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The subject of intentional breeding or meat rabbits is prohibited. The answers provided on this board are for general guideline purposes only. The information is not intended to diagnose or treat your pet.  It is your responsibility to assess the information being given and seek professional advice/second opinion from your veterinarian and/or qualified behaviorist.

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Forum DIET & CARE Store bought VS. baled hay

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    • ilovemybunnies
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        Hi, I have been feeding my rabbits store bought Timothy hay. It’s been costing around $10 a bag. My question is, is this kind of hat better for them than regular square bales of hay. We have horses and bale our own hay. It’s orchard grass, the field it’s baled from is limed and fertilized regularly, and the hay is nice and green, and horse quality hay, as opposed to what some people refer to as cow hay. Would this be ok to feed them or does the store bought hay have some kind of special nutrients added to it?


      • JackRabbit
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          Store bought hay doesn’t have anything added to it and will never be as fresh as newly baled hay, and I know orchard grass hay is fine for bunnies ans horse quality hay is what you look for when buying bales. What I don’t know about is the lime and fertilizer. There are a bunch of BBers who buy bales and I’m very interested what they say as well.


        • JackRabbit
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            BTW, nice to see another Virginian on here!


          • Pom
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              I’m switching to baled hay soon, but there are pros and cons of both. Some things I’ve heard about store bought hay is that you don’t know how long it’s been sitting there so it could be not as fresh, and also that the packaging of store bought hay can bring about some problems in hay quality as well (how you store hay is more important than a lot of people think!)
              However, with store bought hay, I hear there is less of a risk of insects and other harmful things in the hay itself?
              Baled hay is more cost effective and is much better nutritionally for your rabbit though, honestly any risks and benefits come boil down to the specific place you’re getting your hay, I think. No idea about the fertilizer and stuff though, sorry :^(
              Good luck finding the best hay for you!


            • ilovemybunnies
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                Thanks for the replies…JackRabbit, unfortunately I’m a West Virginian lol, but that’s a lot closer than some of the other peoples locations I’ve seen! I know with horses you want the fields limed and fertilized. The lime (which isn’t done as often) is to kill the weeds and stuff and if you keep baling the same field over and over without fertilizing the hay isn’t as good quality, because you’re losing nutrients. But that’s for horses…We have a few fields we bale hay off of (we’ve got waaay too many horses) and not all of it’s the same quality. The good field though, that hay is bright green and it just looks good. We’re also getting a second cut. I had never thought about bugs…I’m not sure I’ve ever seen bugs inside any of our hay…and we def don’t feed anything with mold. I just get frustrated with these bags of hay, particularly some Oxbow I got that was very short pieces of hay, and that gets everywhere. Our bales of hay have longer pieces and the bats (sections of hay) are packed well, so it’s easier to handle. I think I’ll use up what I have and then try bales and just get them specialty hay here and there.


              • LittlePuffyTail
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                  I wish my buns would eat horse hay! I could buy bales for $2 from my horse’s boarding stable. It’s gorgeous hay, sometimes a bit more coarse than they are used to, but they won’t eat it, the little buggers! I have to buy the expensive Oxbow bags.


                • Lea
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                    I was feeding my new bun timothy hay from a bag, but he didn’t seem to be interested in it…I got a gigantic bale for the same price as the tiny bag and he’s gobbling it all up! So in my very limited experience (only had a bunny for 3 days now) a bale is better. I doubt I’ll go through it all before it goes bad (it’s just coming up on rainy season) but it would still have cost me less than the bag even if I use half.


                  • Stickerbunny
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                      i feed my buns horse quality baled brome hay. Never had an issue with bugs or anything. The bale stays in the garage and I bring in a few flakes at a time. I would imagine if it’s common practice to lime/fertilize then it’s OK cause horse hay is supposed to be fine. I still buy oxbow oat occasionally as a treat hay, for variety.


                    • ilovemybunnies
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                        Just an update…my bunnies didn’t like the horse hay as much as the store bought (the little divas!) So, it’s back to Oxbow (there’s also a Kaytee brand they liked). I guess I’ll just use horse hay if I’m ever in a pinch. I did purchase some oat hay though which they absolutely loved!


                      • Perocore
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                          Hello!

                          Since we have horses, we fed our rabbits the same timothy the horses got for a while, but found some issues with it. Mainly, the hay was not pure timothy. There were other things/weeds/etc mixed in, and I did not like feeding unknown plants to my rabbits, even unintentional as it was. So, now having had rabbits for 5 years, I’ve finally switched over to bagged hay, which is pure timothy, and my baby girl seems to prefer over the baled hay. It’s also a lot easier to store, haha.


                        • ilovemybunnies
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                            There are weeds that inevitably get mixed in But absolutely, bagged hay is much less messy! (At least for me)

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                        Forum DIET & CARE Store bought VS. baled hay