Mixing Hay

[AutumnThePig]

Hi,

So, I'm still a little confused about hay. I know they need to have an unlimited amount of fresh hay given daily. My piggies both get Oxbow brand for hay and pellets. I've always given my piggies Timothy Hay, mixed in with Orchard Grass. Just recently, I found that they were getting sick of the Orchard Grass and I purchased Oat Hay about three days ago. I mixed it in with the Timothy and my piggies go absolutely chaotic with it! They prefer the Oat Hay over Orchard Grass. I wanted to ask, is it mandatory for piggies to have a diet based of Timothy hay? For example--if I accidentally ran out of Timothy hay and could not go to the store for some reason, could I just feed them Oat or Orchard Grass Hay? Another general example, if a piggie owner decided they wanted to use only Oat Hay instead of Timothy, would they still be getting the same benefits if they were to eat Timothy? I hope my question makes sense!

Thank you ahead of time

 

[Eriathwen]

I'm extremely allergic to timothy hay, none of my piggies ever get it with any regularity Any grass hay is fine to use for them. In fact on the rare occasions i've given them timothy, they prefer their meadow hay. Its sweeter and has different types of grasses and plants as opposed to just one, so they eat more of it. My lot also prefer oat hay, but it's more expensive than the other types of hay I use so they only really get it as a treat.

 

[Guineapigfeet]

None of mine have ever had Timothy - it sooo expensive! And meadow hay is a mixture of different grasses and herbs etc which feels more interesting!

 

[Alisa3114]

I think it's a minefield knowing which hay to give them I was told to give a mixture of Timothy hay and meadow hay and I didn't realise how different the texture was between different brands. Somebody on here recommended pillow wad meadow hay and it was a lot nicer than the meadow hay they had been having and they seem to love it. The oat hay sounds good I will get some for my two to try

 

[Betsy]

Mine normally have hay from the local farm. As my farm has run out of hay, my piggies are having what I can find in shops that comes in nasty plastic packaging. It's nowhere near as popular as the best green organic sweet smelling hay they are used to and I begrudge paying more that 5 times the price for vastly inferior hay. If you have a local farm near you it's worth finding out if they sell hay by the farm bale if you can store that much of course.

 

[Caris]

I started off with a mixture of Timothy Hay and Meadow Hay after reading that that was recommended, but found that my boys (who seem to be the fussiest creatures going) picked the tastiest bits of the Timothy Hay and left the rest. They didn't even bother to touch the Meadow Hay! I was having to throw away quite a bit at the end of each day and wasting an awful lot overall, and they weren't eating as much as they should have, so I took the decision to take the Timothy Hay out of the equation. Best thing I ever did! They now eat 4 times as much hay as they did before (I get through a lot more and barely have to throw any away!), and they seem to be a lot happier and healthier now that they don't have the option to be picky. My girls now just have Meadow Hay, too, because it's easiest to give them the same, and they seem fine with it.

I've also found that reducing the amount of hay I give them each time, but giving it to them more frequently (if that makes sense!) keeps them more interested. They always get excited by a "fresh" pile of hay, so end up eating more this way (sometimes I cheat and just fluff the hay pile back up again and this seems to trick them into thinking the hay is new), and then I also just mix up how I give it to them. Apparently stuffing hay in toilet rolls makes it even more interesting!

And for some reason Timothy Hay really sets my allergies off, so I'm pretty glad not to be using it anymore!

 

[VickiA]

Mine all have hay trays with meadow hay. They eat it, sit in it, wee on it and strew it around the cage liberally.
A couple of times a day I give them a “treat” of Timothy hay or some other special hay. Sometimes I put it in a bowl. Other times I spread it on their hay tray. Piggies love to forage and find the best bits, so either way works fine for them. But it means I waste less of the expensive high quality stuff.