Hay/weeds?

[adrian]

Hi,

I have two lovely guinea pigs, and I've never been able to get hay for them. I know how important it is and I've read all about it, but I just haven't been able to find it where I live. I give them concentrated feed and lots of veggies; they are healthy and doing fine

Now, there's this vacant lot near my office and they just chopped down all the tall grass-like weed growing in there. Now that it's drying, it looks a lot like hay, I guess it is hay? since it's just tall dry grass.

I don't know what it's called, so that's why I haven't been able to look it up online. Do you think it's OK to use this as hay and for my pigs to eat it? Or am I being a dork and I'm actually looking at a sea of hay? I guess I'm being cautious since this stuff is just growing in there freely and I don't know if there can be something potentially harmful.

 

[twiams]

I wouldn't trust anything that just grows randomly because it could have any number of animals urine and other nasty's on it ! Packaged hay is usually put through a process of drying and dust extracting to remove this, and in all honest, it just looks like a lot of dead grass stuff, which may have had some form of poison on it you never know,

As you seem to say you know the importance of hay, it should really become a high priority to get hold of some, it will save you alot of vet bills as hay keeps piggies teeth trim and piggies teeth continually grow which can cause alot of problems, have you tried local pet shops, horse supply stores ? or if all else fails you can buy it online, i know you say you know it's important but if you do then why don't you have it ? it really is not an option, it's 80% of a piggies diet we're talking about ! i don't wish to make you feel bad its just the piggies I'm looking out for !