How much hay

[Inky and cookie]

Hiya guys I’m asking for a friend.
My friend just adopted two outdoor pigs.
She gives them hay in the rack. Hay in the little chew boxes but they eat it straight away.
She has to fill the hay racks twice a day as they eat everything immediately.
They also eat nuggets and greens immediately.
They weren’t neglected as such before but I know my friend feeds them better (as in a better variety of greens)
She wants to know if she could be over feeding them? I thought they always needed hay available.
Any advice welcome x

 

[artcasper]

You can never have enough hay! Its 80% of their diet and they need access to lots of it at all times x

 

[sport_billy]

Always unlimited hay for piggies. It is so important for teeth and guts. I am never happier than seeing piggies eating hay.

 

[Betsy]

How about suggesting your friend puts a big pile of hay down for the Piggies to play in and eat. This will also give them some enrichment.

 

[Piggies&buns]

As the others have said - loads of hay is necessary. My hay piles gets refilled more than twice a day!
Mine live outdoors (well, in my shed) and outdoor piggies need lots of hay to snuggle into to keep warm so I would fill the entire hutch with hay and ditch the hay racks altogether

 

[Pigwhisperer]

... and top it up with several big handfuls of fresh hay daily!

Don't worry too much that they eat the hay that they poo in as half of their poo is edible too.

Just clean the whole lot out at least once a week, more frequently if you can.

 

[Sweet Potato]

yeah, constant stream of hay in constant stream of poops out that's the way of a healthy piggie

 

[Claire W]

I couldn’t agree more. They need hay, hay and more hay

 

[Inky and cookie]

Thankyou everyone
I’ve passed the advice on to her x

 

[Minipiggies]

One of my favourite things is the piggies’ reaction when I top their hay up in the evening. They get so excited, it makes me so happy! They have a big pile of meadow hay to burrow in, but I top with nice piles of green Timothy.