Making your own hay?

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chilwell

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I have tried everywhere here and failed to find hay anywhere. My husband brought some back from the UK a few weeks ago which has nearly all gone.

I am currently drying out some fresh grass in the warmest bit of the floor in the house! Anyone else tried this? It might be the only way I can keep giving them hay unfortunately...
 
I don't know how to make hay, but fresh grass is just as good as hay, if you can get it year round. Actually it's better, since it's what they would eat in the wild. The only problem would be that you need to switch gradually to avoid giving them a stomach upset. I wouldn't bother making hay unless you need it for winter.
 
I'd agree with this. Grass is actually better than hay. We only feed hay as a foodstuff because grass doesn't grow all year round so it's dried in the summer to be used as a winter feed. If you can feed fresh grass all year, don't bother making hay.
 
Chewing on grass all day will keep their teeth in check. Because grass has a low nutritional value, wild piggies and bunnies need to eat a LOT of it in order to consume enough calories to stay alive. All that chewing keeps the teeth worn down and it is also very high in fibre. So as long as they are eating as much grass as they would do with hay, I can't see that they would have any teeth problems. Feed hay as and when you can get hold of it but otherwise grass will be fine. Generally speaking, you don't see wild piggies or bunnies eating hay - they only eat grass and whatever else they can reach.
 
Grasses and hay wear down teeth because they contain silica. I don't know if typical garden grasses contain the same amount of silica as the grasses used to make hay; it may be worth planting different ones if you get tooth problems, but I don't think drying the grass will make any difference.
 
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