Oat hay vs orchard grass

Hi everyone new to the forum! My question is this. I am TERRIBLY allergic to Timothy grass and we found that out about 2 years after using it for Lux. It would make my throat so gunky and feel like crap all day cause every night when I fed lux her hay I would breath in all the dust..

so we tried her with oat hay and she loves it. My question is what about orchard grass hay? I’d stay with oat hay but it doesn’t come in the big bags and I’d rather buy a big bag then having to buy one every 10 Days. If I’m allergic to Timothy would orchard be bad? And is it bad to just change a grass / hay?

Welcome to RO!

Going from grass hay to grass hay is fine (grass to legume (like alfalfa) or vice versa cold turkey can cause digestive upset). Oat hay is popular with bunns and much lower dust than timothy, but you need to be picking out most if not all of the seed heads (the actual oats) before feeding it because eating excessive carbs can cause obesity, bloat/GI stasis, diabetes and other health issues. For me, that became a deal-breaker because it gets SUPER tedious unless the oat hay is just an occasional treat.

I've heard from a lot of people over the years who were allergic to timothy that they had no problem at all with orchard grass. As an added bonus (which I recently learned from our health and wellness mod when Nala's rear molars got overgrown), orchard is the best hay for keeping teeth worn down and healthy because of the silicates (if you've ever handled it, you can really feel the texture difference compared to timothy). I bought 50 lbs of orchard grass from Small Pet Select in early August; it's excellent quality and VERY low dust and four rabbits combined have only gone through maybe a fourth of the box.

So it’s ok to just buy orchard tomorrow to try without transition? I just don’t also want to get sick again.

Yup! If you're buying from a pet store, you might ask an employee if you can open the bag before you buy it and get a good whiff to make sure it doesn't seem to trigger your allergies the way timothy does - they'd probably oblige once you explain the reason.

Imbrium said:

Yup! If you're buying from a pet store, you might ask an employee if you can open the bag before you buy it and get a good whiff to make sure it doesn't seem to trigger your allergies the way timothy does - they'd probably oblige once you explain the reason.

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only bad thing is I don’t know if it would. Takes a bit for it to do it...

Might just have to call my allergist up then to make sure

Used to have to wear surgical gloves and a dust mask with timothy so we switched to orchard grass--no problem for our bunnies and no allergic reactions. I do wash my hands after feeding it or they react but nothing like timothy hay. I order thru Amazon from Petsplus and can get up to a 50 pound box.

As someone who is also highly allergic to timothy hay, I strongly recommend orchard grass. You can get a bag at a pet store, or better yet, a half or full/compressed bale at a feed store You can then store it in a large container, and save a ton of money, since it is the bunny's main food

Thanks guys! I’m gonna try to orchard grass!!

You guys are telling me it’s ok to just switch out the oat hay and give her the orchard grass no problem?

in the mean time I made an idiot mistake. I was at the best store and smelled the Timothy grass to see how different it was from orchard and took a big Wiff and 3 hours later throat is still a little sore... lol

Led said:

You guys are telling me it’s ok to just switch out the oat hay and give her the orchard grass no problem?

in the mean time I made an idiot mistake. I was at the best store and smelled the Timothy grass to see how different it was from orchard and took a big Wiff and 3 hours later throat is still a little sore... lol

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As far as I know, they are extremely similar and interchangeable.

Sometimes I run out of orchard grass and buy a little timothy hay until I can pick up again, but the bunnies never seemed to have any issues.

Very sorry to hear that you inhaled some Maybe flush your nose and drink a ton of water?

That sucks about inhaling the timothy dust ... but yeah, you can make an abrupt switch from oat to orchard without any problems.