Second cut Timothy

[Sirius&Luna]

Hi everyone,

The website where I normally get my 9 kilo bags of Timothy hay has now moved onto only selling second cut (it’s a very small website with only two options – timothy or oat hay). It’s much softer than what we were previously getting (first cut I assume?), and much less stalky. They bunnies do not like it as much, and I’m worried it won’t be good for their teeth, since it’s so soft.

Is second cut timothy ok to feed as a staple?

They also sell oat hay, but when I got a tester it had quite a lot of seed heads, and I was worried it would be fattening. But oat hay can also be a staple hay right?

[Bam]

Second cut is fine. I was just at the vet with Bam and discussed his diet, all grass hay is fine. It’s still wearing down the teeth. Bam mostly gets fresh grass and that’s fine too, just be a little cautious now when spring (finally!) has arrived, because the first spring grass is so nutritious it can upset the tummy.

We don’t even get specified cuts here. It can be figured out by looking at the hay and feeling it, but nobody seems to care.

[sarahthegemini]

Any cut of timothy is great I give Oxbow timothy and I’m not sure what cut it is but it’s a lot softer than the hay from timothyhay.co.uk. 

Any grass hay, including oat is a great staple. I think the reason oat hay causes an issue sometimes is because the seed heads are extra tasty so bunnies can get quite picky and just eat those. Which would obviously be very wasteful and not ideal. I don’t think they’re fattening tho because of how/when the hay is harvested. 

Speaking of seed heads, Peanut loves timothy seed heads. He tends to eats those first and then go to the orchard grass and then go back to the timothy lol.

Obviously it isn’t ideal if your trio () aren’t enjoying the new stuff as much. Perhaps they just need to get used to it?

[Sirius&Luna]

Yeah, it’s strange, I would have thought they would prefer soft to stalky, but apparently not. Seed heads always looked the tastiest to me, so I agree with Peanut

Anyway, I have emailed Timothyhay and they’ve said they still have a few bags of the stalky stuff left, so I’m going to buy another bag and mix… Yay for storing 18 kilos of hay in my tiny flat. Hopefully they don’t just pick out the bits they like.

This season’s hay will be ready in late June apparently. I’m learning so much!

[Deleted User]

I used to get second cut. I think my boys prefer the softness honestly. That’s also a big reason I switched to orchard, They aren’t into the super crunchy pieces.

[Author]

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