Do not feed Oxbow timothy hay to ANY pets IF hay isn't soft.

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This topic has 5sd replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 14 years, 1 month ago by Beka27.

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- 04/03/2011 at 10:07 PM
  blackfang
  Participant
  392 posts
  About 7 months ago, my roommate ordered 50 lbs Oxbow timothy hay. For some reason, hay isn’t soft. It is very hard hay. We tested it to see if guinea pigs will eat it. They ate it with no problems.
  
  I suggested my roommate to return 50lbs timothy hay box to replace new one for softer timothy hay. He said, “nah, it’s fine, guinea pigs are still eating it.”
  
  Last week…
  
  One of my roommate’s guinea pig isn’t eating. I caugh the first sign of “pain” and informed my roommate about it. We called vet to make an appointment. He went there. Teeth – no problems, weight – no problem, and couldn’t find a problem.
  
  Vet put guinea pig to sleep (not death sleep.. just sleep for 30 minutes or so) so vet can check her mouth. The vet found out that there was a hay got stuck behind and between her teeth. The edge of hard hay was hurting her inside cheek. She pulled it out and gave my roommate med. and critter care treatments.
  
  The vet informed us that it is first patient that got hay in her/his mouth stuck since the vet business started. It is very very very rare that happened.
  
  My roommate treated her mouth with meds and force feeding her with critter care. The problem is his guinea pig didn’t like critter care. It is VERY hard to force feed her. She didn’t eat much for almost a week. She lost a lot of her weight. Guinea pig tried to eat lettuce or pellets but couldn’t.
  
  Today, my roommate was complaning and blaming oxbow because oxbow was suppose to be the best hay provider. I told him stop it and grow up because oxbow might went through bad season for growing hay. (He already ordered new 50 lbs hay about 3 weeks ago, timothy hay is soft).
  
  Guinea pig is still losing weight. I took over his duty to make his guinea pig alive because he couldn’t help her anymore. I tried mixing vegetables with water in blender. Guinea pig ate alot but I dont know how much longer she will live. I looked up via internet, we are suppose to force feeding guinea pig about 4 to 7 full syringe of food for guinea pig EVERY 2 hours.
  
  I have several midterm tests this week and a project to do. My roommate have to go to work for his job and is in full time student. This week is very tight schedule and we will tried our best as we can to make her gain weight.
  
  I couldn’t believe that hard hay can kill guinea pig slowly to death even throug hay is very important to guinea pig.
  
  I’m not going to give timothy or orchard hay if they are rough/hard hay to my rabbits. EITHER YOU TOO!
- 04/03/2011 at 10:28 PM
  LoveChaCha
  Participant
  6634 posts
  Oxbow did go through a very bad season. My Orchard Grass was very hard and my bunny wouldn’t eat it. You said so also, so why are you using for us not to use it? I can see this was an accident with the hay getting stuck in the guinea pig’s mouth.
- 04/03/2011 at 10:31 PM
  Monkeybun
  Participant
  10479 posts
  It’s been a bad season all across the US for hay, Oxbow can’t help it. Just use common sense, and if it doesn’t seem like good batch, call their customer service line. They are usually good about keeping their customers happy.
- 04/04/2011 at 4:11 AM
  LittlePuffyTail
  Moderator
  18092 posts
  Just curious, do G pigs have teeth similar to buns?
- 04/04/2011 at 7:34 AM
  blackfang
  Participant
  392 posts
  My orchard hay wasn’t hard for rabbits to eat. I guess I’m just lucky that I have soft hay even though oxbow go through a very bad season.
  
  Yes, I use my common sense to tell my roommate to return the hard hay. These guinea pigs aren’t mine to keep and my roommate wasn’t listening to me. I’m just informing the viewers on this thread to be more careful with hard hay or stop using hard hay. It is like a wake up call to some people like my roommate.
  
  Yes, guinea pigs have teeth similar to buns. Guinea pigs need to eat hay to trim their teeth and etc. Pretty much no different from rabbits.
- 04/04/2011 at 9:51 AM
  Beka27
  Participant
  16016 posts
  Thank you for the head’s up. I have heard of a couple rabbits getting hay stuck in their mouths, but this was usually due to an existing tooth malalignment. The stalkier pieces are the most important for the proper grinding of molars, softer hays may not satisfy this need. I use the large boxes of Oxbow and have not experienced any issues.
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