Brand/Quality of Hay

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sickntired

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Hello everyone! Remember me?I'm new to bunny care and had a question. I purchased someTimothy hay from a feed store near my house and it was a good price butit looked like straw. I have been using Kaytee Timothy hayand it was a greenish color. This brand was called Hay-Kob(or something like that).

Anyway, Hopper didn't eat that night and drank very little water....Iwas worried something was wrong. I replaced his Hay-Kob haywith Kaytee hay and he was chowing down in no time and drinking aswell.

Do any of you have any similiar experiences with this brand or others?

They also sell Purina Pellets in a 25 lbs. bag at a good price, but I'mafraid he won't eat that either. I know Oxbow is suppose tobe the best, but I'm on a budget as I rescue lots of different animals.
 
I use the Kaytee brand myself as well as thePurina pellets. The pellets smell nice and fresh to me asopposed to Wal-mart pellets. My two have both been deemed tobe in excellent condition by the vet, so I see nothing wrong witheither. :)
 
We try to buy our hay directly from farms as it is cut. On occasion we'll buy from a feed store.

As far as brand of food, you have to choose food that is right for yourrabbit. We used a local brand for a long time, but just werent gettingthe condition we wanted. We switched to heinhold, and have had greatresults. Any time we bring home a bunny that was not usingour food, we slowly transition them to the new feed. This ensures thatthey will except the feed and have little digestive problems resultingfrom the change. I think it would be fine to try and change the feed.Change it over slowly. If your rabbit keeps could condition then thefeed should be fine.

Some bunnies can be very picky eaters. We feed all but one of ourbunnies a teaspoon of black oil sunflower seeds each day. The one wedont give it to (a BOB winner) will eat everything in the dish andleave the seeds. Sometimes, we have to make exception for an individualbunny and this may be one of those cases, with your bunny and the hay!




 
As a general rule, the fresher the hay the greener it is. From my experience green stuff is the best.
 
Green hay is what you should buy. Hay that's yellow has 'gone to straw' andhas little nutritional content.
 
Thank you for all of your help. EvenHopper knew that yellowish stuff wasn't any good. I'm glad Ionly bought the small bag to try it out.

I'm just glad he's eating again!

Thanks again.


 
hay needs to be:

  • sweet smelling
  • dust free
  • green, not brown
  • free of lots of flowers and stem "heads" (this means it was cut later in the season, with less nutritional value)
  • the important nutrients in hay gets destroyed over time
:)

Ellie
 
Stanleysmom, did you notice that the Hay Kob wasyellowish as well? I was just wondering if I got a bad bag orsomething.


 
I used Kaytee hay for a while, but I startedwondering if they colored it. It looks unnaturally green tome.

Mine refuse to eat anything but Oxbow Hay now. I get it fromtheferretstore.com and there's no shipping for orders over $35.

Laura


 
Yes I did and all the bags were very brown and Stan wasn't eating much of it....he mostly just threw it out of his bowl. :?

Bramble, what do the stem heads look like? There's things in the haythat I don't know what they are but I think they're supposed to bethere. I can't really describe them though.
 
Bramble, are you referring to the tops that look kinda like minature "cat tails" but they are green of course.


 
I used the Hay Kob and it was alwaysbrown and Apollo never ate much if any. I bought a bag of Kaytee and heloves it, I couldn't keep his hay rack full enough at first. All ofmine are on it and they love it. I used the Purina Rabbit Chow in thegreen bag for awhile and mine liked it well enough. I switched them toManna Gro and they really love that.

I will never use Hay Kob again. It's more expensive than theKayTee and the quality is simply awful. That's just me though.

Tina
 
dajeti2 wrote:
I will never use Hay Kob again. It's more expensive than theKayTee and the quality is simply awful. That's just me though.

Tina
Click to expand...


I'm beginning to think your right! I guess we all live and learn.
 
stanleysmommy wrote:
Bramble, what do the stem heads look like? There's things in the haythat I don't know what they are but I think they're supposed to bethere. I can't really describe them though.
Click to expand...
The stem heads look like a long "fluffy" hotdog shapedthingon the end of a stem.....if it'slarger (more mature) then thegrass was cut later in the season, less nutritional value.

Ellie

(Idon't really know how to explain it any better than that)
 
stanleysmommy wrote:
So are Forti-Diet pellets okay do you think?
Click to expand...


I'm not sure, but I'd like to know other's opinion on the pellets aswell. I know that a lot of pellets say their made ofalfalfa...and this isn't good for mature buns.

Llama, do you know the main ingredient in Purina Pellets? I'll try checking their website.


 
Bramble Briar86 wrote:
The stem heads look like a long "fluffy" hotdogshapedthing on the end of a stem.....if it'slarger(more mature) then the grass was cut later in the season, lessnutritional value.
Click to expand...
I always wondered about those cattail things. I thought theywere a type of weed or something. My rabbits will pick thoseout and eat them first. They love them!

Laura


 
I'll go check my bag of it right now.


Ugh, I hate what i find when I read ingredients.

Processed grain by-products, forage products, roughage products, grainproducts, plant protien products, molasses products, salt, calciumcarbonate.


Those are the first 8 ingredients.
 
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