Oxbow seems to be the best that I’ve tried. Practically no dust, even at the bottom of the bag. (Their hay sure is dusty, though!)
Kaytee Timothy Complete also isn’t too bad until you get near the bottom.

By the way…You can make bunny biscuits with pellet dust…

I get some “dust” that I have to discard from the Oxbow T pellets- but it does not seem excessive.  I think the shape of the pellets contribute to creating the “dust”- the sides are smooth- but the ends are “broken”- so any shifting of the pellets is most likely going to lead to some breakage/dust.  At least that is what I have always assumed it was from.

When I first got Schroeder he was on some ultracheap petstore pellets and those crumbled easily- but I am sure they were alfalfa based.

I always discard the “dust”- it can be saved to bake bunny cookies- but my bunnies already have about 8 different treats for me to choose from it has not seemed worth the effort yet.

I think it has to do more with the manufacturing than the hay used.

I know at one time I got a bag of Oxbow and it was very dusty – I called them and they were having a problem with the diecast or something like that so the pellets weren’t coming out right. So that makes me think it’s a manufacturing issue not a hay issue.

I get  a strainer when I get to the bottom of the bag and start noticing dusts in it.    Sometimes I save the dust to make bunny treats.  Sometimes not. 

Sarita, having worked in the food industry (though not the pet food industry) I would agree that it is more than likely a manufacturing issue, especially if a previously good pellet is suddenly dusty.

Another issue in manufacturing is yield. If a pellet is to be sold for a low cost, you better believe that they’re not going to sift out the dust before they package it, because that’s a lot of weight lost. Even if your dust is only 1% of the finish product, you’re basically throwing away 1% of your profits (or at least having to rework it, which still costs money). So a higher quality pellet will have less dust because it’s more likely that they are screening out dust and particulates before it goes to packaging.

To answer your original question, Petzy, I use Oxbow and find very little dust in it. I don’t know anything about other brands.

It’s a shame it’s so dusty, especially if you’re paying a lot for it. They either aren’t sifting out the dust, or the way it’s formulated makes it break down into dust once in the package. Either way, they should be able to fix it. Good for you for writing to them!

Well this doesn’t answer your question but you can make cookies out of the dust!

Well, that answers that! At least they’re working on it. Knowing how hard it is to find “natural” ingredients, they’re probably struggling to find something that fits their requirements instead of putting any old binder in there. Which is good for bunnies that at least they have standards!

Too bad I don’t live in the midwest … Having a job formulating and manufacturing bunny pellets would be pretty cool!

Aaah… binders. Yes. That would be an issue if the binder worked, but then made the pellets less healthy. Hopefully they can come up with a solution. I don’t notice a lot of dust in the Oxbow pellets. There is some, but I don’t feel it is excessive. I’m sure it will happen to most pellets…