Hay wasteage

B

Bubble64

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
Oct 25, 2023
Messages
62
Reaction score
64
Points
190
Location
England
Hi everyone. I have 4 guinea pigs and know that hay is the most important part of their diet. It should make up 80% if I'm right? This means that we got through a lot of hay. My dad notices this and says that we can't be wasting this much hay because it is expensive. I understand this. My pair of boars have a hay bag always full and my other pair have a hay pile. Is there any ways people know of to reduce hay wastage? Some gets stepped and walked on then not eaten or pulled out and weed and pooped on and they won't eat it again. Any advice would be helpful. Thanks :)
 
There is no such thing as wasted hay. Hay is enjoyed all the time. Piggies love to hide in it, make hay nests and eat their way out of it, run through it, eat it, play in it, wee in it, poop in it, sleep in it and generally have fun with it, How is that wasted? What you see as wastage piggies see as they've had fun with it and had a lot of enrichment from it. I must throw out at least a third of the hay I use but I never see it as wasted.

Do you have a farm shop near you? If so a farm bale of hay is so much cheaper, and generally better quality, than the prepacked hay from somewhere like Pets at Home. I'm lucky enough to have a Farm Shop and an Alpaca Farm down the road so if the Alpaca Farm has no hay available, I can get hay from the Farm Shop. Around here its around £6 for a huge farm bale which I keep in the garage in a hay bale bag.
 
Piggies love hay.
It’s to be eaten, slept in, played in, weed on, pooped on, scattered.
Hay is both essential food and enrichment.
As well as @Betsy ’s suggestions about a farm, there are hay companies that sell hay far more cheaply than PAH.
I use the Hay and Straw Company.
There is a thread about sources of hay - I can’t remember the title but if you type ‘hay’ into the search i should pop up
 
I can only agree with Betsy and merabs slave. There is no such thing as wasted hay.

I have four piggies and two rabbits and get through huge amounts of hay.
I buy cheap meadow hay by the bale from a local farm which is used as bedding. I also buy a more expensive orchard hay online for eating but it also gets mixed up for bedding. I throw a lot away but as above, they’ve had fun with it so it is never wasted
 
As well as the comments above I would also comment that some hay is a consistently better quality through the bag than others. I usually buy my hay in bulk on line as I have 6 piggies and get through a lot of hay. Before Christmas I bought 3 bags of hay from Pets at Home because I didn't want to run out through the holidays. My piggies are not eating much of this hay at all, they are picking out what they consider the good bits and rejecting much more than they do normally. To be fair to them I can't blame them, the hay is brown, dusty and very poor quality, it maybe your guinea pigs don't like the hay.

A Comprehensive Hay Guide for Guinea Pigs (incl. providers in several countries)
 
I have two boars and the hay they’ve used I compost. There will always be hay to remove as the other forum members have said.The poops and hay along with kitchen waste ( no cooked waste or meat) make great compost so it’s never wasted as my flower beds/ pots benefit from it. Maybe if you have a garden you could mention this to your Dad as then he might change his mind…..
 
All my piggies are bedded on hay for the main area, we use a lot of hay. I buy a bale direct from a farm, it costs £6 it’s stored in a shed. It lasts about a month and the piggies love it. It’s just plain meadow hay and it’s great 😊 Maybe you could persuade your Dad to find a farm or farm shop that will sell you some?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top