Hay Question

I've been feeding mostly Oxbow Timothy and mixing in Oxbow Orchard and Oat for variety and for the most part, that works pretty well. I've found that she seems to like the Orchard best, but I hesitate to let her eat too much more of the Orchard than the Timothy b/c it's my understanding that Timothy should be the staple. Is it ok for her to eat more Orchard than Timothy? If she's not really munching the Timothy, I tend to immediately give in and offer a handful of Orchard b/c I figure the more hay, the better regardless of type. Is this wrong? Is Orchard as good for her as Timothy and can that be used as the primary variety?

I've also been considering the possibility that perhaps she's just tired of the Oxbow and that since I need to buy more soon, maybe I should try another brand like American Pet Diner? Some people rave about APD, but not too much mention of it on this forum, which could be due to how much more expensive it is. Does anyone know enough about it to say if it's at least as good as Oxbow, or even better? Sorry, I can be long-winded, but thanks in advance!!!

It's fine if she eats the Orchard hay more than the timothy. It's still a grass hay. It's also okay to just mix it up with different hays. I don't think it's unreasonable to think that a chin would like one over the other, or that they might get bored with the same thing day in and day out. Offering a variety of hay can help with that.

As far as APD, there are people who order it and love it. I ordered it twice. Both times it was incredibly dusty and my chins wouldn't eat it. Ditto with Kleenmama's. I ended up throwing all of it to the horses because the chins just wouldn't eat it.

Do you have any horse farms locally? I know when I lived in Ohio I tripped over people selling hay. You might be able to find someone with horses nearby who will sell you good hay for a heck of a lot cheaper any Oxbow, APD, or anywhere else on line.

My chins are only fed oat hay and alfalfa and they do just fine. They haven't had timothy for a couple years as it's easier for me to get good oat and not easy to get good timothy that hasn't been sprayed with a ton of pesticides.

So, feeding just orchard or more orchard will not hurt your chin. The grass hays don't have a ton of nutritional value so the differences between them are minimal.

The grass hays don't have a ton of nutritional value so the differences between them are minimal.

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i find this comment interesting. is there any hay that does have a nutritional value?? or are they all mostly to assist in the wear of the chins teeth??

to the OP: my guys love the oxbow timothy hay. they also get a little orchard, some alfalfa, once in a while i will grab a bag of botanical and a bag of oat. i have gotten some hay that they will not touch. but i find the freshest the better.

mishellyshel said:

i find this comment interesting. is there any hay that does have a nutritional value?? or are they all mostly to assist in the wear of the chins teeth??

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To put it simply, yes...alfalfa. Timothy and the other grass hays are mainly for fiber content and to help wear down the teeth.

Unfortunately there are a lot of people on another forum who feed only grass hay thinking they are doing good by their chin (no pellets at all). While this is great for their teeth (only to an extent though since they are not supplementing with calcium either), it isn't great for their body. I have tried, and tried to tell them if they want to continue to do this to add alfalfa hay into the mix, or at least a tablespoon of high quality pellets daily. The people there that do use a pellet don't use anything alfalfa based and usually use Kaytee (the one with no treats that is timothy based). Alfalfa isn't the enemy!

Sorry for the side rant, it was just nice to hear someone else say that alfalfa isn't always the bad guy and that chins need nutrition, not just fiber.

So, you can do alfalfa hay and other hay, and not the pellets?

Trying to get this straight....

It's best to use a pellet and a grass hay for optimal care. Crysta (Essentia) is talking about people that refuse to feed pellets need to at least add in alfalfa for nutritional value. That would be minimal to me and I'm sure it is to many of the experienced members on here. The pellets are alfalfa BASED which means they have other vitamins and ingredients added in to meet the nutritional needs of a chinchilla. There is no replacement for a good pellet.

I fed a hay only diet to a wheat intolerant chin, it was 50% alfalfa and 50% timmy and he did ok on digestive wise it but got the skuzzy fur. I feed 1/3 1st cut timmy, 1/3 alfalfa and 1/3 oat hay as my mix right now for all my chins along with a alfalfa based pellet.

Thank you for all responses, I appreciate the input!! Also, just to clarify, I didn't mean to imply that b/c I feed her a variety of hays, that I don't also feed pellets! I probably should have first specified that she gets Mazuri pellets. I do also have Alfalfa cubes that I can offer, but I read that since she's on an Alfalfa based pellet, feeding any additional alf would be overkill, too rich, high in calcium, ect.? Is that not really accurate? It was my understanding that if you feed a timothy based pellet, you should offer alfalfa hay and if you feed an alfalfa based pellet, you should use timothy, orchard, ect?

Alfalfa is one of those subjects that the use of it is more wide spread than reported, IMO.

Alfalfa cubes are not at all like feeding fresh alfalfa. They go through a heating and compression process that takes a lot of what alfalfa is out of them. I use alfalfa cubes, 50/50 alfalfa/timmy cubes, or 100% timmy cubes. Whatever I can get my hands on at the time.

cubes VS hay

http://www.uky.edu/Ag/AnimalSciences/pubs/id145.pdf

jp8278 said:

It was my understanding that if you feed a timothy based pellet, you should offer alfalfa hay and if you feed an alfalfa based pellet, you should use timothy, orchard, ect?

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Right.

I'd also recommend trying to find a farmer near you for hay. They should have just cut some last month. You can usually get a bale for $6 and that would last you a year for a couple chins. Because there are horse farms in your area, I would have to imagine that you can get some great hay there (chins and horses eat pretty much the same hay). I am able to get "grass hay" from a farmer near me. Sometimes it has a little alfalfa in there, so I will pick it out if I see a bunch. I'm just thrilled that she likes it and it is so cheap. Good luck.