Total hay refusal

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lizzie_71

lizzie_71

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A couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of herby harvest hay from pets at home. My piggies loved it and couldn't get enough. Now it is all finished, I have switched back to normal timothy hay which has always been fine before. But they now won't touch the normal hay.

The same full rack of hay has sat there untouched for 3 days. Every other scrap of food in the cage has been eaten, and they are now eating cardboard toilet roll tubes and still ignoring the hay!

I am not letting them win on this. I am not buying the expensive hay app the time. If they don't eat what they have, then tough luck.

I am just wondering if they will make themselves ill if they continue to refuse hay?
 
i dont know if the hay refusal will cause illness, but i do know that gilbert did the same thing. afterwards though, he went back to it and he loves it all over again, but I'm sure he hasnt forgotten the good, EXPENSIVE hay. if they don't eat the hay after a week, i think you need to find an alternative.mallethead
 
the problem is without hay its only a short matter of time until there teeth get to long and that is quite a serious problem,guineas are not like dogs,with dogs if you repeatedly serve up the same thing most of the time they will accept it but with pigs when they decide they really dont want something thats kind of it!
I would not leave it a week,teeth can overgrow within a weeks time
No matter how expensive it is your piggies need hay,its very important to overall health as well as keeping teeth in check,i had this same issue that after orchard grass mine refused to eat meadow so now they are on oxbow orchard grass which is not cheap but it keeps them happy and healthy so its worth it x
 
hi

lizzie_71 said:
A couple of weeks ago I bought a bag of herby harvest hay from pets at home. My piggies loved it and couldn't get enough. Now it is all finished, I have switched back to normal timothy hay which has always been fine before. But they now won't touch the normal hay.

The same full rack of hay has sat there untouched for 3 days. Every other scrap of food in the cage has been eaten, and they are now eating cardboard toilet roll tubes and still ignoring the hay!

I am not letting them win on this. I am not buying the expensive hay app the time. If they don't eat what they have, then tough luck.

I am just wondering if they will make themselves ill if they continue to refuse hay?
Click to expand...

you can try ready grass mine are all young start of on that and now they are trying haygood luck you can get small bags from most pet shops
 
Try mixing the two sorts of hay....more of the timothy one than the other and see. Yes, they might just pick the expensive stuff out but they also might start eating everything again.
Also reduce the amount of other food given, just for a couple of days. Then they have to eat what's there.
Take the toiletrolls out for that time.

Good luck!
 
Thanks everyone. I don't have any of the expensive stuff left and I can't go to Pets at Home till Friday, so I can't mix it together :(

But they did eat a huge pile of dried grass yesterday which I had forgotten about when I posted. So it isn't all bad news. Toilet rolls are gone this morning (eaten in the night)!

I will keep an eye on things and see where we are by Friday when I have a free day to go shopping if need be.
 
Just sit it out - they will eat hay, if there is nothing else and they are hungry. Better mix it up from now on or give it only in small amounts as a special treat.

I do that with different quality hay.
 
Well, I won the battle of wills! They are now eating the timothy hay again. I knew I'd win in the end, I will not let myself be outwitted by a pair of furballs lol!

The Herby Harvest is going to be an occasional treat, if I decide to buy it again!
 
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