Please Be Careful! Ikea Bag Dispensers As Hay Racks

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Laura mason

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Hey all, just wanted to let you know what happened with one of my pigs this morning and to warn anyone using these as hay racks. I went in to give the pigs their pellets and one of my pigs Sam had his head stuck in one of the holes of the hay rack. I tried to gently pull him free but he was really stuck and I ended up having to cut him out. I'm not sure how long he was stuck like that as it was during the night so could have been many hours! Thankfully he is fine but needless to say I'm going back to hay bags. If you are using these please be careful! x

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Thanks for highlighting this, just so pleased Sam is okay. After reading horror stories in the past of hay racks we removed ours from the cage.
Must have been an awful shock for you to find him, pleased it ended well.
 
sport_billy said:
Thanks for highlighting this, just so pleased Sam is okay. After reading horror stories in the past of hay racks we removed ours from the cage.
Must have been an awful shock for you to find him, pleased it ended well.
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Thank you. Yes I completely panicked when I couldn't get him out! Luckily the plastic wasn't too hard to cut through. I've had them in the cages for nearly a year with no problems so was very unexpected. What are you using for hay now? x
 
How scary - I worry I will come downstairs and find Eddi with his head stuck in a half destroyed willow ball.
But in all seriousness I initially had a hay rack (the wire clip on type) but saw so many warnings about them I ended up switching to homemade hay bags, and large hay trays.
We make our own hay bags which are specifically designed to allow the pigs to climb in and out - oddly enough they rarely do, but at least I know they can't get stuck.
I am so pleased that Sam is ok.
 
Thank you for posting this. I had seen people using these and thought it looked a great idea and was going to try it but will stay well clear now. I am so glad Sam is ok.

We use cat litter trays for hay if that's any help. I line them with newspaper and hemp bedding and then pile on the hay.
 
Oh no. Thank goodness that Sam is ok. I have recently bought two of these and put one into the cage. My two love it and use it a lot. Oh well. Back to a second tray i guess.
 
Thank goodness he is ok! Thanks for the warning.

I have now completely stopped using hay racks. After hearing the negatives of every type of hay rack, I now just use hay trays. They may be messier and smellier (they love to sleep in there) but they are a lot safer and have a more natural eating position (foraging off the ground) and they clearly love sleeping in the hay.
 
chesca_27 said:
Thank goodness he is ok! Thanks for the warning.

I have now completely stopped using hay racks. After hearing the negatives of every type of hay rack, I now just use hay trays. They may be messier and smellier (they love to sleep in there) but they are a lot safer and have a more natural eating position (foraging off the ground) and they clearly love sleeping in the hay.
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Thank you. I have hay on the ground but have hay in the rack just so there is always fresh stuff for them. I used to use bags but switched to these nearly a year ago and had no problems up until now. Back to the hay bags for us! Your right tho...I use fleece liners and also have hay piles and the piggies just love their piles of hay and seem to prefer eating it off the floor lol...although they do love their fleece as well so the mixture of both seems to work x
 
Dorothy&Coco said:
Thank you for posting this. I had seen people using these and thought it looked a great idea and was going to try it but will stay well clear now. I am so glad Sam is ok.

We use cat litter trays for hay if that's any help. I line them with newspaper and hemp bedding and then pile on the hay.
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Thank you. Yeah I used to have big litter trays but was quite costly when I used back to nature in them as I have 3 cages and was going through a 30l bag a week. Then I switched to just newspaper and hay changed daily but found it a bit smelly. So now I've reverted to just putting it on the fleece with pee pads under and changing that bit daily which seems to be working so far. I've always had extra hay off the floor just so they have fresh stuff....which they like to pull out because of course apparently the big piles I give them aren't enough . So yeah...back to hay bags lol x
 
Swissgreys said:
How scary - I worry I will come downstairs and find Eddi with his head stuck in a half destroyed willow ball.
But in all seriousness I initially had a hay rack (the wire clip on type) but saw so many warnings about them I ended up switching to homemade hay bags, and large hay trays.
We make our own hay bags which are specifically designed to allow the pigs to climb in and out - oddly enough they rarely do, but at least I know they can't get stuck.
I am so pleased that Sam is ok.
Click to expand...
Thanks Swiss! x
 
Laura mason said:
Thank you. Yes I completely panicked when I couldn't get him out! Luckily the plastic wasn't too hard to cut through. I've had them in the cages for nearly a year with no problems so was very unexpected. What are you using for hay now? x
Click to expand...

Ours like it just on the floor, messy I know but they enjoy rummaging through it :))
 
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