Oxbow Timothy Hay?

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meiying

meiying

Chester & Jeffy
Joined
Jan 31, 2012
Messages
171
Location
Vancouver Island, British Columbia
Hi there,

I am going to get some Oxbow Timothy Hay for my 2 chinchillas and 2 Guinea pigs soon. I have checked out Flowertown Chinchilla web site for the hay and they sell 25 lbs and 50 lbs hay for 55.95 and 69.95 Canadian dollars. My animals eat lots of Timothy Hay and they are picky. They do not like the packaged Timothy hay from the petstore (recently Kaytee Timothy Hay 96oz pack), they always disgard the thicker straws and love the thin one (tips of hay). We used to get fresh timothy hay from my boyfriend's sister's barn and they LOVED it. But since we moved to Alberta so the only options for us are the Petstore hay that is overpriced, not as fresh and has too much thick straws; or hay from farmers/online.

So my question is, if i buy the hay from Flowertown Chinchilla online, 1) Is the hay in good quality? 2) What is the "shelf live" of 25lb or 50lb?
My animals consumed a big "black garbage bag" size hay in a month when we got the hay from the barn, now they barely touch the petstore hay, I am afraid it would affect their health and digestion.

Thank you!!!!!! :)
 
I believe as long as you store the hay in a cool, dry place it will last for quite some time. I have fed hay from several different feed stores, Kleen Mama's(I think it is?) and Oxbow and there is no comparison. Every other hay they have eaten a straw or two, discarded and refused to eat any more. Oxbow they eat like it's crack. I only recently switched to Oxbow and even my girl who would only eat alfalfa loves it. Oxbow is full of these flower things that mine will dig out and eat first and they will be eating hay that I gave them the day before (before I refill it), which is unheard of. Before, every day all of their hay would be on the bottom of their cage and now I only find what falls there on its own.
 
how about put an ad on your local kijiji asking farmers for high quality organic horse hay? as long as there is more grass hay than alfalfa in it, it will be fine for your chins. Alberta is teeming with horse farms!

also, if you are in or near Edmonton, G&E Pharmacy here is a great place to shop for some chin supplies. i got a 10 pound bag of Oxbow pellets there today for what the 5 pound bag costs at petsmart. score! oh, they also have bags of hay - the really fine stuff that you say your chins like.
 
Hi Andreya, thanks for your input. So I guess going for Oxbow Timothy Hay should be a good choice eh?
Thanks Chinny Mom, I live 4-5 hours drive away from Edmonton, I doubt my boyfriend would drive me there (I cannot drive). Also, it might be cheaper to pay for shipping than gas??? I have checked Kijiji, but i am not sure the quality of the hay. I have read some posts here, saying that the hay they got from farmers is not so good. AT least Flowertown chinchilla Canada sounds like a good supplier? I might be wrong, where you get your hay from? In Edmonton?
 
Mine have always hated oxbow timothy are are very particular about what hay they eat, chins are just that way.
 
My guys won't touch Kaytee products at all. They'll eat Oxbow Timothy until half the bag is gone, regardless of what size that bag is. At that point, I start to mix in Orchard Grass and Oat Hay to get them to finish the Timothy. I can usually get down to a quarter of a bag that way, but to get them to eat a whole bag is rare.
 
Mine hated Kaytee and didn't like the last bag of Oxbow we got her. We ended up getting Timothy from a different seller and she loves it.
 
being as i only have two chins, i usually just pick up the bags of Zupreem timothy hay at petsmart for them, with the occasional bag of Oxbow orchard grass mixed in for a different hay type (my boys get bored with the same hay if it's fed constantly). I also feed timothy hay cubes that i buy at G&E. in the next couple days, i have a friend bringing me a small portion of a bale of really nice alfalfa and meadow grass horse hay from her barn, so i'm excited to spoil the fuzzy boys with that!

i tried kaytee timothy hay once, the boys snubbed their noses up at it, and even the wild jackrabbits outside my apartment wouldn't eat it!

whereabouts in Alberta are you meiying? i may be able to help you connect with a good stable for hay.
 
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Hi Chinnymom! It would be great if you could refer any good hay suppliers to me. My chins are picky which is "normal" for chinchillas, but i agree with you, even my guinea pigs are not interested in it! If i put a handful of Kaytee hay for them, they eat maybe 40% (versus they ate 100% of barn's hay). And they would give me the look of "Is that all you got for us?" LOL
I am in Grande Prairie, which is 4-5 hours drive from Edmonton, do you know any good suppliers around here? Thank you so so much! :)
 
There is also Canadian Pet Connection that sells Oxbow and ships. I prefer the quality of the 9 lb bags of Oxbow Timothy. I find the larger sizes iffy with quality.
 
I use Flowertown and I do like them. The owners are really nice and sometimes slip free stuff and samples into my boxes. :)
 
you could get a whole bale of hay for about 10% of that cost meiying. let me do some searching for good hay in Grande Prairie, i'll get back to ya.
 
meiying said:
Hi Khammy,

Yes, I am very interested in getting the hay from them. But would you say it is kinda pricey? I wanna get 25 lb including shipping it costs $94, does it worth it?
Click to expand...

Pricey is a relative term. If you are close to farms and can get the freshest stuff straight from the farmers, then Flowertown would be considered costly, however if you are getting it from a pet store, Flowertown, even with the shipping is much less expensive.

Since I'm from a major city and don't have access to a car, Flowertown works really well for me. Mind you, when I place an order, I do a bulk order to make the shipping worth it, so for example, I'd order the hay, pellets, some treats, and sometimes bedding (all in somewhat large quantities) at the same time and it lasts me a while before I need to place my next order. To buy these at a Pet store would give you smaller packaging and higher unit cost.

Flowertown is not my one-stop-shop though. I managed to find a pet store that sells bigger bags of the apple wood sticks at a better unit cost so I stock up from there too. I would suggest you read the threads and do the smart consumer thing and compare prices and service ratings and decide what's best for you.

Hope this helps. Sorry for such iffy answers.
 
Oh sorry, one more thing. Sometimes huge quantities aren't too good. You don't want your hay sticking around for too long before it gets used up because like most dried goods, it will eventually degrade and get stale. 25 lbs is A LOT of hay. :)
 
hay will actually stay good for a long long time if stored properly in a dry and cool location. keep it in a cardboard box with no lid, with holes punched in the sides. it'll keep a long while.
 
I just switched my boys from Kaytee to Oxbow. I bought the oxbow when there was still about a quarter of the Kaytee left, so I could mix them at first. After the first day, they just got the Oxbow. They wouldn't touch the Kaytee anymore. My boys eat a lot of hay! They would rather have hay then pellets. The Oxbow has no straw like pieces in it that I could find, and is much greener than the Kaytee. Also, I thought chins were not supposed to have alfalfa at all, but maybe I'm wrong?
 
Did you get the Oxbow Timothy or alfalfa? From what I've seen there is a lot of debate about alfalfa but a lot of people feed it. I believe that Timothy is preferred. I feed mine Oxbow Timothy daily and alfalfa every once in a while.
 
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