Hay Questions.

[tanlover14]

I tried googling these questions online but couldn’t really come up with a good enough answer to ease my mind.   I’m currently in the process of switching my baby buns (5 months old!) from alfalfa to timothy as advised by my vet.   Well, ever since we have had the timothy hay my boyfriend gets really sick with allergies every time he cleans their cages or refills their hay holders, any time he’s with the hay so we’re really convinced the hay is the culprit. 

My first question is :  does the orchard grass or (oat?) grass have the same nutritional values as the timothy?  I read that the orchard grass has more fiber in it … and since I was told to look at percentages for food, could to much fiber in the hay cause them to become fat or whatever happens when there’s to much fiber in their diet?  I don’t really know what oat hay is — so that’s a whole new batch of questions… anyone heard of it/use it?  And it’s nutritional values compared to timothy?

Second question:  Do a lot of you tend to switch around the hay you feed your buns?  Will it do anything to their health in a bad way or is it typically a good thing?  Since I know you’re supposed to be somewhat consistent with what you give them?

And last :  I was told before that switching hays doesn’t require any introduction to the hay and that you can just switch them from one to the other?  Correct or is it always safer to switch slowly? 

Sorry for all the questions!  But any advice would be greatly welcomed!

[Monkeybun]

According to my vet, oat hay is the second best to timothy, followed by orchard. It isn’t fiber content that makes them fat, its protein and fat content. Either oat or orchard is good to switch too, if there are allergies. Both are well liked by bunnies too

With hay you can just switch over all at once, but you may want to introduce slowly just in case bunny doesn’t like it, that way you have some of the other hay around in case he doesnt eat the new.

[LoveChaCha]

I’m allergic to hay that is extremely dusty. Orchard is a go-to, but I’ve found Timothy that doesn’t hurt my allergies at all. It goes with how dusty the hay is. Oat isn’t bad at all Specially during times of shedding!

[tanlover14]

Thanks, guys! My boyfriend never had a problem with the alfalfa which is weird because it looked like it was really dusty and the timothy we get seems to look so much cleaner so we’re kind of baffled by it. We buy the Oxbow bags of hay.

Looks like the buns are going to have to try something different!

[LittlePuffyTail]

I switch between Oxbows Western Timothy and Orchard. I tend to buy whatever bag looks to be green and the best quality. Sometimes I mix them.

[LoveChaCha]

Since you have 3 buns, have you tried getting farm store hay? I have just one bun, and it is super cheap, like 14 dollars for 55 lbs of hay! Just a tip It is a great money saver, and provides tons of hay for your little ones!

[Toady]

We can’t get Timothy here other than in kilo (2.2lb) bags, so I picked up a square bale of oat hay (what about 40lbs) from a feed store for $18, 6 weeks and I’ve probably gone through a quarter of it with two bunnies who just love it, they get a good handful morning and night.

[tanlover14]

Hmmm, good idea guys. I’ve never thought about doing that too much. We live smack-dab in Pittsburgh so I’m not sure if we have any stores like that in close vicinity. Do you usually have to buy a whole bale or can you get like halfs or the minis they sell at the pet stores too? Just wondering because we have to sneak in all our bunny stuff (no pets allowed building) and so it has to be easy to hide. :X

[LoveChaCha]

I have to go to another nearby city to get hay, but it isn’t too far. It is normally a feed store. I buy the whole bale and it can be stored in 70+ qt plastic tubs. Maybe you could get a large plastic garbage bag and put the hay in that as you transport it from car to apartment?

[Elrohwen]

Is it possible for you to do the hay work and have him avoid it?

This is how DH and I do things since he has a pretty bad allergic reaction to handling the hay (strangely, I don’t, though I am technically allergic and am the one who is on allergy shots!). I like using timmy hay because it’s so much easier to get than the others, so it’s worth it to me to do all of the hay handling so he can avoid it.

Just a thought! The others you mentioned are perfectly good (the main purpose of hay is the fiber, which they all have).

[tanlover14]

Yes, definitely able to have him avoid it. I just feel bad whenever he does have to deal with the hay a lot he’ll be sick the rest of the night. So weird though — he only gets it when he cleans up the hay and stuff, he never has a problem just putting it in the hay holder or litter boxes though. Hm, honestly I’d rather just stick with whatever is better for the buns. We’ve googled and worked really hard to make sure they have the best diets we can possibly give them to help them live a long, healthy life so that’s the main concern. We were only going to consider switching if there was something out there equally as good.

I don’t really understand how the alfalfa doesn’t do it to him either! It’s literally just the timothy when he cleans out the cage.

[Elrohwen]

Alfalfa is a legume and timothy is a grass (other standard hays mentioned in this thread are also grass, which is why they have the same basic nutritional profile as timothy). Since they’re such different types of plants, it’s not surprising that he’s allergic to one and not the other.

[tanlover14]

Didn’t know that, thanks for the info! Well, we still have them on both and since I already made this thread — I’ve been wondering about the dusty, kind of small tiny pieces of leftover hay in the bottom of the Oxbow Alfalfa. The timothy barely has this but the Alfalfa always has a lot of it. Is it okay to give that to the buns or could the dustyness of it bother them? I’ve just been throwing it out but it seems like a waste if it won’t bother their respiratory systems at all.

[BinkyBunny]

Hay is consumed mostly for fiber anyway as hay is pretty sparse nutrition wise — which actually is great for a bunny.  They need to eat a lot of it.  Their digestive system is meant to get the most nutrition out of the nutritionally sparse food.  

 And Oat is great fiber wise, and much better for the humans who have allergies. 

Like others have said, the nutritional overages you have to worry about would be fat and protein.  I have never heard of a bunny getting too much fiber. Fiber is what they need to have access to at all times. 

You had asked about variety and I do like offering a variety.  Each bunny though is really different.  It won’t do anything “bad” to them, it’s just what will make them eat more.  My bunny Jack used to eat a ton of an Organic Orchard Hay I was able to get (they went out of business) — He could eat that one hay more than any other food. He loved it and he would eat much less hay when I offered him other kinds, so for him I chose to stick with his one favorite hay.   With my bunny Vivian, she eats more hay if I switch.  She will eat tons of Timothy for a week, then slow down, UNLESS, I give her a new hay of Orchard, and then Oat, and so on.  Sometimes I will just put all the hays together and mix them, and she does seem to like it, but for some reason, she eats hay with more gusto when one new type of hay is given at a time. 

[tanlover14]

Hmm, that’s really interesting. Thanks so much, BB! I’ll have to try that with my buns and see what they prefer and what seems to go down more quickly. I’ve been a little concerned about them eating more pellets than hay since we’ve put them together and bonded them but I can’t tell if it’s only that way because there’s 2 food dishes now instead of 3 or what (there’s 3 rabbits in the cage). They still eat lots of hay to though so I’m not really worried but I wanna make sure they’re not just going for the pellets since it’s alfalfa and not the hay since it’s timothy (they’re being switched over since they’re 5 months old but we still mix in a TINY bit of alfalfa in the holders but not the litter box. I suppose I’m a worry-wart when it comes to them.

[tanlover14]

Looks like it’s going to be orchard hay and maybe timothy every once in awhile! The buns won’t even attempt to eat the oat hay. We gave orchard grass and they gobbled it up and so far it seems the BF isn’t allergic to it — but then we tried putting oat hay in their condo and they REFUSED to eat it. Not even one bite between them… so I put orchard on top of it hoping it would encourage them to eat and they tore out all the orchard and left all the oat. LOL. Brats.

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