Does Timothy hay smell like grass or "tea" - I might have grass clippings

[Tweetiepy]

Okay I don't often drink tea but I find that Timothy hay smells a bit like tea. The Oxbow anyways I find. Last weekend I bought some Timothy hay from a feed store and the strands are on the shortish side, and it smells like cut grass. All the blades are green and IF there are anystems in there, they'resoft too. Oxbow had some longer, thicker, crunchier stems too - and those fuzzy tails - my bag has those too. Maybe I got a different cut of Timothy hay, the more tender cut (not sure which one that would be), but I find it smells like grass and not like tea.

Peaches was let out last summer in the yard and he'd much on dandelion leaves but not the grass, but he'll eat this stuff (he likes the soft leaves and pulls out the harder stems when I fill his tray.

Do they all smell different or did I get someones grass clippings?

 

[tamsin]

Some companies do cut hay short, some packs I've seen have it only 2" long.

Hay is basically cut grass that's been dried out, clippings would be moist and would ferment and go mouldy. As long as it is dry and doesn't smell mouldy it sounds fine.

Variations in texture just depend when it's cut, the new leaves are much softer than the old stalky bits.

 

[elrohwen]

Timothy is a grass, so hay is just a dried grass. Typically it won't smell like cut grass if it's dried long enough, but fresher hay smells much more like cut grass. Tea is also a dried plant that is allowed to oxidize (at least black tea is) so it makes sense that hay that has been stored longer would smell a bit like tea. I don't think either is better or worse as long as it's still green and not moldy.

I just got a new box of hay from Oxbow (the 50lb box). My last one was pale green and had some crunchy stems. The hay in the new box is bright green and so soft that it's like thin strips of green paper (best way I can describe it) rather than normal scratchy hay. It's very different, which is a result of when it was harvested. Hay is often grown and harvested 2-3 times per year, so the first cutting vs the third can have very different qualities.

 

[Tweetiepy]

I'm glad to hear that, I was worried that I got sold the wrong stuff. both bunnies seem to like it. It is all green, I see no brown bits in there so I'm happy about that - one of the last bags of Oxbow had mostly brown bits and the bunnies wouldn't eat it so I lost a lot there. Whew!