Hay holders

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Kmh1305

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Hope you don’t mind me posting this on here but looking for some advice on hayracks/holders! I’ve always just put the hay in a pile for bedding and another few clumps for eating but it all gets mixed up and messy so I’m constantly wasting lots. Can anyone recommend a good alternative the keep the hay for eating clean and dry? I’ve seen some reviews on things saying some are unsafe so thought I would ask on here before I purchase one. Thanks x
 
Fabric hay bags are always a good option for keeping it off the floor, we also use a corner rabbit litter tray but they still sit in it. There will always be lots of waste though!
 
My personal take on it is that mess and waste is part and parcel. I have actually got rid of all hayracks and just put their hay on the floor, I also have a couple of corner litter trays. They are bedded on meadow hay anyway. I found that they didn’t eat as much as when I was using hay racks for their Timothy hay plus all they did was pull it out of the racks and poop on it anyway so I was refilling the racks as much as I do now with piles of hay so it didn’t actually save hay.
But yes some hayracks are unsafe and some are also far too small to be of any use.
 
I haven't found a great solution to hay waste, they just seem to love relaxing in a pile of their hay. I've used fabric haybags, empty boxes stuffed with hay, and guinea dad hay boxes, they all only help a little. The girls still pull the hay out of any holder I put it in and make a mess of it. For tidiness, I usually have their hay in a litter box so they keep the hay and most of their waste in that easier to clean area, but it still wastes a lot of potential food.
 
When I had hay racks my pigs just used to pull the hay out of them so they could sit on it while eating it, i found that this meant there was a lot of waste as i kept filling up the racks but they would pull it out straight away so i got rid of the hay racks and now just use litter trays. This means that hay doesn’t get spread all over the fleece and is contained, however there is still wastage as they like to go to the toilet where they eat. As a general rule hay and wastage come hand in hand with piggies because they are quite messy little things!
 
I’ve just bought the Elmato hay drum and I’m really happy with it. It’s still a bit messy, but nowhere near as much as the tray and racks I used to use. I have also put it on a plastic tablecloth thing so I can just sweep up the bits around it. It came with string on the top in case you wanted to hang it somewhere, which I cut off, and because my pigs are big boys they can’t get their heads through the 2cm gap between the bars (obviously I wouldn’t recommend for small pigs though). I’m saving lots of money on hay wastage too 🙌
 
I have 2 hay racks, a hutch full of hay and a tray of hay. I kind of rotate them, so for example I know they mostly poop in the hutch so if there is hay left in the tray and racks I empty this into the hutch (After I’ve cleaned the poop out) and put new hay in the racks and tray. I did go in today though and found mittens sitting in the plastic rack i hang from the side, don’t even know how he got in it. Anyway he jumped straight out so I checked and he had done loads of poops in it so I couldn’t rotate this 🤦🏼‍♀️
 
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