Am I being too fussy with the oat hay?

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This topic has 7sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 15 years, 3 months ago by RabbitPam.

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- 04/12/2010 at 2:46 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  For those of you that feed oat hay, do you take out the grain heads? I pluck them off every handful I grab but wondering if I should bother. It would be so much easier not too.
- 04/12/2010 at 2:50 AM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  oh – I’ve just read on wisconsin hrs site that oat is to be fed without the seed heads. So question answered. Can a forum leader delete my post please?
- 04/12/2010 at 10:24 PM
  Cassi&Charlie
  Participant
  1260 posts
  I didn’t know that…oops. I’ve been given them the oat heads. Whats bad about them?
- 04/14/2010 at 12:34 AM
  BinkyBunny
  Moderator
  8776 posts
  This is also news to me. I mean consuming many oat seeds may be too much, but so far the oat hay that we carry does have a few seeds — (not a huge amount so if you prefer to pull some off, certainly easy enough) though the seeds of the greener/younger hay is much harder to digest and so bunnies under one year are not recommended to eat it. (and we state this) but as long as the oat has matured, the oats themselves are easy to digest for most rabbits.
  
  This is something my vet has never warned me about when discussing oat hay, and it’s never been a problem for my own bunnies (again, there isn’t a ton of it in the oat hay) , but obviously any caution that has been found I would at least like to check out and figure out the reason.
- 04/14/2010 at 4:09 PM
  RabbitPam
  Moderator
  11002 posts
  I hadn’t heard of this either, and just have fed her Oat Hay the way it comes in the mini bale (btw, I am ordering a new bale Friday, BB, as soon as I get paid!). Maybe your source of Oat Hay has more than I am used to finding?
  
  Now I have the same question, however, about Kale stems. Since celery strings are bad for them, I pull the kale off the stringy stems, but they look kind of yummy and good for her teeth, so I wonder if I should be doing that?
  
  (Meanwhile our bunnies are heading outside to chow down a bush. Silly humans.)
- 04/14/2010 at 6:15 PM
  MimzMum
  Participant
  8029 posts
  I find that Pip likes the smaller seedheads (the ones that are more like grass seed pods) but yeah, I take out the really gnarly ones. That CAN’T be good for bunnies’ teeth OR tummy.
  I also just feed kale leaves to my bunnies. The stem is just too tough.
- 04/14/2010 at 7:11 PM
  jerseygirl
  Moderator
  22356 posts
  I guess I just thought it would be too many carbs. Adding starch to the diet. Also, since warnings about rabbit mixes are to avoid seed and grains for this reason plus causing impaction… I do have an awful lot in the current bale. My newer bale I’m not sure as it is VERY densely packed and I’m almost afraid to cut the bale twine! It seems really different too. Green and sort of plastic or flax-like (???) It’s hard to break a strand of hay than the other more yellow hay. I guess it was cut greener but it seems like a different variety too.
  
  WHRS just mentions “Better choices are grass hays, which have the same fiber level as clovers (20-25%) but have much lower calcium (0.6%) and protein (12-15%). Good grass hays include timothy, brome grass, orchard grass, marsh hay, and oat hay (without the seed heads). ”
  
  I guess if the seed heads in hay isn’t an issue if they’re not too many. Would be fine for pellet free bunnies I imagine. For all my trouble of plucking the seed head off, I then feed them rolled oats as a treat!!
- 04/15/2010 at 5:31 AM
  RabbitPam
  Moderator
  11002 posts
  I mentioned to my vet last week that Sammy’s favorite hay is Oat, and she looked at me in surprise. Then she mentioned that when they eat oat, they get to a part of it that has a good flavor, like a flavor surprise, and that’s probably part of the appeal. I wonder if that’s what’s in the seed head you’re concerned about? If so, she didn’t say anything about removing it.
  
  Does Jersey prefer Quaker Oats or South Beach Snack Bars? LOL (You all know I’m kidding, right? No snack bars for bunnies ever.)
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