so many hays to choose from!!!!!

[Jessi]

Hey everyone!

so i went to the pet store today to get some more hay, and i found myself stuck… they were all out of the Oxbow WEstern timothy hay which is what i have always gotten. And then i thought to myself why not buy her a new kind of hay!!

But there are so many to choose from, and i dont know what the difference is or if one is better than the other.

so Im hoping that someone here can explain all the different types of good hay i could use! Is a mixture of different kind better?

[FluffyBunny]

Second- and third-cut timothy are just like regular timothy, except they have more leafy pieces and less seedheads.

Orchard hay is nice. It’s my rabbit’s favorite kind of hay. It’s a soft, sweet, leafy hay, and it’s quite similar to second-cut timothy.

Bermuda grass is good too. The strands are very thin and there are very few seedheads or hard stems. My bunny doesn’t like it much, though.

Oat hay is more fattening, but a lot of rabbits like it. It’s a sweet, leafy hay with gigantic seedheads. Oat hay has less green pieces than other hays, from what I’ve seen. Apparently, wheat hay is very similar to oat hay.

Alfalfa hay is a rich legume hay. A lot of bunnies love it, but since it’s very fattening compared to other hays, it should only be used as a treat hay for healthy bunnies.

I haven’t personally tried other hays, but there’s lots of other grass hays that are good for bunnies too.

[Monkeybun]

Mien adore their orchard grass hay. It’s a nice change

[Jessi]

have any of you bought the mini bales of hay? how well do those work?

i was thinking of buying an orchard hay bale and a timothy one and mixing them together in a sealable bucket. How long does hay last before it goes bad?

[LoveChaCha]

As long as you store the hay in a big container and keep it closed, it should be fine. Do you have one bunny?

I just received my 9 pound bag of Orchard Grass in the mail yesterday. I was psyched to get it I haven’t opened it yet, as I still have a small bag of Orchard I need to finish first.

I have 2 open and shut tight containers for rice.. but, I never used it for rice Who cares! Multi purpose!

[foxtailskies]

As far as I know most grass hays (timothy, orchard grass, brome, Bermuda grass, and many others) are more or less nutritionally equivalent, and these are what bunnies should get as their primary hay. Legume hays (alfalfa, anything with clover) are higher in protein and calcium and are not appropriate as the sole hay source for adult bunnies (too fattening!), but can be used as a treat/hay topper, young rabbit or geriatric rabbit diet. I don’t know much about the grain hays (oat, barley, etc) other than they’re not used as a primary herbivore diet… the one time I got oat hay as a “treat” it kinda looked like straw with little oats in it, I’m sure the oat grain bits were very tasty but not especially healthy as a main diet!

I buy a 25lb bale of timothy or orchard grass from Oxbow and store it in a big Rubbermaid tote. Each bale lasts my two small buns about 3-4 months. As long as hay is kept dry it’ll last a long time… horse hay keeps in drafty barns all winter, hay that is happily stored sealed in your closet will likely stay fresh even longer! As far as choosing a grass hay, mixes, etc etc… the best hay is the greenest, freshest stuff, whatever variety that may be Sometimes your local farmers will have the best, and really cheap! I’m in the NE US and our hay harvest was GREAT this year, if I didn’t have 15lbs of timothy waiting to be fed I’d be combing Craigslist looking to buy a local bale! (In our region, a lot of farms are just taking their last cutting of the season)

[jerseygirl]

Posted By FluffyBunny on 09/11/2010 02:52 PM
Oat hay is more fattening, but a lot of rabbits like it.

Other members have said this too. But I’ve heard that about wheat hay too. I don’t know if oat hay is truly fattening. I’d like to know one way or the other.

[Author]

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