Pets at home Timothy Hay safe?

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tink1382

tink1382

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Hello everyone!
I used to post here a while ago but haven't in ages for some reason and have just re registered!
I cant find a post about Pets at home Timothy Hay and i hope it is appropriate for me to start one here.
I currently own 2 3yr old guinea girls and during a recent trip to the vet hay came up. I had been feeding my guineas meadow hay and whilst the health of my guineas was good, the vet suggested that Timothy hay really is the way to go. On this advice i nipped into Pets at Home and bought some Timothy Hay! All good! I now notice that it says RABBITS ONLY! Is that right? Is Pets at Home hay unsuitable for guineas? I hadn't considered there may be different kinds of Timothy hay and only some suitable for guineas. Can anyone enlighten me? Is this ok to give my girls? If not are there any good online sources of Timothy hay that arent TOO expensive? P@h is really my only close pet place but while i am paying £4 a kg there the online sites seem to charge MASSIVE amounts. All confused and concerned. I dont want to give them anything that could harm them!
Thanks a lot
xx

P.s. Also, Freckle has a habit of pulling the hay out of the rack, lying in it, peeing on it and so completely wasting it. Any way to discourage this? I'm surprised she is finding this rough hay comfy and I'm just chucking out loads of the hay i am providing her with!
 
I heard timothy hay is meant to be the best hay before I got guinea pigs and I always bought it but my partner is very allergic to it and now I buy Ings hay which is a lovely organic hay from hayforpets. It is £16 for 9.5 kilos. I personally would not worry if you cannot find timothy hay.
 
Timothy hay can be fed to rabbits and guinea pigs. I'm not sure why it would say for 'rabbits only'. Is anything added to the hay that may potentially be unsafe for piggies (though I can't think what this may be, or why it would be the case)?

Timothy hay is particularly coarse, so excellent for piggy teeth! It is also low in calcium.

Meadow hay is softer, and makes a good bedding.
 
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The timothy hay should be fine, one timothy hay should be the same as any other that is marketed for piggies. ETA: Unless as Jerrybelly says it has anything extra in it.
Another place that sells timothy hay is Wilkinsons.
 
The lady who runs my piggies boarding place told me that Timothy hay is high in calcium. Is that incorrect?
 
Timothy hay from pets at home is what I feed my boys as two have stone problems. I was directed to buy it by my vet and the boys love it. =)
 
My boys won't eat the timothy hay I bought for them so we've compromised with hayforpets ing hay which we're all happy with :)

Good luck finding a solution which works best for you
 
Thank you all for you replies! I popped into pets at home this afternoon and noticed they sell burgess forage which DOES say for guineas and contains timothy hay amoungst other things. I asked the assistants about the 'rabbits only' and got a variety of explanations! The first lady i spoke to said they had a case where a guinea got some of the timothy hay stuck in its eyeball and had to have the eye removed and since then they have not said its ok for guineas. Another lady said she hadn't even noticed that it said rabbits only but did say the burgess was much better stuff 'to be honest our timothy hay is very poor quality and has big chunks of wood in it!' finally the guy at the counter said that there is no difference between the timothy and the forage but the timothy says only rabbits because its so high in fibre. Now THIS one I'm SURE is false! Fibre is the point! Guineas need lots of fibre. Hmm lots to think on there... I will keep thinking and thanks again to everyone who has so far taken the time to kindly respond.
I'm sorry i posted in the wrong area. Doh. I did think carefully about that and decided that hay would be a 'care' topic. Oh well thanks for sorting me out :)
 
Oo sorry the stuff i got was Burgess Excel HERBAGE (with timothy hay) dandelion and marigold. I am now concerned that dandelion is high in calcium! Dont want my piggies getting stones! Bleugh its so hard to do this guinea pig mummy stuff right!
 
Hi. I have used this but as a 'treat' hay to give small amounts along with their usual hay around twice a week x
 
Darwin and Wallace were given Timothy for the first time tonight - about a handful each. They were very impressed and devoured it. I think I'm gonna mix it in with their meadow hay on a night
 
I don't know if this will be of any use to you, but I feed timothy haylage to my ponies, who need a low sugar diet. It's much lower in sugar than meadow hay or rye haylage.
 
i only feed timothy hay to my babies as it has too much calcium, which is responsible for bladder stones, so i try and stay on the meadow hay, the good thing about timothy is its high in fibre, feed small amounts a week, excel is good as well.
i use all these on my piggies and will be using these on my boarders pets as well.
 
I'm not sure your correct about timothy hay being high calcium? I know there are high calcium hays with alfalfa etc but had believe pure timothy wasn't a calcium concern. Can anyone clarify this?
 
tink1382 said:
Oo sorry the stuff i got was Burgess Excel HERBAGE (with timothy hay) dandelion and marigold. I am now concerned that dandelion is high in calcium! Dont want my piggies getting stones! Bleugh its so hard to do this guinea pig mummy stuff right!
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I feed my guineas the burgess hay from pets at home. They do enjoy it. I don't think there is tons of dandelion in the hay I think it looks more like the heads of the dandelion which mine don't eat. I wouldn't worry, if you just offer it as a change for another one.

They do get meadow hay as well as the burgess isn't cheap, as it's more cuddly hay for them. X

I like giving mine two kinds as if I can't get the meadow hay they still like the burgess.
 
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I'm very interested in the threads about Hay for Pets. It looks like good quality, good value, highly recommended UK hay which is good in all senses! I dont however know what Ings hay actually IS or how combining Timothy with Rye changes things. Would Ings and Timothy with Rye both be 'feed everyday as much as you want low calcium and low protein' hays or be 'careful and feed only as a treat' hays? The website doesn't seem to explain this and my google searches mainly lead to that site rolleyes Perhaps this site is my solution? Your link shows Rye to be VERY low calcium which is fab! :)
 
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Ings hay is a type of medow hay and suitable to be fed unlimited. I feed it to my gang and they love it. I really recommend it.
 
sorry its the excel hay that is high in calcium due to the dandelion, timothy is high in fibre, i still have issues as the timothy hay in the pets at home store is pure brown and my piggies wont eat it, but i do add it to their meadow hay, every couple of days. oh and can i say any green hay is the best hay no matter what the make. brown hay has no nutritional value, and piggies will not touch it unless forced to, meaning no other hay is offered.
 
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You're probably buying the wrong kind. You should give them Timothy Feeding Hay to eat, and mainly use the normal Timothy Hay for bedding. They (or at least my two) prefer the sweeter, tastier Feeding Hay for food. Hope I helped. x
 
I decided to contact Burgess about the calcium in the Herbage.
I wrote
"Hello, I recently bought 2 bags of your Excel Herbage with dandelion and marigold to use as my guinea pigs main hay as i was told by the vet that my piggies would benefit from Timothy Hay and this variety specified guinea pigs suitable. I am now concerned about the dandelions. One of my piggies has had a stone before and I'm worried about the calcium content of this herbage. CAN it safely be fed as hay or should it be restricted and used only occasionally. You dont appear to do timothy hay alone from what i can see. Any advice greatly received!"
And have just had this reply
"Thank you for your e-mail
Our Herbage is safe for Guinea Pigs all the time.
Kind Regards, Consumer Care"
I assume this means that the calcium in the dandelions is negligible. It is so difficult to know the truth on anything to do with guinea pigs with such conflicting information.
 
tink1382 said:
I decided to contact Burgess about the calcium in the Herbage.
I wrote
"Hello, I recently bought 2 bags of your Excel Herbage with dandelion and marigold to use as my guinea pigs main hay as i was told by the vet that my piggies would benefit from Timothy Hay and this variety specified guinea pigs suitable. I am now concerned about the dandelions. One of my piggies has had a stone before and I'm worried about the calcium content of this herbage. CAN it safely be fed as hay or should it be restricted and used only occasionally. You dont appear to do timothy hay alone from what i can see. Any advice greatly received!"
And have just had this reply
"Thank you for your e-mail
Our Herbage is safe for Guinea Pigs all the time.
Kind Regards, Consumer Care"
I assume this means that the calcium in the dandelions is negligible. It is so difficult to know the truth on anything to do with guinea pigs with such conflicting information.
Click to expand...
I have a bag of the burgess hay in at the moment but unfortunately I empty it into a container as it is hard getting it out otherwise but as I didn't have the packet it came in I looked in at pets at home to reassure us all ;)as it is near me usually it does say the amount of the ingredients so to speak on the rear but I didn't have my glasses with me but I don't think it did.

I don't think there is a great deal of dandelion in it, the leaves would look like dried dandelion from what I can see from mine, and unless I am missing something can't see much, unless it malletheadis just the yellow heads I guess that's maybe what they mean by dandelion. X
 
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I've currently got a bag of Burgess dandelion and marigold open - but I also empty the contents into a plastic container so I have no longer got the packaging. I remember reading the nutritional values once and the dandelion/marigold only form a VERY small percentage. It is mainly in the form of dandelion heads, so if you are at all concerned then you could just pick these out of the hay before giving it to your piggies - they are usually easy to spot.
 
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