Ordered new boxes of the same hay but they're ignoring it

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Puckerfish

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Hi all,

Just had my Haybox timothy blend delivered and neither of my two GPs want to touch it. The older pig just nuzzled it and not interested, and the other boar is a wee 6 week old baby who won't eat anything that was not approved by the older boar. It's the same they have had before. It smells really nice and doesn't look brown or old.

I now have 4 huge boxes (Crau and timothy from the hay company and 2x timothy blend from haybox) that aren't being eaten and not sure what to do next? :(

It's definitely not teeth issue here or any other health problem. I gave very little pellets to encourage them to eat hay, and the last veggies was yesterday.

Now what? :/ Could they be not hungry cause of the heat?
 
Sometimes piggies will be fussy with hay, my boys wont eat hay if it isn’t bright green and I have had to give away various boxes that they have refused to touch before now! It can certainly be a bit of trial and error finding which one they like! I wouldn’t feed to much Crau hay as it’s higher in protein and calcium so that’s more of a treat hay 😊
 
Well they don't want to eat the crau at all so there certainly wont be an issue with overeating lol

I am just kinda at loss because I am not sure what to get and the boxes are piling up here.

What do you use?
 
This is the hay, looks green and luscious, smell very nice
 

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Most companies do a trial pack so it’s worth ordering those instead of committing to a big box, my boys eat orchard hay from timothyhay.co.uk

That box you have does look like a lovely box of hay so it is odd that they won’t eat it! Maybe just leave it in the cage and they will come round to it!
 
I've already tried hays from timothyhay.co.uk, wasnt happy with the quality and neither were my guinea pigs! :/ Perhaps I had a bad batch but it smelled mildewy and was mostly brown. Their timothy and orchard is what I've tried.

Not that many places do trial packs, and buying 5kg or 10kg boxes of something thats not gonna be eaten is expensive and wasteful. I dont have a car so cant drop it off at a rescue, so end up slowly using it as bedding.

The only hay they go crazy for is alfalfa but I have only given a handful every other day.
 
Puckerfish said:
I've already tried hays from timothyhay.co.uk, wasnt happy with the quality and neither were my guinea pigs! :/ Perhaps I had a bad batch but it smelled mildewy and was mostly brown. Their timothy and orchard is what I've tried.

Not that many places do trial packs, and buying 5kg or 10kg boxes of something thats not gonna be eaten is expensive and wasteful. I dont have a car so cant drop it off at a rescue, so end up slowly using it as bedding.

The only hay they go crazy for is alfalfa but I have only given a handful every other day.
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Piggies can be so fussy!
My boys don’t like the stalky timothy hay so would reject the blend from Haybox. They love their meadow hay and soft cut timothy though. I know haybox do a trial pack of all four of their hays so maybe you could try that in case they prefer the soft timothy.

Alfalfa isn’t a grass hay (it’s a legume) and it shouldn’t really be given at all, not even to the youngster (at six weeks old he is already past the point of needing it)
 
Yes I did have the trial pack from Haybox, meadow hay wasnt touched and the timothy hay boxes were eaten equally - thats a few months ago

Is alfalfa bad even as an occassional treat? I thought that was fine
 
Puckerfish said:
Yes I did have the trial pack from Haybox, meadow hay wasnt touched and the timothy hay boxes were eaten equally - thats a few months ago

Is alfalfa bad even as an occassional treat? I thought that was fine
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Alfalfa is not something they should have in their diet. They need grass and grass hay but alfalfa isn’t a grass. It’s too high in calcium and high calcium items should be kept to a minimum due to the risk of bladder sludge and stones. Giving it every other day could mean they would be getting a lot of excess calcium.

A tiny bit of alfalfa can be useful for pregnant sows to help boost their reserves and for babies under three weeks of age but for any other piggy it’s best avoided
 
I get the timothy from Happy Hay - nice and stalky, the only type the goblins actually like for some reason. They also have samplers.
 
Lorcan said:
I get the timothy from Happy Hay - nice and stalky, the only type the goblins actually like for some reason. They also have samplers.
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The happy hay co. timothy? I have a box here, barely touched, I tried to give it away but no one wants it - understandable as its open. No luck with that one either, very stalky hay indeed though.
 
Puckerfish said:
The happy hay co. timothy? I have a box here, barely touched, I tried to give it away but no one wants it - understandable as its open. No luck with that one either, very stalky hay indeed though.
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If you were closer I'd buy it off you, the goblins would have it eaten quicker than I could blink. I hadn't realised that's who you'd meant by the hay company, my bad.

Proper Farm Fresh Hay, Delivered to Your Door These guys (they're not HayBox), when the goblins arrived this was their timothy hay and they loved it, but the prices are eye watering, even if it is very good hay.
 
I am in Salford now, not Warrington - if you want it you can have it for free. It was opened about a month ago and there's about 4.5kg left, I only took some out as bedding.

I had a duo who only ate Alfalfa King Timothy - £50 for 10kg. It was soo dusty but they didnt eat anything else!
 
Hi everyone, they currently have 7 types of hay in the cage, fresh piles, but theyre not touching any, there's no way they have dental issues, both of them suddenly, they ate veg fine yesterday. I gave them much less of the veg and no pellets. Older boar is down 100g from yesterday. I will take them to the vet but I don't think there is anything wrong apart from pickiness. When I gave the little pellets this morning (a teaspoon for both) it was gone within 10 seconds so they are ravenous.
 
I gave a handful of Readigrass as well, they ate a few pieces and left it, wheeking at me for veggies, I guess they will rather starve than eat hay lol. The younger boar is only 6 weeks and wont eat unless older boar is eating it. So if hes not eating hay neither will the young boar.
 
Have you been weighing them? I’d suggest daily weighing, if they are stable then they are eating more than you think.
 
Puckerfish said:
Hi everyone, they currently have 7 types of hay in the cage, fresh piles, but theyre not touching any, there's no way they have dental issues, both of them suddenly, they ate veg fine yesterday. I gave them much less of the veg and no pellets. Older boar is down 100g from yesterday. I will take them to the vet but I don't think there is anything wrong apart from pickiness. When I gave the little pellets this morning (a teaspoon for both) it was gone within 10 seconds so they are ravenous.
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The heat may not have helpes but 100g weight loss in 24 hours constitutes an emergency and you need to step in and syringe feed

Keep weighing the younger one as well, as if he really won’t eat if the older one isn’t then if there is a medical issue with the older one, the younger may also need support
 
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I've just gone back from the vet who could not find any signs of illness, all teeth looked perfect on both the baby and adult pig. No signs of them being in pain either. My vet is experienced with dental issues so if there was a problem he'd spot it. He said to try different hay as they simply might not like what they have been offered. He prescribed Loxicom to see if it helps and I will syringe feed. As this happened with a new hay box I don't think it's illness related.

Baby lost 10g since yesterday but he's only 470g. Older boar is normally 1500g+, I weigh every 3 days, so he's definitely not been eating while I wasn't looking.

I don't know what hay to try anymore honestly. My flat is stacked with various hay they dont like.
 
Hi again everyone

I was wondering if there is a possibility the older boar is scared or perhaps annoyed at baby so he's not coming out to eat hay? There are multiple sources of fresh hay across the cage, cage is 2 x 5, there's racks, boxes, a basket, a pile on the floor too, but each time the older boar goes outside a hidey to eat hay, the young one wants to join him and popcorns into him, just does the baby things lol, and wants to eat with him or something, and the older one does submissive wheeking and goes back to hide instead of continuing or going to another source of hay. The baby doesn't seem to be aggresive but maybe territorial?
 
The baby is looking for guidance - at his age, he is desperate for companionship.

I would suggest you out hay actually inside the hide your piggy piggy is in so he doesn’t have to come out and see if that makes a difference to his eating.
Has the older one lost any more weight?
 
Piggies&buns said:
The baby is looking for guidance - at his age, he is desperate for companionship.

I would suggest you out hay actually inside the hide your piggy piggy is in so he doesn’t have to come out and see if that makes a difference to his eating.
Has the older one lost any more weight?
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I do wonder if hes annoyed by the baby though? There has been no chattering, rumbling or mounting at all, the older boar makes the submissive wheeking when the baby is being rambunctious around him and accidentally bumps into him. They have loads of room but obviously the baby goes wherever the older one does.

I syringe fed him 70ml of Emeraid Sustain over the course of yesterday, little one had about 20ml. Little one is 2g lighter, older boar is 11g lighter, weighed at the same exact time as yesterday.
Older boar is on loxicom 0.5 (dog one) twice a day, but the vet said the baby not eating so much is likely due to the older boar not eating, rather than being in any kind of pain himself.

Their big house with two doors has a fresh pile in each corner, and they spend majority of the time there. Well, the older boar likes that one over the other hideys and the baby follows always.
 
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