Timothy Hay suggestions?
Chewy.com has wonderful customer service also and I've found many times that their prices are lower than Amazon's. The only drawback is that you have to buy over $49 for free shipping. After reading this thread earlier in the week, I ended up buying the 15 ounce bags of meadow, oat, and botanical hay, an assortment of Oxbow supplements plus the Funkitty Egg-Cersizer Itsazoo suggested in this thread, to make it over $49. I used to buy Carefresh from Chewy.com so it was easy to get free shipping but harder now that I've switched to fleece for the pigs.
Just an FYI... I recently purchased a 3-wire bale of Timothy/Orchard mix hay from a local feed store. It must weigh at least 80 lbs., and it was only $30. I baged it and it filled more than 4 giant plastic bags. It seems to be great quality, and the pigs love it. I'm terrible at math, but I think that comes to less than $0.40/lb. I had also just bought a 2lb. box of bluegrass hay from KMS to try it. It cost me $10/lb. That's including shipping, but still, buying small quantities is SOOOOO expensive compared to a feed store, if you have access to one. I also don't like the non-recyclable packaging that Oxbow bagged hay comes in, although the 50lb. boxes don't have that issue (and it's just a little over $1/lb.
Also, is bermudagrass hay suitable for piggies? It looks comparable to timothy of the hay chart, but than oat hay doesn't look bad to me, at least by the chart???
Also, is bermudagrass hay suitable for piggies? It looks comparable to timothy of the hay chart, but than oat hay doesn't look bad to me, at least by the chart???
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Bermuda is a lower quality hay than timothy, but it does work for pigs.
We've long recommended buying bales from local farmers if you can find one. Even if you wind up throwing most of it away, it's still far cheaper than any other method. Unfortunately, timothy tends to grow in the northern tier of US states, so that leaves a lot of people with no access to good local bales.
We've long recommended buying bales from local farmers if you can find one. Even if you wind up throwing most of it away, it's still far cheaper than any other method. Unfortunately, timothy tends to grow in the northern tier of US states, so that leaves a lot of people with no access to good local bales.
- Lynx
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Do read over www.guinealynx.info/hay.html
Making sure your hay is bone dry before you bag it in plastic bags is extremely important. The presence of moisture in the bag can allow molds to grow.
Making sure your hay is bone dry before you bag it in plastic bags is extremely important. The presence of moisture in the bag can allow molds to grow.
I took a trip to southern Illinois for my granddaughter's graduation and found a feed store called Rural King that sells 50 lb bales of timothy hay. I looked it over carefully and it is pretty pure. Being in a smaller bale, it looks like pretty close to second cut, which is perfect for my boys. I'll be leaving here at the end of the week with at least 4 bales of it wrapped tightly under a heavy duty tarp for the trip home.
GuineaDad is pretty misleading with the hay sizes. They only sell in a 3-pack with '9 pounds' listed on the site, which made me think each box was 9lb. $30 for 27lbs of hay is pretty dang good. But it's not that much--it's 9lbs *total*. $30 for 9lb is insane. I love the thoughtful touches with the box but overcharging that much for hay is bound to cause underfeeding if people can't afford those prices.