Meadow Vs Timothy Hay (yes Another Hay Topic! :) )

Amiee Dalzell

Amiee Dalzell

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Hay again everyone! (yup, that's was bad...)
I'm currently feeding my 4 piggies Timothy Hay. Here in NZ, Timothy Hay isnt produced a lot and so I can only get it in 1kg bags for around $15 each. My girls will happily chew through it in 3-4 days. We do have a lot of Meadow Hay here and I can get a massive bale relatively cheap. I've been reading up a lot about the differences between the two and am stuck on wether to start them on a mix of the two? I'd mix some of their timothy in with the new meadow.
Ive read that if your piggie has urine deposits (I've been finding some deposits regularly that are now starting to calm down) that meadow hay would make it worse because it has more calcium?
I want to give my babies the best and don't really want the budget to come into it but I can't help feeling there's a better way of getting their hay.
 
That sounds ridiculously expensive for Timothy Hay. I would use meadow hay and add in some Timothy, and feed grass as well. If there is a calcium issue, you could reduce pellets and high calcium veg instead. I'm definitely not an expert on diet though, just saying what I personally would try in your place.
 
Mine loooovvee the American Timothy hay that you can buy in packets etc.

I've currently got 1 and a half small bales of what the local livery stables (that grow all their own hay) describe as Timothy Hay, which looking at it is probably from a 'Timothy' grass, but which the pigs really aren't enjoying for eating. At £4.00 a bale I'm now using it as general bedding hay, it's not as 'sharp' as the Timothy that comes in the packs so it's working out ok.

For eating my herd are merrily noshing their way through assorted general meadow hays that I've collected from all over the place. I tend to think that pigs are pretty good at (mostly) eating what's good for them - and I think as long as they're eating some sort of hay for the majority of their diet it won't matter too much what sort of hay is actually being eaten.

Obviously if you've got pigs that are prone to bladder stone issues etc. you'll need to be prescriptive.
 
Reenie said:
That sounds ridiculously expensive for Timothy Hay. I would use meadow hay and add in some Timothy, and feed grass as well. If there is a calcium issue, you could reduce pellets and high calcium veg instead. I'm definitely not an expert on diet though, just saying what I personally would try in your place.
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Thank goodness I'm not the only one that thinks is too expensive !
Thank you for the suggestions. I have cut down on pellets and feed a low calcium diet as well. I've also cut out Cos (Romaine) lettuce just incase and it seems to be working. The past two days I havent found any concentrated deposits. I think I'll pick up a small bag of Meadow Hay and see if my piggies like it :)
 
I popped into Animates today and they had 2 huge bags of Meadow Hay for $56. I mixed in a bag of Timothy Hay to half a bag of Meadow which will last me forever. Most importantly, my piggies seem to like it :)
(don't worry they have massive piles of hay, I just put some of the new hay down for them to try)
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Hi, for the past 20 years I’ve always used meadow hay in the bedding areas (of course they eat it too) and other more expensive types of hays such as Timothy in a separate eating areas like trays or boxes.
 
What beautiful piggies there.
I give mine a variety of different hays including meadow hay.
I haven’t yet found hay they don’t like.
 
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