as the less good hay, I'd just make sure that anything dangerous in it is thrown away & give them the rest. This years first hay is usually available in May or June then it's pretty plentiful after that. I wouldn't knowingly give any thistle/thorns to my girls but they're more intelligent that we think they are & would probably avoid anything that wasn't right. I inadvertently cut a little bit of leylandi pine with the girls grass the other day but it was left untouched after they'd eaten all the grass.

 

[Rodentopia]

I'm with Stewybus i get mine from a farm supplies place that sells to the horse trade and again they don't tend to feed rubbish. Always smells beautiful and the boys go mad for it here. I have 10 piggies so a bale lasts me just under two months