Question about Hay for my lionheads?

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mariethomas

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Ecuador
Hello.
Again, where I live there is no American hay or many variations at all.
So I purchased some of this.
tumblr_mx5kdyxjsn1r5jhjqo1_100.jpg


(Sorry for the bad quality picture, and also my puppy who decided to go sniff it at that very moment)

Could this count as a grass hay? I had been feeding it to my older lionhead and he likes it. I've done a lot of searching and just can't seem to get another answer other than to order from online, which is impossible for me.

Obviously it didn't stay as green and started looking more like hay towards the end.
Please no answers telling me to order from online, as I cannot.
Thanks a lot.
 
Hay is only dried out grasses and weeds, nothing more.
Any hay will work, as long as there's no poisonous plants mixed in.
You can easily go outside, cut regular lawn grasses, dry them out on the porch and then store it in a cardboard box.
If you are feeding a proper and quality pellet food, then it will be made mainly of alfalfa, so adding more alfalfa hay is not a good idea. Using other kinds of hay is much better and evens out the diet. You can buy 50# square bales from some farmers, there's many kinds out there. "Horse quality" is usually the better and more carefully made hays. Oat, timothy, clover, orchard, pasture/grass mix and so on are all fine.
 
Thanks! I'm trying out the drying out my own grass method.
Once again, I'll try to get real hay.
 
Hay is only dried out grasses and weeds, nothing more.
Any hay will work, as long as there's no poisonous plants mixed in.
You can easily go outside, cut regular lawn grasses, dry them out on the porch and then store it in a cardboard box.
If you are feeding a proper and quality pellet food, then it will be made mainly of alfalfa, so adding more alfalfa hay is not a good idea. Using other kinds of hay is much better and evens out the diet. You can buy 50# square bales from some farmers, there's many kinds out there. "Horse quality" is usually the better and more carefully made hays. Oat, timothy, clover, orchard, pasture/grass mix and so on are all fine.

Actually, clover hay is a no-no for adult rabbits - like alfalfa, it's a legume hay and therefore shouldn't be fed to adult rabbits. Any horse-quality GRASS hay is suitable for rabbits, though (mind you, with "cereal" types like oat, wheat, rye, etc. the seed heads would need to be removed before feeding because the excess carbs and calories can cause problems). Horse-quality is important because hay for cows can have things like mildew (or maybe it's mold, I don't remember exactly) in it that would make a horse or rabbit sick.

Lawn grass can potentially work... it needs to be hand-picked (not cut with a lawnmower or anything) and come from a lawn that you're sure hasn't been treated with pesticides or fertilizer. This tends to be impractical because of the volume of hay rabbits eat, though.

That picture is too small for me to really tell what it is... but as long as it's a grass hay, it's fine. Where did you get it from? (That could help us figure out if it's the proper stuff.)

If you have any feed stores, livestock supply places, etc. near you, then they'll almost certainly sell bales of hay for horses. If you tell them you specifically need grass hay, they'll know which of their hays fall into that category. Bales from feed stores are actually the best way to go (unless you have super-picky bunns like mine who won't eat it) - that stuff's almost always fresher and better than pet store hay and it's a fraction of the cost. I know around here, you can get a 50-80 lb bale of hay for around $8-15 depending on the store and the type/cut of hay.

A bale can be stored for a year or more as long as it's kept clean, dry and insect free. I bought two half-bale bags from http://www.tackwholesale.com/bale-bags-c-11.html (I went with that instead of a full-bale bag because the half-bale bags are easier to move around and can be stacked to take up less space). Alternatively, you can use a rubbermaid type storage bin or even unscented large plastic trash bags. If you bring bags/containers to the feed store, they'll typically split up the bale and package it for you free of charge.
 
I forgot to mention... if you can't find a feed store/livestock supply store nearby or don't have the means to transport and/or store an entire bale of hay, another option is to call any stables in your area (places that board horses, give horseback riding lessons, offer trail rides, anything that involves having horses - and therefore hay - on the premises).

Explain that you're trying to find horse-quality grass hay for your pet rabbit and ask if they would be willing to sell you a few flakes (flakes are smaller units of hay that comprise a bale). Any place with horses will go through a ton of bales and it's often possible to sweet-talk them into parting with a few flakes for little (or even no) money - after all, one horse can eat in a day as much hay as a medium-sized bunny would eat in nearly a year, so they won't even miss a couple flakes :p.
 
The picture came out smaller than I thought, so it was definitely hard to identify. Here are some pictures of what I've purchased.
I live in a Spanish speaking country and this apparently is what they feed to their rabbits. I purchased it at first because it seemed like a grass hay to me? (I don't have much experience with handling hay, and can't recognize it so I was probably wrong) With the last batch I purchased, I kept it for around 3 weeks, because it was getting more hay like and drier that I decided to go out and buy some more. I was also told to keep this in water so it could keep fresh. I got it from people who work at the market here, and they seem to have experience with smaller animals I believe because they even seem to sell them as well. It also costs a $1, if that helps with anything. There is no pet stores that supply any type of hay at all, finding a vet who even seems to recognize that rabbits require hay in there diet has never even happened to me. I've been to about 4 different vets.

When I was suggested to make my own hay, I looked it up and deicded to go by this webpages information:
http://www.therabbithouse.com/blog/2011/07/01/making-hay/

I'm going to try to find out someone who works with horses, and also continue with the hay method as mentioned above.
Thanks a lot.

DECEMBER 7TH 2013 IPOD 129.jpg

DECEMBER 7TH 2013 IPOD 131.jpg

DECEMBER 7TH 2013 IPOD 132.jpg
 
Hmm... for a rabbit, I'm inclined to recommend letting it dry out or even going out of your way to dry it. It definitely looks like the un-dried version of some sort of grass hay, though it's got a lot of seed heads (the cream-colored things) which aren't good for bunns because of all the extra carbs and calories. As long as you pick most of those out before offering it (most of the big ones, I mean - you don't need to get all the little ones), that stuff is perfectly fine to feed your bunny. Grass hay is more fiber than anything, so the exact type isn't important as long as your bunny will eat it.
 
Okay! I definitely noticed it looks more hay like when it dries out.
Oh by the way, how can I dry it out myself? Allowing it in the sun?
Thanks so much for your help, I feel relieved now.
 
Yeah, drying it in the sun is probably fastest - if you can find or make some sort of rack where you can spread it out and also get air circulation underneath, that would speed it up (you could use wire shelves or racks, NIC grids raised up with something, spare lumber and nails, whatever you can find around the house).
 

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