Hay

RubySimon

Post   » Sat Dec 31, 2022 3:00 pm


I have been googling to see if I can find a hay supplier I like better than Oxbow or Small Pet Select. Recently, the quality has not been great for either of those places. The first cut has been very coarse.

Wondering if there are any other companies that might have better quality hay? I did get some Standlee once, and that was not too great either.

bpatters
And got the T-shirt

Post   » Sat Dec 31, 2022 3:11 pm


The issue is not the companies, it's the weather. Much of the US has either been in an outright drought, or at least the rainfall has been significantly below average.

Your best bet is to find out where in the US had the best weather for growing hay this past year, and order some from a company in that area.

RubySimon

Post   » Sun Jan 01, 2023 6:28 am


True, that is a big factor, but also the handling is a lot of the issue and I find that it seems like that has degraded in the companies I have used. Frustrating

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Sun Jan 01, 2023 8:25 am


Do you have local farm supply stores that sell to people who have horses? It can be helpful to track down something you can actually see. The only other caveat is how it was stored. I recall years ago getting a couple bales of hay and one got dusty/moldy though it was stored in a dry building.
https://www.guinealynx.info/hay.html

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Mon Jan 02, 2023 3:17 pm


We've been getting Rabbit Hole medium timothy hay through chewy's autoship setup. The pigs like it better than oxbow & it's been pretty consistently good. We got 2 bad batches sometime in the last few months. One was mixed with weeds & they gave us a refund. The other was mixed with orchard grass. The pigs ate that but didn't like it as much as just timothy.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Mon Jan 02, 2023 8:39 pm


Chewy seems to be a popular method of getting pet products.

I recall discovering the missing bag of cat food my neighbor had ordered, in the woods, partly eaten by a local bear :-)
At least bears aren't fond of hay!

User avatar
Waddles
Party Poop-er

Post   » Mon Jan 02, 2023 10:44 pm


I just received a box of 3rd cut timothy from Small Pet Select and it was fine. Shipping was amazingly fast, within an hour of me placing my order.

RubySimon

Post   » Tue Jan 03, 2023 2:20 pm


Bookfan-I saw the Rabbit Hole hay on Chewy, but thought the reviews were not great. Maybe I will try a box.

Lynx-we own horses, and I do try to use some of the hay we get. But by now the hay has been stored for quite some time and it gets a little dusty. Not bad for the horses and the goats we used to have, we just shook it out and fed it. But it is a little too much for indoors. Plus, with the drought we had the quality is not as good as in the past.

I was going to start to buy hay again online, and hope this summer's crop will be better. SO much cheaper to use the baled hay.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jan 03, 2023 8:13 pm


Yes, indeed on baled hay being less expensive! It is great when you find good quality hay!

User avatar
Sef
I dissent.

Post   » Sun Jan 08, 2023 9:07 am


I had pretty good luck with Rabbit Hole hay, but thought it was a little too expensive and switched back to Oxbow last year.

Bookfan
For the Love of Pigs

Post   » Tue Jan 10, 2023 1:16 pm


We got Small Pet Select for a while but we got several boxes that had leaf bits mixed in. A few years ago I looked at price/lb (including shipping) for various brands in various sizes & various sources. I can't quite understand what I wrote down but all were roughly similar in pricing. Some didn't come in a container sized right for our group - too big or too small (American Pet Diner?). I think the pigs liked them all.

With Rabbit Hole we're using Chewy's autoship which has a small discount. Back when I was comparing brands, Chewy had competitive prices, but that could have changed. We go through a lot of hay with 7 pigs.

User avatar
Lynx
Celebrate!!!

Post   » Tue Jan 10, 2023 10:04 pm


And good hay is one of the most important foods!!

Post Reply