What Brands Of Hay Are Good?

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Kylie80

Kylie80

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Thinking about getting some hay online as we can only get Oxbow here and piggies abit fussy with Timothy hay. They currently have Oxbow Western Timothy hay and Peter's Timothy and Rye. The Peter's has clumps of dirt in it and I'm not happy with that and neither are piggies. They seem to prefer the Oxbow Timothy hay over the Rye though and love the Oxbow orchard grass and botanical hay but dont eat alot of Timothy hay. What other brands of hay do your piggies like?
 
I'm really lucky in that my girls aren't fussy with hay, so they have any one of three from local pet shops/supermarkets! However, when it comes to forage bits and veggies, they're proper fusspots!

I think it's really a matter of taste dependant on the piggy, but it's obviously not good to have to buy a whole bag only for them not to like it :roll:

I've heard of some people getting samples of food, I wonder if any stores/sites do sample of hay for people to try? :hmm:
 
I'm having this dilemma too. It's nearly impossible to get decent hay here! Previously, I used to get American Pet Diner's Timothy hay. My piggies absolutely loved it, and I loved the way it smelled, it was nice and green and it has long strands. But alas, mypetwarehouse don't stock it anymore :'( I've just bought some Oxbow Timothy with Birch in it, but haven't opened it yet.
 
AlbiePercy said:
I'm having this dilemma too. It's nearly impossible to get decent hay here! Previously, I used to get American Pet Diner's Timothy hay. My piggies absolutely loved it, and I loved the way it smelled, it was nice and green and it has long strands. But alas, mypetwarehouse don't stock it anymore :'( I've just bought some Oxbow Timothy with Birch in it, but haven't opened it yet.
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Yep the lack of hay situation is driving me nuts and the farm produce stores are pretty much just selling lucerne hays around here. Thats pretty much the way it is with alot of things isn't it, you really like a product and they stop selling it.
 
mine like timothy hay co.uk...on line,this year it is very green and from the uk.I think it is as good as the American Timothy Hay,but there ultimate hay is oxbow orchard grass...but just a treat.Dust free Hay ..on line is good,but is expensive.:)
 
Oxbow do a range of hays, I've heard of KMS Hayloft too, and Zooplus. We have Oxbow Timothy as our main hay, with grass hay for their nests and botanical hay because why not.
So far, ours seem to like all the Oxbow hays, we've never tried a different brand! Except the hay that the piggies came with, but that was such bad quality, ugh. Good luck though, piggies can be little fusspots!
 
My Oreo's favourite is definitely the Oxbow hays. He loves all of them but only has it as a treat because it's so expensive.

Oreo's regular hay is the Burgess Excel Marigold and Dandelion, which he also loves. I've used it for a few years and it's always really good quality.
 
TheCavySlave said:
Oxbow do a range of hays, I've heard of KMS Hayloft too, and Zooplus. We have Oxbow Timothy as our main hay, with grass hay for their nests and botanical hay because why not.
So far, ours seem to like all the Oxbow hays, we've never tried a different brand! Except the hay that the piggies came with, but that was such bad quality, ugh. Good luck though, piggies can be little fusspots!
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As of last night they scoffed down a heap of the oxbow timothy hay so maybe its the timothy with rye they dont like. They have not tried the the oxbow oat hay yet. Did your piggies like it?
 
chesca_27 said:
My Oreo's favourite is definitely the Oxbow hays. He loves all of them but only has it as a treat because it's so expensive.

Oreo's regular hay is the Burgess Excel Marigold and Dandelion, which he also loves. I've used it for a few years and it's always really good quality.
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I have seen that burgess hay online and also heard that guinea pigs love dandelion but I think i read somewhere dandelion was high in calcium but I might be wrong. Internet is always confusing when they can eat one thing on one site and another site says they cant. But if youve been using for years with no issues it must be ok.
 
Kylie80 said:
As of last night they scoffed down a heap of the oxbow timothy hay so maybe its the timothy with rye they dont like. They have not tried the the oxbow oat hay yet. Did your piggies like it?
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Hmm, haven't tried those yet! We don't have easy access to all the types of Oxbow hay, not sure why I put that:hmm:anyway, I heard that Timothy hay is slightly easier on the gut and is recommened by most vets. If your pigs don't like a certain thing, don't give up! Ours wouldn't eat pepper and now they scoff it down. So, if there's a type of hay you have the best access too but they don't like it, keep trying. I just think they don't like change.
Either that, or they're fussy:P
 
chesca_27 said:
Oreo's regular hay is the Burgess Excel Marigold and Dandelion, which he also loves. I've used it for a few years and it's always really good quality.
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Kylie80 said:
I have seen that burgess hay online and also heard that guinea pigs love dandelion but I think i read somewhere dandelion was high in calcium but I might be wrong. Internet is always confusing when they can eat one thing on one site and another site says they cant. But if youve been using for years with no issues it must be ok
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Mine also love the Burgess hay with dandelion & marigold. And yes, too much dandelions isn't great, but Burgess know this and there isn't too many dandelions in there, they have to eat quite a lot of grass before they come across a flower, but then when they do get a flower they are delighted! :D They like the Burgess chamomile too.
 
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Chock has Burgess barn dryed forage hay
Burgess dandelion and marigold herbage hay
Natures touch wild mountain hay and Timothy kings alfalfa hay for his available hay options
Hope this helps for ideas
 
I second Natures Own hay. My pigs love the regular meadow hay but won't eat the Sweet Green hay! (I have 2 unopened bags !)
 
I might give that Natures Own hay a try as well. I haven't bought that 1 before, just had a look at their products on the link above and it looks like its lovely quality. Mine go through a lot of feeding hay, and nice for them to have a bit of variety.
gingy pig said:
mine love natures own hay, they have run out at moment till i reorder so are on pet shop hay & not loving it. natures own is lovely & sweet smelling & they've never disliked a batch so far. this is the stuffhttp://www.naturesownpets.co.uk/hay.html
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Thank you for this link :)
 
Wow so many hay brands lol. I'll be up all night for a week looking into them all. You guys are awesome for helping me out.....again lol :)
 
I've had lots of piggies since we starting keeping them in 2008 but none of them have ever been fussy about their hay. Perhaps I just never noticed! They have all been indoor piggies though.
 
Kylie80 said:
Ive heard alot about this hay and it being good but that it is a bit dusty?
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Hi, over the years l've probabay used most the hay there is , and Alfafa King is very low , l would say on a pare with dust extracted
Though l did have 2 bad 11 k bales early on this year that was very high in broad leaved legumes (weeds ) and despite the pigs adoring It , l only feed that batch weekly , as the high legume would most certainly of been very hi in calsium ,

I bought new stocks of the alf alfa king thimathy and have never experienced that problem since
 
I saw alot of the kaytee timothy hay in my online research. Has anyone tried this one? I dont remember anyone on the forum mentioning it so maybe its not so good.
 
I have used Kaytee timothy hay quite a few times, it is usually good and all my pigs seemed to eat it, but you can get bags that have a lot of hay seeds(not sure if that is what they're called)and one of my previous girls got one stuck in her eye, so I stopped buying the bags as often, plus I found that I had a bit of an allergy to that specific hay, but on occasion I do still buy it. My pigs favorite hay is Living World Timothy(might be a North America brand?), I get it in bulk from Amazon.ca(not sure if there is an Australian Amazon?), although I can find smaller bags in stores around me and all my girls love it.
 
AlbiePercy said:
I'm having this dilemma too. It's nearly impossible to get decent hay here! Previously, I used to get American Pet Diner's Timothy hay. My piggies absolutely loved it, and I loved the way it smelled, it was nice and green and it has long strands. But alas, mypetwarehouse don't stock it anymore :'( I've just bought some Oxbow Timothy with Birch in it, but haven't opened it yet.
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Where did you get the oxbow timothy with birch?
 
So I bought some alfala king timothy hay and some burgess excel timothy and birch. Both small bags as the little monsters probably wont eat it.
 
My girls really love alfalfa king Timothy hay! They took a while to come round to it but they adore it now and that's what I put in their hay bag everyday! In their litter tray they have meadow hay from hay for pets (it's called hay and straw now I think?) but they aren't crazy about it so don't think I will be reordering from there!
 
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