Oxbow hay quality

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degrassi

degrassi

Valerie - Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
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Location
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
I just ordered a variety of 15oz oxbow hay bags. I bought one of each kind they had : Botanical, brome, orchard grass, timothy, Oat. Oxbow isn't available in my area so I thought i'd buy a small quantity of each and see which my bun likes best before ordering bigger bags.

So the box arrived yesterday and I opened up all my hay bags. I was expecting nice long strands of hay since I've only heard good things about oxbowbut 3 out of the 5 bags are filled with short little hay bits. It looks like hay mulch. The longest pieces are 3-4 inches, but most of it is hay bits <2" long. The only bags with decent sized pieces are the orchard grass and brome. I tried to put it in Gimpy's hay rack and it just fell out becuase the pieces were too small. I guess I need to find a hay basket or something instead, so I can atleast feed thishay mulch.

Is this normal or is it becuase i bought small bags, so I got the smaller hay leftover bits? Do you get nicer(longer hay) in larger bags?


 
I get oxbow hay and do have some issues with thehay but I need to order critical care for beau so I have just stuck with them.
I get 50 lb boxes of timothy which is long strand but tends to be dustier than I would like.

I have also ordered orchard grass and oat hay in smaller quantity which I have been pleased with.

One thing I have found with Oxbow is that they will respond to complaints.

Once I got a really dusty box of timothy and it was really terrible and not usable. I called the company and talked with the quality control person. They sent me a 25lb box without charge, apologizedand the woman said that she would check the box herself before it was shipped out.
She told me that the smaller orders are shipped more carefully than the larger.

I am wondering if you ordered a bag of hay that is really for reptiles. I ordered it once thinking it was for rabbits and receved a bag of tiny pieces. When I read the product description carefully I realized it was for reptiles.

I will find the Oxbow site for you which also contains the contact 1-800 number.

Don't hesitate to call and tell them what you think.

http://www.oxbowhay.com/index.sp
 
Thanks for the reply.

I didn't order the reptile hay, but I did order one of each of the other types(brome, oat, orchard,timothy, botanical).

I'll try contacting Oxbow and see what they say. I just want to know that this isn't common, so when I order again the same thing doens't happen.
 
Some of the other places that members from here order hay are (off the top of my head)
Farmer Dave's

American pet Diner
The Bunny Bunch
Bunny Bytes

Kleenmama's hay

Bunny Boutique

check back because we have had many threads on which is the best hay. I think a lot of people don't like Oxbow anymore.


 
Hi Degrassi,

I did the same as you when I bought different types of Oxbow hay fromCalgary, several months ago. I didn't pay attention to the length of the hay as I cut mine to fit in bowls for my bunnies. The 15 oz bags are tightly packed and when I pull some hay out,it will tear into smaller pieces.

My oat hay has long thick strands up to 8 inches long. But there are mixed smaller pieces in it.

The Brome is thinner than the oat hay, but also has a mixture of long and mulch hay.

The Botanical is even thinner and finer hay than the above hays but is that is clumpedwith short hay. You can sayit is abit mulchy because of the mixed herbs in it.

I don't have any Orchard hay left, but I think is was similar to the Botanical hay but it was thinest of all the hays.

One of these days I should try and getsome morehay and distribute it amongst the Edmonton bunny owners. In August I got some slew hay (it looks like brome hay) from a breeder that the bunnies loved. The uncut hay was so long (2 - 4feet long) that you had to be careful that the bunny doesn't get tangled in it.
 
Normally I get my Timothy locally at Pet planet. It comes in a 8 lbs(i think) bags and the hay strands arevery long(12") So i was expecting something similar with long strands when ordering oxbox. I just wanted to try something new and see if it was better. Obviously lenght of hay wise its not better quality.
Some of the other places that members from here order hay are (off the top of my head)
Click to expand...
I've checked a few other sites but they were all american and shipping to canada was pricey. The only reason I even ordered Oxbox was becuase I found a canadian site and shipping my whole order was only 12$.

I might order Oxbox again as my bunny seems to like the orchard grass but I think I'll stay away from the other varieties as my bun doens't like the short little hay pieces as much as the long strands.
 
degrassi wrote:
I might order Oxbox again as my bunny seems to like the orchard grass but I think I'll stay away from the other varieties as my bun doens't like the short little hay pieces
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I would buy Botanical, and orchard grass again. They are a softer hay that my bunnies like. Who is the Canadian supplier that you bought from? Cause I can get mine from Calgary at Chewsy Pets. Some of the forum members mentioned that Petsmart started to carry OXbow. But I checked the Edmonton stores and they have none.

The other varietiesOxbow haycould of been a bad batch or the left over hay that you got. I wonder if they would replace or exchange the bags if you asked them.
 
I would buy Botanical, and orchard grass again. They are a softer hay that my bunnies like. Who is the Canadian supplier that you bought from? Cause I can get mine from Calgary at Chewsy Pets. Some of the forum members mentioned that Petsmart started to carry OXbow. But I checked the Edmonton stores and they have none.

The other varietiesOxbow haycould of been a bad batch or the left over hay that you got. I wonder if they would replace or exchange the bags if you asked them.
Click to expand...
My bun doesn't seem to like the botanical, its the only one he hasn't eaten out of his "test" piles of hay(I put little piles of all 5 varieties in his cage so I can see which he likes). He does LOVE the orchard grass! I'll probably be buying that again. He also likes the Oat's seed heads but doens't seem to like the hay part too much.

I ordered the hay from Canadian pet connection. It was 12$ shipping for the 5 15oz bags and a 1 lbs hay cubes.

I emailed Oxbox and told them my issues. So hopefully they write back.
 
Oxbow has been like that in ways lately. I've noticed that I get a large amount of very compact longer strands....... then the little stuff. I end up with hay all over my bunny room just trying to get it into their hay racks. I have the kind that are on the outside of the cage (solid plastic )..... and a bunch will slide into the cage floor - which for Bo is a litterpan since he sits and poos and eats hay.....

There is a lot of waste when it comes to Oxbow, but they really love it...... *sigh*
 
they have started selling Oxbow in some petstores around here. since I have heard that Oxbow is the best I decided to have a look. I was VERY disappointed in the hay quality of all the hays they had there. it didn't smell good and was very poor quality. needless to say I by passed Oxbow.

Hope you'll get a reply from them.
 
If they havent' responded so far, I doubt I'll get a response which is rather disappointing. Why have an email address if you dont' answer customers emails.

I dont' feel like calling to complain. Its always so painful calling companies to complain.

I'll just stick to buying locally next time.
 
degrassi wrote:
I'll just stick to buying locally next time.
Click to expand...
When will you plan to buy hay again? I just gota few flakesfrom a breeder, and it is really nice Timothy Hay. I gave some to Luvabun yesterday, and my picky bunnies seem to like it. I should see if I could get a bale and share it with everyone. :)
 
I think I have enough hay for a while yet. I still have leftover timothy hay and all the new hay I just bought.It fills a bigrubbermaid and another 1x1x2' box full.




 
I have ordered from OxBow in the past and had only good results. Then, again, I have always ordered larger quantities and then stored them in storage bins at my house. My vet really pushes OxBow Timothy Hay, and that seems to be something that vets do these days, I am guessing in large part in response to House Rabbit Society's endorsement of that product and sale of it through local chapters.

My bunnies will not touch timothy hay other than to spit it back out so I have been ordering Orchard Grass and Oat Hay from OxBow. The one thing that bothers me about ordering from OxBow is that the shipping charges cost as much as the hay I am buying.

My fiance and I recently married, and we are living in rather rural south central Maryland. As it turns out, many area farmers offer their own timothy hay and orchard grass for sale. I think it's time for me to give the local providers a chance. It just seems wasteful to me to have all that hay shipped from the Midwest when I can buy it in my own backdoor. Maybe local hay is more of an option than you realize. You might just want to check it out with a little online research. . .

I do hope that Oxbow Hay does respond to your letter and reimburses you for the low quality hay. I am originally from the Midwest and take pride in midwestern companies that know how to keep the customer satisfied. Keep us posted on how that goes.
 
Well it took almost a month but Oxbow finally emailed back. She said that she would send me 3 new bags of hay and that the shipment they have now is long strands. She also said that each bag was hand packed. But why would anyone think that packing the hay dust/mulch I received was acceptable. Literally the bag was half filled with dust and the rest was 2-3" pieces.

But alteast they are nice enough to send me some new stuff :)
 
So nice they are replacing some of your hay. I couldn't tell if long strands or small dusty bits were in the bag. Last night I was pulling very long Brome hay out from the middle of the bag. It was packed in so tight that you really have to tug on it to get them out.

I think the company would know which bags will contain smaller bits when they are near the end of their production of bagging the hay. They are probably sending you the very first of the bagging process. :D
 
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