Hay - Where Do I Start?!

Status
Not open for further replies.
RachelE

RachelE

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 10, 2014
Messages
245
Reaction score
376
Points
430
Location
North Yorkshire
I have 2 guinea pigs who like to lie on hay as well as eat it. I don't live near a town, so I have to order most of my pet supplies online and so I don't get to see before I buy.
Would you recommend a soft hay for bedding and a more fibrous hay for eating, or would one particular kind do both jobs? There's so much choice out there it's hard to know where to start! I'd be grateful for your advice :)
 
I bed mine on vet bed and place hay in a pile. They eat and play in it. I would personally not use hay as bedding due to hay pokes and it needing to be changed daily.
 
I get hay from hay for pets now. I've bought the Ings one I think (might be the meadow hay one). I don't intentionally use it as bedding but they do happily lie on it. I think the only reason to get different ones would be so you can buy cheaper priced bedding one. I don't think the Range sell online but the Pure Pastures meadow hay I have had from them is good and a little bit cheaper than Hay for pets so you might want to consider buying that in bulk for the bedding? For the size and quality, hay for pets is I think next best value for money after the Range pure pastures one. The delivery convenience is of course good.
 
I swear by hay for pets (I use the ings) , I saw it recommended on here in a thread (I will tag you in that thread Rachel) they do three types, it was £16 for a huge bale that includes delivery too. It's lasting me ages, only half way through it, I think it's going to last me appox 4 months I gave it to my 3 boars. I don't use hay as bedding but they eat a lot of this hay. :)
 
How do you stop them using it as bedding? I'm a new owner & have been putting a big pile of hay in daily! Any advice will be gratefully received as I am new to piggie care xx
 
Harad said:
How do you stop them using it as bedding? I'm a new owner & have been putting a big pile of hay in daily! Any advice will be gratefully received as I am new to piggie care xx
Click to expand...
If it is just in one pile then they cannot use it as bedding really. Have you hideys for them to have places to sleep?
 
I had a bad experience with hay for pets and they didn't reply to my 3 emails. I use this:

http://www.timothyhay.co.uk/

I'm really pleased with the quality and the guinea pigs eat lots! It's no more expensive than the meadow hay I bought from our local pet shop.
 
That's a shame @Cookie16 about your experience with Hay for Pets. It's such fab quality and the smell is amazing.

I by farm hay as their main supply but they get daily a variety of the 3 hays form Hay for Pets as well as 2 x per week readigrass.
 
I have been using Supreme Petfoods Natural Meadow Hay from Amazon sold at £2.89 for a 2KG bale, free delivery - I have a limited experience of purchasing hay but this impressed me as its very sweet and fresh compared to the few others I've tried and also the boys love it. Also as I live in Northern Ireland many of the suppliers mentioned won't deliver or will deliver but for a huge extra charge :no:

I also order a basic hay bag from Tesco with my shopping each week to put down as my main bedding (I use newspaper with lots of hay on top) but the Tesco one can vary in quality from lovely to a bit less fresh.

I am using this bedding method as my boys came from a rescue and this is how they keep their piggies - They live in a hutch in a shed (free range) and I shake out the hay daily to remove the droppings from the newspaper and change any wet sheets, then put the hay back and add some more on top - twice a week the whole lots is removed and changed for new - and then I also put big piles of the good hay around the shed in boxes for the piggies to munch on - thought they pretty much eat it all!

Thought about using fleece to reduce cost but I have tons enough washing to do already in the house lol, so I am very happy with this method - and its really satisfying rolling the bedding up the paper into a big fish and chip sized parcel to remove it lol :)
 
good thinking - have just sent an email, will see what they say - most companies quoted me the same cost again as the price of the hay - most be the cost of sticking it on the ferry! lol
 
I'll be interested to see if get a reply to your email, seeing as they ignored mine!

I was unhappy with the price of the samples, it said the samples were free, they only charged for the postage. But the actual price of postage was less than I paid! I felt conned! Now I feel sure I was as they didn't answer my emails!

The hay was fine, but I think the Timothy hay site (also recommended on here) is better quality. My piggies love it!
 
I have been using Peters Pasture Hay. My piggies really seem to like it and it's only 8 dollars (4 pounds) a 1 kg bag... I don't have to buy it that often, Maybe once every 2-3 weeks. I'ts really good! ( Maybe thats why my dog trys to eat it :P )
 
My piggies are bedded on fleece but they always pull the hay out the hay bags and lay on it, I can't stop them doing this but that's piggies for you. They always do things you don't want them to do. I just buy a big bag from my local pet shop and it's sourced locally.

I used to buy from hay for pets but stopped mainly because I haven't got the space to store the bags and also half the piggies were getting hay pokes and bits stuck in their eyes. Can't afford having to treat hay pokes continuously so I had to stop buying unfortunately.
 
I use hayforpets ings hay as bedding/flooring over the whole floor of their cage. It's soft and the piggies lie on the hay and burrow underneath too.

I use Oxbow western Timothy hay as eating hay. It's tough and fibrous and they love the taste of it.
 
Lovely Lady from Hay for Pets just phoned me and the cost for the 9.5kg bag of meadow hay is normally £16 delivered but would have an extra £4 odds added on to get to me - so she said £20 would be the cost. Really pleased she got in touch. She suggested I try samples first though before buying the big one to see if I like it.

Might get some samples just to compare as the difference in the stuff from Supreme Natural Meadow Hay (my no.1) has been much nicer than the stuff from Tesco, which is now my number 2 (only tried 2 so thats no surprise!).

Now need to suss out whether to use nicer hays (which is their main feed) in a rack and the cardboard hideys I build, and use less expensive stuff for the floor....:roll: rather than them free ranging over lots of expensive tasty hay.
 
I use both Hay for Pets and TimothyHay.co.uk :) My boys will just rip the hay out of racks and sleep on it regardless of what I do...
 
smileyface:) said:
Lovely Lady from Hay for Pets just phoned me and the cost for the 9.5kg bag of meadow hay is normally £16 delivered but would have an extra £4 odds added on to get to me - so she said £20 would be the cost. Really pleased she got in touch. She suggested I try samples first though before buying the big one to see if I like it.

Might get some samples just to compare as the difference in the stuff from Supreme Natural Meadow Hay (my no.1) has been much nicer than the stuff from Tesco, which is now my number 2 (only tried 2 so thats no surprise!).

Now need to suss out whether to use nicer hays (which is their main feed) in a rack and the cardboard hideys I build, and use less expensive stuff for the floor....:roll: rather than them free ranging over lots of expensive tasty hay.
Click to expand...

Have you asked timothyhay.co.uk what it would cost for you to get a bag shipped to Ireland? :)
 
must do that - I think Royal Mail postage to Northern Ireland is the same cost of posting anywhere else in the UK but when companies use couriers it really shoots up the price! But they have to get it over that wee bit of water here somehow so I understand. :D
 
Sorry to hijack.. What's the difference between the Ings, Meadow & Timothy hays? I'm tempted to try Hay for Pets, we need some lovely hays! :D

ETA - The original question! My piggies have their hay in a litter tray, which is lined with Fitch. They don't tend to sleep in it (only occasionally), but then they have hideys & snugs to sleep in. My bunny on the other hand, in fact BOTH of them! Will sleep on top of their hay. At the moment, we use the same hay for sleeping & eating.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top