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Oxbow Timothy Hay Quality Control Issue

Viv52k

New Born Pup
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I've been buying Oxbow Timothy Hay for over 3 years now and noticed within the last year since the shortage the quality has plummeted. The hay is now so brittle and sharp I have to wear gloves to grab it out of the bag, and this time I even found little twigs and spikes every handful! Has anyone else noticed this? And does anyone know of alternative brands available in the Montreal Quebec area?
 

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I live in the UK and buy the vast majority of hay by the bale from a farm shop. It’s actually grown on the farm organically and is very reasonably priced. Is there any farm shops/horse suppliers near you otherwise have a look online for hay suppliers selling to the pet market
Good luck x
 
I'm in the UK so I don't know what's available in your area. Have you tried others in the Oxbow range? Small pet select is meant to be quite good. I agree with @Bill & Ted , if you have a farm shop near by or a farmer that sells hay, try that.
 
We get meadow hay and its does have various types of seed heads in sometimes. I do take out anything really massive and spikey (e.g. we once had a bag with a couple of massive thistles in it) but overall I tend to think these natural variations are just part of having a natural product, and probably reflective of what piggies would see "in the wild". Presumably, the only way to avoid this would be to use some kind of pesticides to try to kill the non grass plants that grow in the field, but I'm not sure how that would then impact they hay either... However, not sure if Timothy Hay is supposed to be more consistent than Meadow Hay?
 
We get meadow hay and its does have various types of seed heads in sometimes. I do take out anything really massive and spikey (e.g. we once had a bag with a couple of massive thistles in it) but overall I tend to think these natural variations are just part of having a natural product, and probably reflective of what piggies would see "in the wild". Presumably, the only way to avoid this would be to use some kind of pesticides to try to kill the non grass plants that grow in the field, but I'm not sure how that would then impact they hay either... However, not sure if Timothy Hay is supposed to be more consistent than Meadow Hay?
In my 4 years of buying Timothy Hay from this company I've had variations in soft vs tougher hay but I've never found these spiky seed capsules before. I didn't mind at first but I've made it halfway through the bag and I'm now grabbing 3-5 spike balls per handful of hay, it's too many to remove by hand and the hay is so tough I have to wear gloves to grab it so I don't get splinters. It seemed like the hay used to be 2nd or 3rd but now more like 1st cut but expensive. I'm looking into local places were I can purchase 2nd cut hay in bulk.
 
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