Binkybunny Mature Oat Hay

[Nova]

Hi everybun,

I was going to order BB’s Mature Oat hay and saw that it is currently out of stock. My buns need Mature Oat because I am deathly allergic to Timothy. Boon needs excessive hay because he has chonic slow gut motility – him not getting hay can be a life or death situation.

The farm that I normally order my oat hay is out of stock, too!

I’m running around searching for oat hay now because if I go and buy Oxbow I am going to have to buy like ten of their little bags which is going to cost, well, 10x as much as buying the bales.

Does anyone know of a reputable place that sells mature oat hay in mini bales for bunnies? 

I live in Pennsylvania, ou would think a farmer around here would have some but I searched and cannot find any farms that grow oats.

Please help!

[luvmyhunybuny]

I have ordered oat hay from Sierra Valley http://www.sierravalleyhay.com/. We order all our hay from them

[Nova]

Hi there, thanks for the recommendation… I called them and they only sell the Young Oat……I need the mature stuff cuz it has less seed heads that can bind up my bunny’s GI tract.

Don’t know what to do

[Sarita]

Well you could email BB and see when the mature oat hay might be in stock.

[Nova]

Yeah that’s a good idea…

til then, though, I’m running out of hay and it is most of Boon’s diet; he has that sluggish gut.

Would anyone happen to know which is higher in fiber, the mature oat or the young oat? He needs more fiber than anything, so if the young oat has just as much fiber (or more) than the mature, maybe I can order the young oat here from BB.

[Sarita]

I bet BB would know which is higher in fiber. I think she may get orders in on Thursday from her distributor. I would email her about both those questions.

[TBpony414]

Sierra Valley customer here – their young oat does not have very many seed heads, IMO. And they are very easily picked out. Their hay is not at all like other hay, it is LONG strands and very thick. I have horrible hay allergies and my bunny prefers the mature oat but will happily eat the young oat from SV. When it comes down to it, I made the decision that it was better to have the young oat than tear my hair out trying to find something else – which I actually tried to do, and couldn’t find anything remotely suitable as a replacement. Hope this helps!

[Nova]

Hi ya’ll, and thanks for that info on Sierra Valley! If I am ever in a bind, I will likely order some from them, but I did speak w/ BB on the phone and discovered that the farmer I get my hay from is the same farmer who distributes her hay! So me *and* BB are in a tizzy about this oat hay stuff. I guess the weather has been unusually wet and that can really ruin grain hay crops.

What I ended up having to do is buy the 12 bags of the little 15oz Oxbow Oat Hay bags – BB told me that they try to remove as many seedheads as possible so as to not rip the bags so even though it is not the kind of oat hay that I need it might be a good choice for that reason.

[BinkyBunny]

Hi Nova! It was great chatting with you on the phone. I have to mention that the Oxbow seed heads have less to do with the bag ripping — it’s just when they harvest the crop — so that the seeds are not included as part of the hay diet. The part about the bags ripping was more to due with those stalky parts of hay that can be really sharp. They may not have to anything to do with the seed heads They are the pieces that are thicker and harder that can happen not only in grain hays, but in first cut timothy too. But the way that oxbow filters their hay, they seem to have more soft parts, probably to prevent the bags from ripping. Sorry if I miscommunicated that over the phone.

Let me know how your bunny takes to the Oxbow Oat as I know you are dealing with the ongoing issues that may be genetic with your bunny. I am also glad to hear that the Oat doesn’t bother your allergies. This will be helpful for other rabbit owners dealing with similar issues.

[Author]

Messages