Types of Hay

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

Hi everyone

 

What types of hay do you feed? I know they SHOULD be getting timothy but mine don’t exactly LOVE it…

Right now I am giving three parts timothy to one part alfalfa and two parts meadow grass…What types of hay are the ‘equivelent’ of timothy? Like, which types of hay are healthy (low calcium/calories but high fibre) enough to feed as much as timothy ?

[babybunsmum]

i’n curious about this one too.  Baby resorts eating timothy when her greens & pellets are gone but i don’t think she’s all that interested in it otherwise.  the tip about handing out little bits here & there instead of all at once does help a bit, but i’m wondering if a mix is better.

[osprey]

I feed orchard grass and oat hay.  Mine disapprove of timothy for the most part.  There are basically two kinds of hay: Grass hays (timothy, orchard, brome, oat) and legume hays (alfalfa, peanut, clover).  For adult rabbits, the grass hays are more or less interchangeable.  Some people make a hay "salad", combining multiple types of hay into each feeding.  Be careful with the legume hays like alfalfa, they have more calories than the grass hays and less fiber.  Feeding too much of them can cause a bunny to gain weight or have tummy problems.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

So we could pretty much go ahead and give them orchard or any grass hay? (I thnk I hear my bunnies cheering…)

[Bunnies4ever]

My buns love Timothy hay. I’m fortuante to live by HRS so I can buy it by the flake. A flake usually lasts for about a month. Once I brought Oat hay thinking they woud like it, but they really didn’t. There’s also Bermuda and Orchard grass and some places you can buy a “Meadow Mix”.

[Gravehearted]

Yes, the grass hays are the healthy choice for bunnies older than 7 or 8 months. Osprey is right on – that you can mix them or use whichever you bunnies enjoy.

I started buying timmy hay online – since it’s such fresh and green quality my bunnies eat significantly more then I was buying bags at the petstore. I buy it in 25 pound boxes, so I only buy small bags of other hays every so often for variety. I usually get oat, orchard grass or bunny brome. My bunnies also really enjoy the binky bunny bunny blend mini-bale.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

sigh …I really really want that mini bale of bunny blend I saw on here! But they can’t ship to Canada yet…*waiting patiently*
I was thinking about asking to buy a bale of hay from the lady who runs the barn where I am riding…Next time I get a chance to chat with her I am going to ask what kind of hay she buys and then see if she will sell me a bale. I figure I will just store it in my trunk and take a flake up as needed

[ScooterandAnnette]

We bought a bale from a farm during the summer, it will probably last a year for us! It cost us less than $5 for a 65lb bale – not a bad deal. She couldn’t believe we were buy just 1 bale, and then she found out it was for bunnies and she still wasn’t sure what to make of it. She said she’s used to selling truckloads of it to people with horses so selling 1 was pretty unusual. All 4 of ours really like it.

[babybunsmum]

lol… funny to buy for bunnies vs horses!  friends of mine who live on a farm & who had horses at one time *completely* lost their minds when i told them how much i pay for a small bag of hay.  i have a famrers market near me… i should definitely see if i can find somewhere to pick up a bale.

[Kokaneeandkahlua]

I know I spent almost forty dollars on the 96 oz bag of hay bleh!!!

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