I'm looking for a less dusty hay source...

[slavetoabunny]

Yep, you can free-feed bluegrass. I'm about ready for a new order just in time for 3rd cut! My guys went nuts over last years 3rd cut - supposed to be available early October.

 

[Jenk]

JimD wrote:

The SweetMeadow hay I ordered was virtually dust free.
It is very aromatic and the whole bunny room reminds me of chamomile tea...don't know if that would irritate hubby's allergies or not.

I, too, have been very happy with Sweet Meadow Farms' products. We typically buy the 1st-cut timothy hay, which is nearly dust-free. And two of my sweet-toothed bunners love their sweet meadow hay (which does contain more dust particles than does 1st-cut timothy, I'll admit).

As an added compliment to the company: I once placed a first-time order for a box of apple chew sticks. Someone crossed off the "1" on the amount line of our order form and hand-wrote "3" in its place; so we got three boxes of the sticks for the price of one (a savings of over $6). The next day, I made sure that I e-mailed a sincere thank-you to the farm's owner, Al.

Jenk

 

[JadeIcing]

The owner of SweetMeadow Al does a LOT for local rescues. :biggrin2:

 

[Jenk]

JadeIcing wrote:

The owner of SweetMeadow Al does a LOT for local rescues. :biggrin2:

I did not know that (until now, of course :biggrin2. I think that's so wonderful!

 

[petitlapin]

We love the Sweet Meadow's Organic Timothy Hay with Herbs. I am prone to sneezey allergies, but this has not aggravated mine in anyway. The chamomile smells so good too.

 

[Jenk]

petitlapin wrote:

We love the Sweet Meadow's Organic Timothy Hay with Herbs. I am prone to sneezey allergies, but this has not aggravated mine in anyway. The chamomile smells so good too.

Oooohh...Now you're making me want to order that haynext. My DH is going to strangle me for gettingideas here. (Just last night, he started griping about hay costs. Admittedly, it does get pricey to feed shipped hay to three buns, including one who's about 9 lbs.)

:biggrin2:

 

[kirbyultra]

Is the Sweet Meadow 1st cut very course and sharp? I am always sticking my hands with hay bits when handling hay. Pokes straight through gloves even - I'm currently feeding Oxbow's Western timothy.

So I started feeding Kleenmama's timothy and it doesn't seem to be any different to the buns. They are eating it the same as their usual Oxbow. The hay itself looks a little less green, kind of more course, but less dusty... The fuzzy bits in the Oxbow look like green cotton swabs. They look like yellow brushes from Kleenmama. Anyone notice? Are they the same "heads" from timothy?

 

[Jenk]

kirbyultra wrote:

Is the Sweet Meadow 1st cut very course and sharp? I am always sticking my hands with hay bits when handling hay. Pokes straight through gloves even - I'm currently feeding Oxbow's Western timothy.

Yes, Sweet Meadow's 1st-cut timothy is pretty coarse and sharp; you need to handle it with care. I once grabbed it without thinking and wound up with a 1"-long hay sliver in the skin between my thumb and forefinger. (It hurt going in; it hurt more pulling it out.)

So I started feeding Kleenmama's timothy and it doesn't seem to be any different to the buns. They are eating it the same as their usual Oxbow. The hay itself looks a little less green, kind of more course, but less dusty... The fuzzy bits in the Oxbow look like green cotton swabs. They look like yellow brushes from Kleenmama. Anyone notice? Are they the same "heads" from timothy?

What you're likely seeing in Kleenmama's hay is water weed. (At least, that's what the owner once told me it's commonly called.) I'm fairly certain that's what you're seeing because timothy seed heads pretty much look the same, regardless of hay brands.

I've ordered Kleenmama's hay once. I was very impressed with it. Unfortunately, only one of our two girls ate it. Now that we have three buns, I'd hate to have two of them refuse it. (Believe it or not, our tiniest girl likes the toughest 1st-cut timothy hay. Sweet Meadow is her current fav.)

Jenk

 

[kirbyultra]

Jenk wrote:

kirbyultra wrote:

Is the Sweet Meadow 1st cut very course and sharp? I am always sticking my hands with hay bits when handling hay. Pokes straight through gloves even - I'm currently feeding Oxbow's Western timothy.

Yes, Sweet Meadow's 1st-cut timothy is pretty coarse and sharp; you need to handle it with care. I once grabbed it without thinking and wound up with a 1"-long hay sliver in the skin between my thumb and forefinger. (It hurt going in; it hurt more pulling it out.)

So I started feeding Kleenmama's timothy and it doesn't seem to be any different to the buns. They are eating it the same as their usual Oxbow. The hay itself looks a little less green, kind of more course, but less dusty... The fuzzy bits in the Oxbow look like green cotton swabs. They look like yellow brushes from Kleenmama. Anyone notice? Are they the same "heads" from timothy?

What you're likely seeing in Kleenmama's hay is water weed. (At least, that's what the owner once told me it's commonly called.) I'm fairly certain that's what you're seeing because timothy seed heads pretty much look the same, regardless of hay brands.

I've ordered Kleenmama's hay once. I was very impressed with it. Unfortunately, only one of our two girls ate it. Now that we have three buns, I'd hate to have two of them refuse it. (Believe it or not, our tiniest girl likes the toughest 1st-cut timothy hay. Sweet Meadow is her current fav.)

Jenk

Water weed?! What is that? Is it harmful to buns?

But it had a piece of what looked like timothy grass blade grown in with it towards the base of the stem...that's why I thought originally it was a piece of the fuzzy heads.

 

[Jenk]

kirbyultra wrote:

Water weed?! What is that? Is it harmful to buns?

But it had a piece of what looked like timothy grass blade grown in with it towards the base of the stem...that's why I thought originally it was a piece of the fuzzy heads.

Kleenmama's owner assured me that it's safe for bun. Admittedly, I picked it out whenever I found it (and my hubby and I did find a lot of it in our particular box of hay). But I'm guessing it truly is harmless to buns--much like hay that contains certain dried flowers, dried flower leaves, and tiny twigs.

 

[kirbyultra]

Thanks Jenk. That's a relief.

 

[kirbyultra]

I've been feeding the Kleenmama timothy hay (I assume it's 2nd cut) and I have to say the "look" of it is not too great. It's not the lush green that I am used to with Oxbow. But Kirby seems to love it especially. He will eat all of what I give him in the morning by the time I get home. So there's no question about it's yumminess to the bunnies. I find it to be much better to handle than the Oxbow in terms of dust. Timothy to Timothy I think Kleenmama is less dusty.

But about that water weed... Does it look like this, Jenk? Because the ones I saw before were sort of dried out and yellow. In the last couple of days when I dug deeper into the bag I got tons of these things which are sort of purple.

Purple kind of worries me... I don't know why. I pick them out where I can. But it also looks like there is some green timothy hay attached to it at the stem so I am not sure if it is just the tops of the hay or if it's some other plant. Should I email Linda?

I haven't fed the bluegrass yet as I'm trying to ease the hay changes into their diet, but I am excited about it.

 

[JimD]

Hi Helen,

I would email Linda with a pic of what you've found and ask her what she knows about it.
She's probably got a good knowledge of the diffent field plants and might be able to identify it and let you know if it's safe or not.

 

[Jenk]

We had no purple flowers in our KM's hay order. We had the dried-out yellowish looking things that you've mentioned (i.e.,the "water weed"). I can't identify the purple flowers. Hopefully, Linda can shed some light on what they are.

When we order Sweet Meadow Farms' hay, the non-1st-cut (which seems to mostly be 3rd-cut) contains some meadow hay. And that means that it has a certain type of dried flower included, which our bunnies love. If I remember, I'll take a photo of one of them to show you.

Question: Does your bun crew love and eat Oxbow without hesitation? If they love it as much as KM's, and you can handle the dust quantity of it, maybe you should consider going back to it. When it came to our one KM order, our one bunny wouldn't eat it, and my hubby got tired of plucking water weed from it. (There was too much of it in there for his liking. )

kirbyultra wrote:

But about that water weed... Does it look like this, Jenk? Because the ones I saw before were sort of dried out and yellow. In the last couple of days when I dug deeper into the bag I got tons of these things which are sort of purple.

Purple kind of worries me... I don't know why. I pick them out where I can. But it also looks like there is some green timothy hay attached to it at the stem so I am not sure if it is just the tops of the hay or if it's some other plant. Should I email Linda?

 

[kirbyultra]

Jim, I have emailed Linda a copy of this picture. Hope she can tell us what it is. I picked out these really long stringy pieces but there is bound to be some I missed and I don't see any when I go to refill the hay basket so I'm sure Kirby ate it

Jenk - Both buns seem to take it well. Toby is not picky at all (so far) and Kirby is picky, but he seems to polish it off. With the box of Oxbow I got last March, I think it was somewhere between first and 2nd cut mixed together because it was a lush green, some of it was very soft and some of it was so sharp that it stuck me in the palm more than a few times. Kirby would eat very selectively from the Oxbow, i.e. all of the soft "blade" parts, and the stems only if there was a nice blade still attached He would just chop up the long, hard stems and leave them in 2 inch long pieces fo rme to pick up after him... sigh. I think he likes the KM better so this could be a possibility for me going forward.

:bunnydance:

 

[JimD]

Jenk wrote:

When we order Sweet Meadow Farms' hay, the non-1st-cut (which seems to mostly be 3rd-cut) contains some meadow hay. And that means that it has a certain type of dried flower included, which our bunnies love. If I remember, I'll take a photo of one of them to show you.

Hi JenK!

I'm just finishing up my last order from Sweet Meadow....30 lbs of classic timothy.
My buns all loved to dig through it to find the errant clover.
There were some other broad-leaf plants that I couldn't identify so I pulled them out for the most....and If I missed some, the buns would leave them to the side anyways.

Last year's harvest of 3rd cut from Kleenmamas was definitely the best hay I've ever gotten ...just ask the bunnies .
I hope this year's harvest is as good!!

I'm most probably going to have to order something before KM get their 3rd cut....I'll probably get some Sweet Meadow classic timothy to tide the buns over.

 

[Jenk]

kirbyultra wrote:

Kirby would eat very selectively from the Oxbow, i.e. all of the soft "blade" parts, and the stems only if there was a nice blade still attached He would just chop up the long, hard stems and leave them in 2 inch long pieces fo rme to pick up after him... sigh.

It's funny how selective bunnies can be about hay. Our Emma is mostpicky. And now that she's accustomed to Sweet Meadow's 1st-cut timothy (having loved it from the start), I can't get her toeatSM's softer-cut timothy. She'll gladly scarf SM's meadow hay, though. She and our two otherbunners also eat Oxbow's orchard grass and oat hay, when it's available.

JimD wrote:

I'm just finishing up my last order from Sweet Meadow....30 lbs of classic timothy.
My buns all loved to dig through it to find the errant clover.
There were some other broad-leaf plants that I couldn't identify so I pulled them out for the most....and If I missed some, the buns would leave them to the side anyways.

Yeah, Emma manages to pluck out the clover, too. Sadly, both she and Pinkerton, after sucking down the clover, throw the rest of the hay out of their litter boxes. Clearly, they both prefer 1st-cut timothy. I'm still trying to slowly sneak in softer cuts at times, so that they receive additional nutrients from it. So far, they've managed to foil my attempts. I imagine that they're mocking me, like so: :bunnydance:.

 

[Orchid]

JeffS wrote:

If you call around to places that sell products for goats and horses etc, you can probably find someone who has bales of timothy or a timothy mix for just a few dollars. Bales weight a LOT. I'm shocked now when I see how expensive specialty brands of hay are. I pay $0.10 per pound of hay compared to like $2.5 or more per pound from something like oxbow or kaytee. I have my supplier (Soldan's in Okemos, MI) put it in a giant garbage bag.

You need to inspect it though. Once I bought hay and it smelled a bit sour and all the grass had deteriorated into dust. I ended up throwing most of it out.

I think there are places here where I could do that, but how well could I keep it for a little bun who isn't even 4 lbs? Wouldn't it end up spoiling and what not before she could really eat it...and I also worry I wouldn't know if I had good or bad hay...I used to stare at like every bag of oxbox trying to figure out which was the best, the freshest etc..

How would I keep it....I couldn't fit a bale of hay in my house....and my shed seems to be infested with ants...I spray and they shift sides..lol

 

[Orchid]

kirbyultra wrote:

If I buy 30+lbs with shipping it's about $1 to $1.25 a lb which isn't too bad. It's not 10 cents a pound But I don't live near farms. I live in New York City. It's quite a trek in itself to go out to farm areas I think.

Depending on where and at what hour you choose to drive..maybe lol

Rockland might have something but I know Orange County certainly would. I wouldn't see why Rockland County wouldn't have anything...Farm areas where still lurking when last I lived there...

From Orange County...by Newburgh, Goshen etc it took us an hour and half one way. Mostly with some sort of traffic. Heading into Manhatten that is... I always prefered the trains myself...

 

[Orchid]

petitlapin wrote:

We love the Sweet Meadow's Organic Timothy Hay with Herbs. I am prone to sneezey allergies, but this has not aggravated mine in anyway. The chamomile smells so good too.

My daughter and I both have dust allergies pretty bad...and I am allergic to like the rest of the world except for buns...I might have to try this!