Okay so another mycotoxin concern from me.  I know there’s been quite a bit of talk about it lately. I found in my Timothy this morning a couple of pieces of sticks that are covered in black which looks to me like mold. Obviously I took them out but the rest of the hay looks and smells fine.Not dusty. I’m not overly concerned because I’ve found similar things in my bags of hay before and the buns were fine. When I find mold in my horse’s hay bales it’s huge black/grey blotches (like KokaneeandKahlua’s pic in Binkles Mold post), not just the odd piece.

My question is: Is Timothy hay less likely to harbour mycotoxins than other types of hay? Cuz I read that somewhere once that Timothy is much less likely to contain it. It’s more common in clover and alfalfa.

Has anyone ever heard of anyone’s bunnies actually getting mycotoxin illness? The articles Ive read make it sound so common and scary. And I’ve had many freakouts because of concerns and I now sort all my hay carefully before feeding it to the buns which takes quite a while.

The majority of my bags of hay (Sunseed) have the odd black/brown pieces that I throw out. There is rarely a bag that doesn’t. There’s no big mold spots, just the odd piece that looks kind of black which I toss out because I always sort through and inspect the hay before I feed it. I have no word of a lie tried EVERY brand available in my area (approx 8 diff brands) and they all looked much worse than the hay I buy.The Sunseed hay is very popular at my petstore, they are always running out and I doubt everyone sorts the hay like I do but obviously rabbits arent getting mycotoxin poisoning left and right from this hay or it obviously wouldnt be so popular.

I’m trying not to worry cuz it’s pretty much this hay or nothing (ordering hay would cost me over $100.00 a month, so that’s a no go). I’m gonna send the sticks back to the company in an envelope to see what they say.