Spikey hay

Jemima

Jemima

Junior Guinea Pig
Joined
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Location
Somerset
When we got our boys, I got a bale of hay from the rescue centre, and it was lovely and soft.

I just went to pick up a bale from a local food supply store for animals, and I've realised it's rather hard and spikey - will they enjoy it, I wonder? And will it poke them in the eye?!
 
There is a such things as hay pokes, where hay pokes guinea pigs eyes, that causes eye injury. I would suggest watching your piggies closely. I would recommend buying Timothy hay, it’s not spiky and my piggy enjoys it.
 
Mine have managed to get haypoke on very soft meadow hay from Haybox so any hay poses a risk.
if it is too hard, you may find they don’t eat it - First cut timothy is hard and spiky and my two won’t touch it
 
Mine dont like spiky hay either. I always used to order oxbow timothy as it seemed guaranteed perfect - but in 2019 they must have had a bad hay year as it was awful quality. I switched then to alfafa kings timothy from p@h and that has always been good.

However, this year must be a good year as the oxbow timothy is great again and the American timothy from dust free hay co is amazing too.

I have never had any luck with english timothy - it's always been very hard and stalky.
 
I think I may take it back. They are so used to the softer hay, and make beds in it and snuggle in it, which they wouldn't be able to do with this hay. Where can I get a bale of hay around here, I wonder? I live in North Somerset...
 
Jemima said:
I think I may take it back. They are so used to the softer hay, and make beds in it and snuggle in it, which they wouldn't be able to do with this hay. Where can I get a bale of hay around here, I wonder? I live in North Somerset...
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I’d recommend HayBox, my girls have so far been fine and love it as it’s fresh and they squeak like crazy when I open the box up for them. you get a ton of it and the meadow bay has so far been super soft and perfect for them snuggling in! Plus delivered direct to your door is ideal 😊
 
I would reccomend the happy hay co meadow hay, it’s lovely and green and you can get a compact micro bale from them delivered! we have had three boxes now and I will say lots far superior and consistent Vs the haybox meadow hay. 04AA60F0-3FC8-46D1-AAFF-F3D9089EE0F6.webp
 
weepweeps said:
I’ve just got a box of meadow hay from hay box. It’s lovely and green and long strands. Smells lush. But my boys won’t eat it! They like to lay in it and make tunnels 🤦🏻‍♀️ . They eat the Timothy hay which is stalkier.
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Thats the fun of it! I wonder if they do eat it from inside the tunnels as they go?
All five of mine will eat the haybox meadow but none of them like the coarse timothy and will only eat the new soft cut haybox now do
 
Bunch of fussy beggars these piglets! :))
My gang are big fans of the Timothyhay.co.uk orchard grass, lovely and green and soft. I get the odd box of soft Timothy hay but nowhere near as green and lovely this year, recently got their Timothy too but it’s so hard (I was hoping it’d help Cleo with her honking issue but made no difference!)!
A forum friend suggested putting a thin layer of it down to use it up so they can’t burrow and just nibble rather than wasting the 8.5kg box so we’re going down slowly! I catch them all having a bit but the orchard grass is for the big bag piles and fun! Really good price compared to some others too.

Edit- their oat hay has gone down well in the past too but we’ve not had for a while as kept being sold out!
 
It's interesting to hear about where everyone gets their hay from!

I found out about dust free hay co through this forum and I'm still happy with all their hay (except english timothy) but it is handy to hear of alternatives as hay can vary in quality.

I get oxbow from amazon - their timothy hay smells absolutely gorgeous and has lots of the 'ears' that my pigs love. It was always absolutely lush til 2019, then i ordered a bag and it was horrible, all dry, hard and stalky without the lush smell.

Very disappointing as my terminally ill piggy, benson, was in his final weeks then and i thought it would be a lovely treat. So i ordered another bag - just as bad!


I googled to see what the problem was and they had bad floods that year had affected the hay.

So i never bought oxbow timothy again til about 2 months ago and, happy to report, top notch again.



For years, i got meadow hay at B&M and that seemed very palatable and comfy for bedding too but with my little Ebony and her allergies which have now gone to URI, I'm trying to get non dusty hay so have returned to dust free hay co for soft hay - and theirs is really good just now. Very sweet smelling and soft.
 
My RB Jess and Luigi adored the B&M meadow hay too @tabelmabel, with the nice flowery bits and bobs :drool: We always had a couple of bags in then they stopped selling it near me! 🤦‍♀️
 
I found a place that sells dust extracted bales wrapped up just down the road from me. I bought that and it is much softer, plus my boys are very much enjoying eating and tunnelling. We do get through a lot of the stuff, though. But they so love it, especially little Pip.

I also got a bit of Burgess dandelion and marigold for treat but they aren't too fussed by it...
 
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