Hay types

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smhluvsmh

smhluvsmh

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Is it important to offer a variety of hay types? I thought I read somewhere that it helps wear teeth more evenly if different types of hay is offered. The girls have a orchard grass/alfalfa mix that I get from a rescue here in town. Should I also be offering timothy to them? Thanks.
 
I do believe it's beneficial to offer different hay types to evenly wear the teeth. I give my guys 2nd cut timothy, mixed with bluegrass hay, sometimes 1st cut timothy hay, then they get alfalfa and oat hays here and there in small amounts to mix it up. :)

Usually, from what I've seen, timothy is usually the recommended hay to use at the 'staple' of the hay portion of the chinchilla's diet. So I would recommend offering that as well ;)
 
some other safe ones:

bermuda, broome and orchard grass, oat, wheat and barlay hay, meadow and botanical just to name a few

summer
 
Sorry to veer from the OP but I didn't want to make another thread. I was just wondering the difference is between 1st, 2nd, 3rd cut timothy hay? Is one better than another?
 
Really 1st cut is mostly stems and much rougher, very few leaves/leafy hay.
2nd cut is more balanced between the stems and leaves (this is what i feed)
3rd cut has very few stems and majority leaves and grassy hay. The chins love this cut, but it doesn't benefit much as far as helping keeping their teeth at a good length verses the 1st and 2nd cut if that all makes any sense :)
 
Thanks for the info, I just ordered some Oat hay for my boys. Is oat fat like Alfalfa? Or can I mix 50 50 oat with timothy to feed them?
 
Last edited:
Side note: this is a great thread about hay. I've had so many questions and it's helping me.

summerdays said:
some other safe ones:

bermuda, broome and orchard grass, oat, wheat and barlay hay, meadow and botanical just to name a few

summer
Click to expand...

Shopaholic0514 said:
Is oat fat like Alfalfa? Or can I mix 50 50 oat with timothy to feed them?
Click to expand...

What are the differences between the different hays? The ones I know about are orchard grass, timothy, and alfalfa. I'm not sure what oat/wheat/barley could add to a chin's diet other than a different texture.
 
I had the same problem!! They wouldn't touch anything but orchard grass. I bought the organic Timothy Hay from Tanya at Fuzzies Kingdom and it was a huge hit. Now they get 50/50.
 
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