Good Quality Timothy Hay?

Hi Everyone,

I have a few questions about hay. I feed my rabbit Oxbow timothy hay and I just noticed that my new shipment of hay has purple tinted seed heads. I haven't seen this before so I wanted to see if it's normal before I feed it to him. I didn't have much luck looking it up. I'm fairly new to the world of bunnies- I've had my little guy almost a year- and I still don't really know what constitutes good quality hay. What should it look like? What does it look like if it's poor quality?

While I was waiting for this shipment (delayed because of weather), I've been using Kaytee timothy hay from the pet store. It looked much brighter in color than the Oxbow, but I feel like he is eating less of it (and throwing more around his pen). Although, I also noticed his droppings seem fuller and a little lighter in color since switching to that hay. And again, I'm not really sure if that's better or worse!

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Thank you!

ALl hays will vary, they are grown outside in massive fields. So its sort of up to mother nature how it turns out. One brand might buy off more farmers who have richer soil in their fields, but that's not something consumers can really determine. So colour, dustiness, softness, etc will all be different.
A lot of members here just get their hay by the bale from Tractor supply/feed stores.
The seed heads just mean your hay may be a bit less fibery and more sugary, so watch for icky poops and if you don't see any you'll be fine. The purple means the seed heads are a bit younger and less... uhm... seedy!

Thank you for the reply! I gave him the hay today and all looks normal in the litter box, so I think it will be fine