Best hay?

arightcharlie

arightcharlie

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Hey everyone!

I was just wondering which is the best hay for pigs? I don’t just mean type, but brands too? I remember back in the day I got a bag of pets@home hay and it had shredded black bin liner in it; although I’m sure they’re much better now (hopefully?)
 
Hiya. I use Haybox for the soft Timothy hay. Which my two eat. And I get a large bag of bedding hay at a local horse supply centre. Which they don’t really eat but it’s good for them to bury under. Haybox do a meadow hay which I used to buy but as they didn’t eat that either I started to get the cheaper bedding hay.
 
Any grass hay is absolutely fine - whether it is meadow or Timothy hay is your decision as to your piggies tastes.
Where you get it from is also dependent on what you have access to etc.
As long as it is sweet smelling, non dusty and not mouldy, then its fine!

I personally get my hay on subscription from Haybox. I have a four weekly delivery of both meadow hay and soft cut Timothy hay
 
weepweeps said:
Hiya. I use Haybox for the soft Timothy hay. Which my two eat. And I get a large bag of bedding hay at a local horse supply centre. Which they don’t really eat but it’s good for them to bury under. Haybox do a meadow hay which I used to buy but as they didn’t eat that either I started to get the cheaper bedding hay.
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I’ve heard of haybox! So if I invest in both and see which they like? Is that ok? Is haybox worth investing in?
Piggies&buns said:
Any grass hay is absolutely fine - whether it is meadow or Timothy hay is your decision as to your piggies tastes.
Where you get it from is also dependent on what you have access to etc.
As long as it is sweet smelling, non dusty and not mouldy, then its fine!

I personally get my hay on subscription from Haybox. I have a four weekly delivery of both meadow hay and soft cut Timothy hay
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I think I’m going to invest in haybox!
 
Claire W said:
Hi, I use Natures own meadow hay for my piggies. I buy this from the Range but you can also order it online from the natures own website
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I think this is the meadow hay I’ve got? But I got it from zooplus? How often do you buy a bag and how many pigs have you got?
 
I think Haybox might do a 50/50 box to try. The boxes are quite big if they turn their noses up at it. Lol
 
I switched to HayBox a couple of years ago after struggling with the quality of bagged hay. Despite my best endeavours some bags were always worse than others. With the exception of one delivery that wasn’t great all the HayBox hay has been well received by the piggies. And it’s delivered to you on variable subscription so you can control what stock you have or get it delivered when you need it.
 
arightcharlie said:
I’ve heard of haybox! So if I invest in both and see which they like? Is that ok? Is haybox worth investing in?

I think I’m going to invest in haybox!
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My lot absolutely love Haybox hay - they wont eat anything else now.
It isnt cheap but in my opinion it is worth the cost - I spend a lot of money on hay but I have three rabbits and two piggies who all live in sheds so I get through a lot of hay for bedding in particular
 
VickiA said:
I switched to HayBox a couple of years ago after struggling with the quality of bagged hay. Despite my best endeavours some bags were always worse than others. With the exception of one delivery that wasn’t great all the HayBox hay has been well received by the piggies. And it’s delivered to you on variable subscription so you can control what stock you have or get it delivered when you need it.
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I think it’s definitely quality over quantity because they so desperately need hay to keep their systems working well
Piggies&buns said:
My lot absolutely love Haybox hay - they wont eat anything else now.
It isnt cheap but in my opinion it is worth the cost - I spend a lot of money on hay but I have three rabbits and two piggies who all live in sheds so I get through a lot of hay for bedding in particular
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I think hay is definitely worth the investment. We wouldn’t buy cheap, nasty diets for our human children so why would it be different for our fur babies?
 
I get ings hay from hay and straw. Mine are outdoor pigs though and this is lovely long strands that cause wonderful burrows for them to help keep them nice and warm
 
The Haybox soft cut Timothy is absolutely gorgeous! It's so green and unlike any other hay! I always order the 15kg subscription in bulk to save money! It works out something like £32 for three quite large boxes which I imagine would last 2 guinea pigs nearly half a year? I go through 15kg every month with my 7! I also buy cheap meadow hay from farm and co for their bedding which works out at £7 for 13kg ! :)
 
I use timothy hay you can get it at pets at home. like the above said get a bulk will last you quite a while.
 
Another vote here for Ings from Hay and Straw. It does vary - sometimes it's really soft, other times it's a bit more coarse. But I've not had a bad batch from them so far. My boys like to burrow so for me it serves all purposes - dinner, play and sleep!
 
Hi Charlie. My guineas prefer meadow over any other hay but I know some prefer other types of hay so may be worth sampling a few types to see what they like the best.

I know small pet select do a sample box with a few different types so may be worth looking there too.

I have tried and recommend:
Haybox - both meadow and Timothy
P@H - long stem meadow and Timothy
Small pet select
Oxbow- only tried orchard grass and that was beaut made the room smell like tea
Currently using this and with great success Vale Bale Dust Extracted Meadow Hay - 13kg - Haylage & Grass Forage - Farm & Pet Place

Maybe look to see if you have a farm near by and ask for a bale.
 
I buy a bale of organic meadow hay from a local farmer @ £5, it’s lovely. I use it for the cage base/bedding over newspaper. I also buy posher hay for feeding although they spend all day rummaging around and eating their “cheap” hay mostly
 
Bill & Ted said:
I buy a bale of organic meadow hay from a local farmer @ £5, it’s lovely. I use it for the cage base/bedding over newspaper. I also buy posher hay for feeding although they spend all day rummaging around and eating their “cheap” hay mostly
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Normally what happens. Just like you could buy the most expensive plush hide for them and they'll choose to sit in a cardboard box or paper bag 😂
 
Haybox is great, I used that for a long time. There were a few supply issues so I tried the happy hay company and like that too. Advantage is the way they compress it means the same amount of hay from them is in only one box rather than two. They did make a mistake in my order and they were great at fixing it so very happy with their customer service.
 
I always get mine from Chewy.com. I get Oxbow brand. I'm in the US though.
 
I buy direct from Natures Own - I buy their Devon Meadow hay, Timothy Rich 5 a day which has added dried bits and sometimes I buy the Sweet Green Hay

It's free delivery when you spend over £20 and usually arrives within 2 days of ordering.

I've only ever had 1 bad batch which was very recently - I sent them photos and they replaced all 4 bags - someone else had complained so that went in my favour but they were super nice about it and apologised..

I used to buy from B&M but stock was never regular - and after finding a dead mouse and frog in bags it made me look elsewhere lol!
 
Third vote for ings hay. Though the girls seem to prefer meadow!
 
We used to get local organic farm hay which was lovely and very popular but then the house got infested with little bugs so we had to switch.

We now get a variety from PaH and it's always been fine. The large mixed bag of meadow and timothy hay is the fave for bedding down - they've recently been out of stock and so we've used just the meadow hay which is eaten up no problem, but I find it holds the wet more. With the M/T mixed bag most pee seems to go straight through to the absorbent layer beneath but M alone has more soggy patches at spot-clean time. I also have an area for a pile of more 'stalky' hay... PaH do a very stalky 'carrot and apple' one that goes down well, although I do pick most of the big dried chunks of carrot and apple out! Sometimes we have a different brand of stalky hay - it just depends on what looks nice on the day. I don't put this in bedding areas because of the risk of hay-poke in confined spaces - also it doesn't strike me as very comfy! Mine also get a lot of grass, despite being indoor pigs, and that is always their favourite time of day ☺️

We haven't got the storage space for anything bigger than compressed bags so I've never looked into Haybox or anything like that but I've heard it's very nice - luckily mine don't know what they're missing!
 
artcasper said:
I buy direct from Natures Own - I buy their Devon Meadow hay, Timothy Rich 5 a day which has added dried bits and sometimes I buy the Sweet Green Hay

It's free delivery when you spend over £20 and usually arrives within 2 days of ordering.

I've only ever had 1 bad batch which was very recently - I sent them photos and they replaced all 4 bags - someone else had complained so that went in my favour but they were super nice about it and apologised..

I used to buy from B&M but stock was never regular - and after finding a dead mouse and frog in bags it made me look elsewhere lol!
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I have complained over the last 2 weeks to Natures Own as I get the 3 types you get too but the last order was just full of short pieces of hay which the pigs can't use to snuggle into. First time this has happened with them. Did they offer to replace the hay or did you ask? Looked at the Ings Hay but £12 for 2.5kg whilst Natures Own £4.19 for 3.5kg.
 
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