orchard grass

[chins1222]

ok heres the deal

when i get timothy hay the bags(kaytee and oxbow) always have the bigger hard peices of hay mixed in with the smaller softer ones (i dont remember which cut this is lol) anyway the boys WILL NOT eat the big hard peices(little brats lol) so they waste alot

anyway i thought i read it was ok but wanted to check

can you feed mostly orchard grass hay? it has the soft peices all the time and none of it gets wasted

i thought i read that as long as it was a grass hay it was ok but i wanted to make sure

thanks

 

[Sesame]

Is the hay you're buying from the pet store?

It could be that it isn't as fresh as you think it is. I had fed Sesame Kaytee and Oxbow hays from the pet store and she wasted a lot. I switched over to American Pet Diner and Kleenmama's Hay (which seem to be much more fresh) and I found she ate more hay than dumping it all over the place.

There are also different cuts of timothy hay too. The first cut contains more seed heads. The 2nd and 3rd cuts tend to be more leafy and softer. APD and Kleenmama offer different cuts of hay. I think the Kaytee hay is much drier and more of a 1st and 2nd cut. The Kleenmama website has a nice description of the different cuts.

I believe that pet chins get loose hay more as a supplement to the pellet diet. It helps give more fiber in the diet. Also, if you feed an alfalfa based pellet, you supplement it with timothy hay, vise versa.

I personally feed my chin predominately timothy hay. On some days she gets some orchard grass or some other "fancier" hay mixed in.

You can try hay cubes too as an alternative to switching hay brands.

 

[alli713]

Orchard grass is completely fine. It's very similar to timothy hay. They're both grass hays.

As far as wearing down the teeth, if you're worried about the rougher hays being eaten to wear down the hay, you could use the orchard grass and then buy a small bag of Oat Hay and supplement with that every once in a while. My girls all love Oat Hay, and it's a very hard hay.

 

[paris26]

My chins are just like Ali's! They love timothy but they will always eat orchard or oat hay first! They like variety when it comes to hay

 

[chins1222]

i dont think it is stale b/c they do eat all of the orchard grass i think they just dont like the bigger hard peices from the timothy

and thanks i will keep orchard grass as my main hay they do eat all of the timothy hay with flowers and stuff(botanical hay) so i will give them that too

i though they were both grass and and could be used all the time but i just wanted to make sure

thanks