Mold in Hay!?

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BINKYBUNNY FORUMS

This topic has 19sd replies, 11 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 6 months ago by Scarlet_Rose.

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- 08/08/2008 at 12:46 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  I opened up a new bag of Timmy hay o give Little-Bit today and noticed that it had some fluffy white lint-like things in it. I took that out of the rack and opened another bag -which had the same thing! Is this mold!?
  
  I’m not taking any chances! I’m going to get some fresh. D: I REALLY don’t want her to get mycotoxin poisoning.
  
  Edit: I did find her haunched over when I came into her room this morning -her feet were completely tucked under her bottom so you couldn’t see them. But as soon as I knelt down, she un-haunched and hasn’t haunched since. She has a normal appetite, ate a papya tablet, and is binkying around like normal.
  
  Do bunnies ever haunch for no reason..? D=
- 08/08/2008 at 2:02 PM
  osprey
  Participant
  2065 posts
  That sounds yucky. I have found various brown things in hay, but never white. I think you are wise to get rid of it and start again.
  
  As to the bunny hunching, they seem to find all kinds of strange positions to be comfortable in. They also behave differently if they have been scared. Keep an eye on her, and watch for signs of pain (more hunching, grinding teeth, hiding) and make sure the poops are still coming.
- 08/08/2008 at 9:23 PM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  I’ve never seen white either. Mold is usually dark/black. I would contact the company you get the hay from.
  
  Some bunnies do haunching when it’s cold and they are “bundling up”. And some bunnies do rest in a haunched position to. It sounds like she’s fine, but of course, like Osprey said, just keep an eye on her.
- 08/08/2008 at 9:44 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Hmm…very odd. Yes, it was very white. It was about the consistency of cotton or dryer lint too. Like, at first I expected to find out that Timothy may have white flowers and somehow they got in or something.
  
  Hmm..
  
  Does this even sound like any kind of mold to you guys? Cotton-like? Maybe I should take a picture of it. It’s Sunseed brand, so I’m kind of half-wondering if maybe some other type crop dropped its flowers in the hay at the factory.
  
  Well, whatever the case, I’m glad I went to get some fresh -puts my mind to rest for now, anyway. Even if it does have quite a bit of brown in it since it’s the end of good hay season. Ah, Little-Bit seems to like the brown stuff just as much anyway.
- 08/09/2008 at 12:07 AM
  BB Administrator
  Keymaster
  393 posts
  No, it it does not sound like mold that would be in hay. I mean I know mold that is on fruit or bread first turns white, but hay suppliers always worn about the dark mold.
  
  If you have time, take a picture, it would be helpful to know what the heck it is.
  
  How did the hay smell? Moldy hay is hard to miss! Very stale, with lots of dark puff.
  
  ACK! I forgot to get out of Admin mode! This is BinkyBunny.
  
  Helloworld!!
- 08/09/2008 at 12:31 AM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Lol okay BB. I’ll take a picture in the morning and upload. The hay didn’t smell at all bad to me. =/ But yeah, most white molds that I’ve seen on food and stuff…are like…spore-ous…if that’s a word. I mean, you know. Touch it, and it goes -poof!-. This stuff, almost…fiberous. I swear came from a cotton feild..
  
  But we’ll see.
- 08/09/2008 at 1:06 AM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  Hey, maybe the result of a bug, like a type of spider or worm that created that? Or is there just too much of it for that? It’s just such a strange description. Maybe I’m off my rocker on this one…. I need sleep.
- 08/09/2008 at 7:16 AM
  osprey
  Participant
  2065 posts
  Did it look anything like this?
  
  This is a colony of Actinomycetes bacteria, a common decomposing soil bacteria. You see them in compost piles and leaf piles a lot. They are whitish filaments, and they are responsible for that wonderful “woodsy” smell of the forest that comes from decomposing leaves and wood.
- 08/09/2008 at 9:04 AM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  I’ve found similar white fuzz in my timothy. I’m pretty sure it’s not mold but as someone mentioned is the result of bugs. I’ve seen similar fuzz in the pasture at my horses barn. I just toss out the fuzz.
- 08/09/2008 at 1:01 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Okay. Got the pictures today!
  
  IMPORTANT NOTE: When I looked again this morning, I found out there WAS this stuff in the bag we were feeding her for the past couple of weeks -as well as in the new bag. =s I’m thinking that maybe it was just concentrated down at the bottom though, because I can’t imagine that I didn’t notice it before! Still, I’m worried about mycotoxin poisoning…I do just kind of plunge my hand down into the bag and blindly dump big wads of it into her hay rack without really thinking about it.
  
  Here are the two bags in question. The one on the left is the one that she’s been eating from for about the past two maybe three weeks, and the one on the right is the one that I just opened. (It usually takes her about a week and a half to two weeks to finish off a bag, but since we were initially mixing it with Alfalfa for transition, it’s probably been a bit longer.)
  
  The hay smells and looks fine to me. Even though it’s the end of hay season, it’s still pretty green. There’s just…this stuff dispersed through it randomly. And here’s the suspect:
  
  (This one looked kind of iffy on the back- )
  
  (Here’s the front
  
  And it’s like…not attatched to anything. It’s just there. Like a baby bird flew over it and dropped some down into it.
  
  (^ The one in this picture is kind of to the middle-right. There’s a light peice of hay almost pointing to it.)
  
  Etc.
  
  Any ideas? I’m REALLY worried that she might have ingested some. I read up a bit on it last night, and so far, this is the most helpful site I’ve come to:
  
  homepage.mac.com/mattocks/morfz/myco.html
  
  So far she’s not exhibiting any…signs or anything. She’s pretty much being normal. Binkying. Eating. Pooping. Flopping. In fact, when I came back from taing these pictures, this is what I found in her cage:
  
  There was an orange tinge to her pee this morning -I know that’s a normal occurance, and I can almost attribute it to my feeding her a half a papaya tablet day before yesterday and yesterday. =P
  
  But since one of the signs listed on that website is internal hemmoraging…I’m just a little worried, you know?
  
  Ehhh…nervous! ><
  
  Just in case, I’ve stopped feeding her Sunseed Hay altogether for now. Even though I bought some new yesterday and thuroughly went through it to look for…uh…’white’, it does scare me a little that BOTH of her previous hay bags had the stuff -bought perhaps two weeks apart from each other. So right now I’m giving her ONLY the Timothy hay part of Oxbow’s Botanical Hay. (=x She JUST switched to Timothy about a wek ago and I’m not sure she’s ready for all the other herbs in there.) Does anyone think that this abrupt switch in brand of hay could be bad?
  
  D= So many questions!
- 08/09/2008 at 1:54 PM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  I feed this hay too and although I find the occasional blackish piece in the bags I throw out, Ive never had any other problems with it. It’s the best hay available in my area.
  
  I wouldn’t worry about your bunny. I’ve totally freaked out because of things Ive suspected to be mold (and wrote many freaked out posts) and they have always been fine.
- 08/09/2008 at 4:35 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  Is anyone besides me thinking perhaps along with the hayseed in the Sunseed fields there might be cotton growing nearby that drifted into the processing mill?
  Honestly, it looks like unrefined cotton to me. If you were in Alaska I’d almost say it was cottonwood seed or fireweed fluff.
  
  Remember, when something says, ‘all natural’…there may be natural things in it that weren’t intended to wind up in the hay…other plants and their seeds.
  And sometimes, ‘all natural’ is just hype to get you to pay more.
  
  I think it’s always best to err on the side of caution, so if you don’t feel comfortable feeding this to L’il Bit, then don’t. Can you get any other brand of hay where you are?
  And of course, have you ever tried the BB.com hay? I just opened one of my new bags of timothy and mmmmm…..*sniffs*….I may take a bit eof it myself! ^_^
- 08/09/2008 at 7:18 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  I swear it does look like little tiny bits of un-processed cotton. Hmm…maybe I’ll call Sunseed tomorrow and ask. xD
  
  Yeah, fortunately the store I usually buy hay at also is selling Oxbow Botanical right now. So I just am using the Timmy hay part of that for her at the moment. (Taking out all the other herbs and stuff because she JUST switched to Timothy and I don’t want to shock her too much.)
- 08/09/2008 at 7:21 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  I agree with Mimz, it does look like some fluffy seed to me and not mold. Mold tends to distintergrate and grows on things and isn’t generally in a self-comtained mass like that on hay. If hay is moldy, it will be attached and spreading all over the hay itself. If in doubt, call or e-mail the manufacturer and talk to them.
- 08/10/2008 at 7:43 PM
  Kokaneeandkahlua
  Participant
  12067 posts
  That looks like fluff or seeds that blew into the field. Here’s what mold looks like!
- 08/10/2008 at 7:50 PM
  MooBunnay
  Participant
  3087 posts
  Yes – generally mold is pretty obvious because it looks really gross Its probably a good idea to get some new hay, but the rest of the hay other than those white spots looked pretty good to me. If you bun is eating and pooping normally it sounds like she is OK. A twinge of orange to the pee is a pretty normal – I think it is more of a concern if you are seeing a bright orange pee, or traces of blood in the pee.
- 08/10/2008 at 7:50 PM
  rabbitsmba
  Participant
  475 posts
  I think it’s a dandelion – you know, with the fluffy stuff that blows away in the wind? I have seen this in my hay too – don’t worry, it’s fine.
  
  I have seen mold before and it looks just like what KK posted above – definitely black and powdery – like soil.
- 08/10/2008 at 10:40 PM
  Binkles
  Participant
  823 posts
  Okay. Well, whew! Thank you guys for putting my mind at ease. I initially thought it was some kind of plant material as well, but I just couldn’t stop myself from freaking out! Lol.
  
  Well, now Little-Bit is pretty accustomed to Oxbow’s Botanical Hay I’ve been feeding her since my freak-out. And…she LOVES it!! I find that she eats more of it faster and there’s less that has fallen on the floor. I think I may just continue with this stuff since she loves it so much!
  
  Does anybody know if this hay is okay to continue feeding as her main hay though? It IS primarilly Timothy -it just has some extra herbs in there along with it. Little dandelion buds, wtc.
- 08/11/2008 at 6:04 AM
  Sarita
  Participant
  18851 posts
  Yes, it’s timothy so it’s okay to feed her as her primary hay – it is a bit pricey though because of the added botanicals.
- 08/11/2008 at 4:19 PM
  Scarlet_Rose
  Participant
  4293 posts
  I agree with Sarita. What I do is add my own botanicals as it can run on the pricey side. I get organic chamomile, lavender and red clover flowers from my local health food store and mix them in with the hay. It smells great and costs a lot less, not to mention I’ve planted some herbs myself and add my own flowers.
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