Where do you get your hay from?

Status
Not open for further replies.
CiaraPatricia

CiaraPatricia

Adult Guinea Pig
Joined
Apr 26, 2010
Messages
3,227
Reaction score
6
Points
0
Hi guys, I searched for a similar thread and couldn't find one, so hopefully I'm not posting something that's asked all the time. But just interested where people her their hay from? It's the one thing I have trouble finding good hay.

My friend keeps offering to get me a square bale for €4 but I think my piggies are too fussy to eat it . . . I got them some horrible hay recently in my local pet shop, it was just dusty and stuff and I was really allergic to it! So I'm looking for a new place. I'd like to buy it in bulk too, cos I have a lot of pets :D
 
Good question, I too am looking for quality hay in bulk. I currently buy Pure Pastures hay from the hay experts, it's £2.75 for 2 kilos. It's not a bad price, and the hay is 'OK' but I'd probably prefer to use it as a bedding rather than eating hay as the green bits are few and far between. I think I could do better for my guineas, but at the same time I don't want it to be too expensive.
 
I've just bought the 50lb box of Orchard Grass from The Hay Experts. Before this, I was buying the 1kg bags of Excel Herbage from P@H.
 
I was hoping Joanne would come up in this post, she loves her hay! :)) This Oxbow is the stuff everyone raves about isn't it? It's twice the price of my normal hay, but I would be willing to pay that if it is excellent eating hay, my guineas are not too fussy but I would like for them to have a bit of quality hay for eating and then use the slightly lesser quality for bedding. Sorry...I'm hogging your post here Ciarapatricia mallethead. Just one question, how does the 22 kg of hay come packaged is it all bagged in one bag, or separately?
 
Comes in a big box....

Theres a pigture on this thread.

http://www.theguineapigforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=48806

It is it's Oxbow Orchard grass me and the piggies favourite, There main hay, but I do buy smaller bags too of other types.

We have at present..

Oxbow Organic Meadow
barley,oat and wheat
Oat
Botantic
Bunny with Carrot
Bunny with Apple
Timothy

And of course 22kg of Orchard grass, I swear there is no problem!
 
fritsthegirl said:
I was hoping Joanne would come up in this post, she loves her hay! :)) This Oxbow is the stuff everyone raves about isn't it? It's twice the price of my normal hay, but I would be willing to pay that if it is excellent eating hay, my guineas are not too fussy but I would like for them to have a bit of quality hay for eating and then use the slightly lesser quality for bedding. Sorry...I'm hogging your post here Ciarapatricia mallethead. Just one question, how does the 22 kg of hay come packaged is it all bagged in one bag, or separately?
Click to expand...

Get a trial pack! That's what I did :) https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Hays%2C+Grasses+%252526+Herbs.4/Select+by+Hay+Type.130/Sample+Pack.23/?osCsid=ikrj4c004927cf6e1hvvg13463

I paid £62 + P&P for my 50lb box... The bigger the bulk buy, the cheaper it is.

At the Hay Experts the prices for Oxbox Orchard Grass or Timothy hay is;

425g = £4.49 (£10.56/kg)
1.1kg = £8.99 (£8.17/kg)
4.05kg (or 9lb) = £27.99 (£6.91/kg)
11.36kg (or 25lb) = £50.00 (£4.40/kg)
22.7kg (or 50lb) = £62.00 (£2.73/kg)

(I think I've worked them out right! @))

So, for me, after having the sample packs, it made no sense for me to order the 25lb box at £50 when for £12 more you can get double the amount! I've put the box in the summerhouse shed and have a storage box in the house that I top up when it is empty. The box is big, but isn't gigantic - I contacted the Hay Experts before ordering and the response was Both the Orchard and Western 50lb items are supplied in the same type of packaging: the hay is contained within a plastic bag (not sealed) which is contained within a cardboard box. The box measures 47 x 62 x 61cm and does have handles to help with carrying.
 
KimberleysWheekers said:
Get a trial pack! That's what I did :) https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/Hays%2C+Grasses+%252526+Herbs.4/Select+by+Hay+Type.130/Sample+Pack.23/?osCsid=ikrj4c004927cf6e1hvvg13463

I paid £62 + P&P for my 50lb box... The bigger the bulk buy, the cheaper it is.

At the Hay Experts the prices for Oxbox Orchard Grass or Timothy hay is;

425g = £4.49 (£10.56/kg)
1.1kg = £8.99 (£8.17/kg)
4.05kg (or 9lb) = £27.99 (£6.91/kg)
11.36kg (or 25lb) = £50.00 (£4.40/kg)
22.7kg (or 50lb) = £62.00 (£2.73/kg)

(I think I've worked them out right! @))

So, for me, after having the sample packs, it made no sense for me to order the 25lb box at £50 when for £12 more you can get double the amount! I've put the box in the summerhouse shed and have a storage box in the house that I top up when it is empty. The box is big, but isn't gigantic - I contacted the Hay Experts before ordering and the response was Both the Orchard and Western 50lb items are supplied in the same type of packaging: the hay is contained within a plastic bag (not sealed) which is contained within a cardboard box. The box measures 47 x 62 x 61cm and does have handles to help with carrying.
Click to expand...

Thanks loads for that info! Definitely much better value to get the bigger quantities. I will order the sample pack, let the guineas decide what they prefer. Spoilt little beggars. :)) They will need some better hay than what they've got now for the winter though, when all the lovely green grass they're eating at the moment dies out.:(
 
JoanneG111 said:
How much was postage from the hay experts?

I think Animal magic is roughly £7
Click to expand...

I paid £1.35 P&P for 2x sample packs and £4.49 for the 50lb box. I think its worked out differently for over 25kg orders, but if you wanted more than one box there is nothing stopping you from ordering them seperately if the P&P was more than £9 when they are combined. I think Lisa ordered multiple boxes from this site.
 
fritsthegirl said:
Thanks loads for that info! Definitely much better value to get the bigger quantities. I will order the sample pack, let the guineas decide what they prefer. Spoilt little beggars. :)) They will need some better hay than what they've got now for the winter though, when all the lovely green grass they're eating at the moment dies out.:(
Click to expand...

You are welcome :) If you have the money and somewhere to store it, it is def worth going for the biggest box but obviously this isn't going to be an option for everyone. If you have someone local to you that keeps piggies, you could split the cost with them.

How many piggies have you got? I bought 2 sample packs because I have 6 pigs. Each sample is a decent handful, but splitting between a lot of pigs would mean they wouldn't get much of a taste each.
 
I only have two piggies so the sample packs should be enough, here's hoping they love the same hay type, cos mummy isn't made of money! They're going to love it, I can already imagine their excited squeals when I rustle the sample bags! I'm going to order them right now. :))
 
kimberleyswheekers said:
get a trial pack! That's what i did :) https://www.thehayexperts.co.uk/hays%2c+grasses+%252526+herbs.4/select+by+hay+type.130/sample+pack.23/?oscsid=ikrj4c004927cf6e1hvvg13463

i paid £62 + p&p for my 50lb box... The bigger the bulk buy, the cheaper it is.

At the hay experts the prices for oxbox orchard grass or timothy hay is;

425g = £4.49 (£10.56/kg)
1.1kg = £8.99 (£8.17/kg)
4.05kg (or 9lb) = £27.99 (£6.91/kg)
11.36kg (or 25lb) = £50.00 (£4.40/kg)
22.7kg (or 50lb) = £62.00 (£2.73/kg)

(i think i've worked them out right! @))

so, for me, after having the sample packs, it made no sense for me to order the 25lb box at £50 when for £12 more you can get double the amount! I've put the box in the summerhouse shed and have a storage box in the house that i top up when it is empty. The box is big, but isn't gigantic - i contacted the hay experts before ordering and the response was both the orchard and western 50lb items are supplied in the same type of packaging: The hay is contained within a plastic bag (not sealed) which is contained within a cardboard box. The box measures 47 x 62 x 61cm and does have handles to help with carrying.
Click to expand...

good work!
 
It'd be amazing to get that big box, but I don't think I can afford that (I use a lot of hay, I have bunnies too). :( Mine will have fresh grass all summer anyway, so I have loads of time to find a hay that suits the piggies and my budget :)

I know I can get 14kg for about €15 on zooplus.de. Not sure how good it is, because I had to translate the reviews from German! But they seemed happy with it. I'm not sure how much 14kg is going to be, but the weight of a big bag of dog food roughly, so must be quite big?

That's a great idea to use normal quality hay for bedding and better stuff for eating :) They'll need a lot of bedding hay in the winter, since they live outdoors (have a shed for winter, but still).
 
Oh my all those calculations! But well done for working it all out, my brain would have went on overdrive if i did that! :))

I too have just bought the 22kg box of oxbow timothy hay, that is the favorite here with my two boys. :) I also got mine from animal magic and to be honest since trying the oxbow hay i will never go back to the other 'cheap' hay that i used to buy, but i do buy cheap hay to use as bedding and i buy other types of hay to add variety but the main staple hay is the oxbow.

Also alfalfa king timothy hay is good and you can buy that in p@h for about £8, my boys love that too, if i could buy that in bulk i would. :)

Have fun ordering you hay, i bet the pigs will love it! :)
 
CiaraPatricia said:
It'd be amazing to get that big box, but I don't think I can afford that (I use a lot of hay, I have bunnies too). :( Mine will have fresh grass all summer anyway, so I have loads of time to find a hay that suits the piggies and my budget :)

I know I can get 14kg for about €15 on zooplus.de. Not sure how good it is, because I had to translate the reviews from German! But they seemed happy with it. I'm not sure how much 14kg is going to be, but the weight of a big bag of dog food roughly, so must be quite big?

That's a great idea to use normal quality hay for bedding and better stuff for eating :) They'll need a lot of bedding hay in the winter, since they live outdoors (have a shed for winter, but still).
Click to expand...

What do you get at the moment? I based it on how much my pigs eat a week which is about 1kg (for 6 pigs) so my big box should last almost 6 mths. I see you are saying prices in Euros - Where abouts do you live? (sorry if being ignorant as I haven't been on much lately and have missed if you've said before!)
 
KimberleysWheekers said:
What do you get at the moment? I based it on how much my pigs eat a week which is about 1kg (for 6 pigs) so my big box should last almost 6 mths. I see you are saying prices in Euros - Where abouts do you live? (sorry if being ignorant as I haven't been on much lately and have missed if you've said before!)
Click to expand...

I just get whatever is in my local pet/garden shop, there's two different types of meadow hay, one is really dusty, and one is ok but I'm allergic to it! Or I get Tesco stuff, which is fine, but I want really green hay like I see people have on here! There's no proper pet shop near me so I want to order stuff online. I'm in Ireland so not sure if I can get stuff from english websites, or if the postage will be huge! I'm going to try the stuff from the german zooplus anyway, if it's not great then I can just use it as bedding.

I have 5 guinea pigs and 4 bunnies and they eat a lot of hay! But I can get good wood shavings very cheap, and the zooplus hay cheap, to use as bedding, so I'm thinking I might get the huge box and just use it for feeding, because then it'd last forever! :) I'll just see if I can get it delivered to Ireland and I won't need it til winter anyway, cos I have a field full of long grass behind my house :D (not my grass but the farmer doesn't use the field, it's just a bit of wasted land really).
 
CiaraPatricia said:
I'll just see if I can get it delivered to Ireland and I won't need it til winter anyway
Click to expand...

I'd try the stuff you've found (like you say, can always use it as bedding if it isn't as good as you hope) and send a could of emails out to the sites that sell the bigger boxes so see about delivery. The Hay Experts were very helpful. I think that the people who run the website Joanne linked to are members here. :)
 
Thanks :)

My piggies would be very mad if they had to go back to eating cheap hay after having grass all summer! I'm sure a big box of good hay would last me all winter :)
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top