Spiky things in hay-OK for rabbit?

[meow1]

 

I just got my order of mature oat hay. I always get this hay from the same place, but this time I have noticed that there all all kinds of spikey things in it.  Will these hurt my bunny? Do I need to filter through it all and remove all that I find?

 

ETA: they are very hard and sharp, not smushy & soft.

[kamdynandsunshinesmom]

I am not really sure but i wouldn’t think that is ok in hay. I have never seen it in hay.

[Tate]

I think you can contact BB directly, either through a PM or there might be specific store contact info. I don’t think these are poisonous- we have them allllll around the fields where I live. They just hurt and they may get caught up on fur, even short fur. Can you hold off on giving the hay to your bun?

[meow1]

I can definitely hold off until I find out for sure. We have plenty of timothy hay for now.

[BinkyBunny]

Those are not poisonous, but they should not be in the hay.  Those things are just too prickly, and can stick to fur and bedding. They will get stuck on your clothing too.  Very annoying! 

  I would filter through the hay, but if you find any more, I would prefer you just throw it out, and I will give you a store credit or refund. I am contacting the supplier to let them know and find out how it got in there. (It’s a nasty weed, and it looks like one was missed when they harvested).   I am guessing it just got in one big bale, and even though it was divided into smaller mini bales, they look like something that wouldn’t shake out easily and get caught up even during the filter/separation process. . I will be going for a new hay run this week and I will be sure that they look through it thoroughly for these beforehand. If anyone else finds this in their Mature Oat hay, please email me directly through jenniferATbinkybunnyDOTcom.

Meow1 — I will emailing you directly regarding this as well.

[meow1]

I ordered two bales, and haven’t opened the other one yet. I will check it and let you know if that one is filled with them, too

 

[BinkyBunny]

I just opened up a couple of the bales we have, and they have them too. I just talked to the supplier and they checked their new batch and it is throughout all of it. So it looks like we will be out of our Oat Hay for the year unless another good source of local Oat can be found. The grain hays have really took a beating this year locally though and it has been challenging to find good Oat Hay. So I will most likely start selling Oxbow Oat next week as a replacement until the quality of grain hays return. Quite the bummer.

[Tate]

Do you know how many “spikeys” are in there? I’m hoping I can pick through the hay to get them out. They are CRAZY in Eastern Washington right now. The other night, I spent a good hour and a half picking them off of my clothes after a class.

[BinkyBunny]

Tate — Are you saying you have a bale from us right now? (if so can you message me your order number) Or did you order some from us recently? For the orders that are in “pre-order” status for the Oat, we will be contacting those customers to see if they want to trade it for another type of hay or cancel it.

Note:  When i went through the bales, there were quite a bit of burrs.   They weren’t as sharp as they looked when I saw the photo above and they were smaller than I thought, but they are just annoying and you shouldn’t have to pick through it at all. So we will make it right — (so again, if you ordered through us, just email/message me your order number)

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