This happened to me once as well, well a large wing of a bird. Not with Oxbow, with Readigrass. I was absolutely traumatised and horrified.

I emailed them, and they said it was most likely part of a bird left by a fox, and that their machines are designed to not pick up and crush small animals in the fields, and assured me that the bags were not usually full of small dead animals… But now I’ve heard it happen to someone else I’m not so convinced!

I wouldn’t be too concerned about the buns to be honest, I think they’ll probably be fine. Mine certainly were.

I did get sent four free bags from Readigrass too.

Edit: this is what they said to me about their hay cutting practice:

We routinely walk the fields to make sure any litter or unwanted items are removed.

Then we have a cutting practise, where the tractors move in a pattern that encourages wildlife to move out of their path. The blades are also set at a height that they are less likely to pick up any debris from the ground.

The most likely source of this wing, is that a fox or other small predator, has left it in the field; rather than a bird getting caught up in our machinery.

Let Oxbow know and I’m sure they’ll do something to compensate. They can also provide some information about potential precautionary measures!

Never had anything like that happen to me yet, fortunately, though I did once find the remains of a dead bird in the grille of my car many years ago. Ick. I currently have a fresh bale of compressed timothy from Standlee, so I’ll be keeping an eye on it to see if anything is in there that shouldn’t be…

I am actually phobic of birds so I had a complete panic attack   My boyfriend had to do all the hay feeding for about a month afterwards I’ve managed to get over it now though haha, can’t really maintain a refusal to touch hay when you have rabbits 

I think a bird is slightly better than a hoof….  it’s a tough call. 

I recently found a looooong piece of wire in a bag of hay.

As with any claim, take a picture of the product and the foreign object, the batch number and any identifying features of the packaging.

Write (email) to customer services and ask for a refund and compensation.
They will usually apologise and send a goodie bag of freebies.

…. This thread is really horrifying to read, lol   Very sorry to hear the both of you had to go through something like that! I could not imagine being in that situation and handling it very well.

Echoing that you should take a picture if still possible, then email it to them. Chances are, theyll compensate since you really shouldnt continue using that bag of hay. Good luck!

Oh jeeeez! That would be startling to the say the least….. or should I say, “starling”…eh? eh? …

I’ll see myself out…

Don’t really have much to add, just wanted to share that once I found a dead sparrow in my indoor cat’s basket of toys in our living room. It looked perfect, with its wings tucked in, almost like a museum specimen. I only noticed it because there was a bad smell coming from that area. This happened when we lived in a house, so our guess is that it got trapped in the garage, and was already dying or dead when my cat nabbed it. The odd part is that he decided to put it with all his other toys! So organized!

This is my worst nightmare! I always buy a big bale of horse quality hay from a local farmer to use in the litter trays, its $5 for a huge bale and the boys do like to pick out some soft pieces. I would absolutely freak! We were keeping the bale in the barn and I would send hubby out to fill a rubbermaid bin as needed. well the last time we brought some he was harbouring a small furry fugitive. Took me 2 days to catch the bugger in the porch. Now we have a 189 L tub in the kitchen full of baled hay because im scared to death of mice!

I would just throw out the bag, e-mail Oxbow and try not to worry about it. I’ve found lots of feathers in a bag of Oxbow once. And the absolute worse thing I found was what looked like a big, hairy owl pellet….barf…… And I used to find huge, squished grasshoppers all the time but haven’t found anything gross in a while.

I’m sure Oxbow will replace the bag.

I would be horrified! And I thought grasshoppers were gross but yikes. Oxbow has great customer service. I would email them and tell them what happened and send them 1) a pic of Tweety 2) the Lot number 3) best by date 4) Place of purchase 5) Date of purchase and 6) Size and type of hay. 

Poor Tweety ?

I’m actually surprised there aren’t more gross findings in hay. Fields must be full of wildlife.

Haha A&B you’ve actually given me flashbacks too! Make hubs do the hay for a bit!

And yes, seconding Ophelia Instagram please! Plus, there’s loads of people on Instagram you can tell off for doing things like bathing their rabbits BunNoob

If you’re still having trouble with reaching into the hay bag, get yourself a pair of gloves to use when getting out hay I use a pair of gloves, but only because hay pokes cause me to break out in eczema.

Agreed, Bam. I’ve been a horse girl for like 25 years and in all those years, never once found anything gross. I would have been pretty horrified to split a bale and find a big ol dead animal in it. And I’ve done haying and it’s insane how super fast the tractor rakes and bales it. If there was anything in that field, it would end up in the hay. So def weird. But thankful.

Wow if I found a dead bird in my hay I would totally freak out… Although when I used to order Oxbow I used to find a bunch of dead lady bugs… Which was annoying and was part of the reason I switched hay brands.

If there’d been a bird’s wing in my hay, Bam would probably eat it. There was an episode once with a pork rind, and yesterday when I was making stew for Effi (GSD dog), Bam came hopping into the kitchen and sat there, looking up at me, eyes full of hope. No sweetheart, buns can’t eat liver. It’s not good for them.

eyes full of hope. No sweetheart, buns can’t eat liver. It’s not good for them.

“eyes full of hope” 

Yikes! I didn’t know whether to burst out laughing or wince for the bird when I read this. Mostly laughing! Poor tweety! Although it’s funny, it’s also horrible and I can’t imagine pulling a dead bird out of your rabbit’s hay. This scares me because I just went out and switched from Kaytee Hay to Oxbow, and I got him the Botanical hay! I hope it’s not something common to find dead birds and bugs in there! It sucks cause the hay is SOO good. Like, I’m not a rabbit, and I don’t eat the hay, but when you feel it and see how green and long and fresh it feels (I don’t know how I can describe dead grass as fresh.) compared to other brands like Kaytee it’s amazing! Man, Oxbow should get me to advertise for them or something. I could be standing there on TV ranting about how great Oxbow is. (except for the dead things)
My mom must have been cleaning the area around Rain’s cage or something, and must have found this tiny toy duck thing that was with one of Rain’s toys, and put it in his hay bag by accident. When I reached in and grabbed it I flipped. What a coincedence!
I feel bad for you A&B! And anyone else who dealt with that! Ack!

Am I the only one here who thinks that would be cool? Kind of like, wildlife CSI? Plus: if you find tiny corpses in bags of hay, imagine finding a bundle of cash or jewelery!

Try gloves or using the tiny rakes kids get for the beach – that way you can use the hay you have, but eliminate the traumatic sensation memory of touching non-hay

I once grabbed a yellow piece of paper out of Luna’s bale. I got really excited thinking it was like a Willy Wonka golden ticket and I won a free tour of the Oxbow facilities or free hay for a year! But it was just a piece of paper with the bag’s Lot number printed on it .

I found this weird brown fuzzy thing in Rain’s Orchard Grass right now!!! I wonder what it is. I don’t think it’s a dead animal. It could be an owl pellet, I’m not sure.

Yuck, those are awful findings

After several “surprises” I also started to pour the bags into a large plastic one to check for foreign objects. Nothing as bad as your surprises though, just things like unknown plant material, seed pods, and occasionally a piece of a plastic bag. We’ve tried several brands over the last years. We had Vitakraft Alp Meadow hay for some time, but I skipped it when we found another brand which suited us better. When I bought Vitakraft at the pet shop I often found unknown plant material in it, and I hesitate to give a rabbit an unknown plant because they’re so sensitive to poisoning.
Lately I’ve switched to a local brand “Best for your friend”, which I’m quite happy with. I still check vigorously, but it’s relatively clean compared to other brands. Breintje doesn’t care that it’s a bit more coarse and it’s dirt cheap too…

Gross, I use horse hay and haven’t found anything so far but who knows maybe I will one day have my own weird hay encounter.

Yup after reading all this I an NEVER buying Oxbow hay…

Oh, wow. You all are cracking me up. Poor Tweety. You didn’t say what kind he was, but I feel so bad for ground-nesting birds in hay country. I’m the tiniest bit skeptical of the “it was killed by an adorable fox who did not eat it, not a giant baling machine” story.

I once opened a bag of hay that smelled like DEATH. I didn’t do a thorough investigation, but it smelled bad enough that I threw it outside until I could take it back to the store. The cashier tried to tell me all hay smelled like that, lol. Yah, ok, then I’m giving it to you as a present.

I once grabbed a yellow piece of paper out of Luna’s bale. I got really excited thinking it was like a Willy Wonka golden ticket and I won a free tour of the Oxbow facilities or free hay for a year!

Lol

When I go to the farm to get some orchard grass, I hope I do not stumble upon any dead animals. Gross!