Oat hay vs. Timothy

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jordiwes

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Hi there,

I found a nice looking bag of green oat hay, but I did not purchase it as I do not know how it compares to timothy hay. My buns love and do well on timothy hay.

Does oat hay have more or less nutrition, more or less calories, and more or less calcium?

Thanks!
 
Oat hay is as good as timothy, one of our extremely knowledgeable mods (randy) suggests it for buns who don't like timothy. As long as your bun likes it and eats the same amount as usual it should be fine.
 
Here are a few sites that has a bit of a breakdown of protein, calcium, etc. per hay type:

http://www.tamaris.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=1

http://www.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id146/id146.htm

http://www.c-r-alpacas.com/Alpaca Tips/types_of_hay.htm

http://www.guinealynx.com/hay_chart.html

http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/2432/haychart.html

Here's a site that lists a bit of information about each type of hay:

http://www.rabbit.org/chapters/san-diego/diet/hay_grass.html

I don't know much about each type of hay, myself, but I will add the fact that people use oats to help buns gain weight. I don't know what, if anything, that means to oat HAY, necessarily, but thought I'd jot that down here.

Hope all that helps!

Hugs!

Rosie*


 
Oat hay is a grass hay, so it is good for bunnies. Actually, if you want to get really technical the best hay for rabbits is a mix, not a single species. And my buns loooooove oat hay! I need to find it locally so I can get some more.
 
Hmm...sounds like we'll be checking to see if the tack & feed places near us have a mix! I try REALLY hard to give them the best of things (without killing us financially). :)

naturestee wrote:
Oat hay is a grass hay, so it is good for bunnies. Actually, if you want to get really technical the best hay for rabbits is a mix, not a single species. And my buns loooooove oat hay! I need to find it locally so I can get some more.
 
ARGH! I am moving to your area Steph - Oat hay is like an arm and a leg here. I'm going to get more of it from Oxbow for my guys cause they LOVE it - although they go after the seed pods first. But they go nuts for it like they go nuts for treats.

_____________
Nadia
 
I dunno about shipping it to me, but you should bring some with you next time you come to the mainland... I'm trying to find some different varieties to give my guys along with the timothy. I'll traid you oat for orchard!

--Dawn
 
I have a really hard time getting anything except Timothy or Alfalfa here. We have a lot of mixes (oat hay is not common here) with brome and orchard grass in them but 95% of them seem to be Alfalfa mixes and the other 5% I can't get at because 'it's a waste of time for a farmer to sell me a bale or 2'. While I'mfortunateto have access to plenty of great Timothy here, I wish I could get more variety but the bottom line is take what you can most easily have access to. Grass hays all vary slightly in nutritional value, but they are all good for the rabbit. If you can get a mix, then go for it! More is better.

We had a discussion on different types of hay not long ago. It's somewhat pertinent to this discussion because offering a variety means your rabbit can eat the one it likes the most and will often times consume quite a bit if they like the hay. http://www.rabbitsonline.net/view_topic.php?id=27269&forum_id=1
 
Here ya go. Basic hay analysis.

Alfalfa
Protein- 16%
Fiber 28%
Calcium 1.5%

Grass hay (this includes oat hay)
Protein- 14%
Fiber- 31%
Calcium- .4%

Timothy
Protein- 8%
Fiber 30%
Calcium- .5%

There you go.
 
My rabbits gained wt on a lot of oat hay..maybe it is just mine but if I was to feed it again I would definitely mix it with orchard grass and timothy.
 
While that may be a basic analysis of hays, the percentages can change drastically based on cut and time. Some values fall the longer the hay is left in the field. So it's really hard to say how accurate that is. It also depends on how much stem to leaf there is because certain parts contain different percentages.
 
Hi All,

Just wondering about those nutritional values that were posted. What reference did you use? I really question those figures...could you posta link to that article? All grass hays have about the same protein values....usually around 6%-8%...and as noted there might be small differences due to varying growing conditions, cuts,etc....but not to the extreme of 14% protein. Now alfalfa hay is a different story. Timothy is a grass hay....just as brome, oat, orchard/meadow, bermuda, etc. I also noticed a post regarding weight gain when feeding oat hay. That would be interesting to further explore.I feed oat hay a lot. Never had any excessive weight gain on any rabbit eating oat hay.

Randy
 
Yeah,i only feed my bunnies oat hay,as we don't have timothy hay over here in Australia,and oat hay is the next best thing to timothy,all my bunnies do well on it,and they absolutely love it,i love listning to them munch on the little seeds :)

Cheryl
 
It wasn't from an online article, it was from one of my veterinary textbooks. Wish I could help ya out there otherwise.

I'll go find it and give you the name, because I don't remember which one it was off the top of my head.

Edt: It's from Rabbits: Health, Husbandry, and Diseases by Virginia Richardson, or as it says on the title page, V.C.G. Richardson, MA VetMB MRCVS. The particular copy I have has been published in 2000. It's in the chapter called Nutrition, page 11.

It's a fantastic reference book. Dad has used it in his practice in the past. It's not a huge textbook, but sort of a "pocket guide", it goes into the basics of many of the systems, diseases of those systems, development of the young and potential problems in young bunnies, problems in older bunnies, explains some about medications, clinical exams, anesthesia, and dosages....

Lol, I'd recommend it to pretty much everyone.
 
Actually Randy, you've got me curious now, because I thought the same thing about the timothy hay/other grass hays. It said "Grass hay", but perhaps it meant a grass mixture, like Readygrass, as it was mentioned in the previous paragraph.

I will have to look it up in another book or attempt to find something online.
 

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