Interesting (to say the least) reaction to store-bought hay

[joea64]

I’m running short again on my stock of mixed grass hay, and it’ll be Saturday morning before I can pick up more from Friends of Rabbits, so I went to the pet store (Pet Supplies Plus, which those of you in the eastern half of the U.S. might know; Friends of Rabbits has a longstanding relationship with their Fairfax, VA store) to get a short-term refill. Happily, PSP has a sale on 56-ounce bags of timothy hay this week; usually $9.98, but this week it’s $4.99/bag, so I got two. That should be enough to keep the buns in hay until Saturday.

That’s not the interesting part, though; what’s fascinating is the reaction from Panda and Fernando. They’re always happy to get fresh hay, but last evening when I brought the new timothy bags in (which are quite sweet-smelling; I checked carefully and the hay is quite fresh, though cut shorter than the farm hay I usually use, with only limited dust), they went purely nuts. I mixed the new hay up with the remaining mixed hay I still have, put a couple of large handfuls into their litterbox, and off to the races they went! I didn’t expect them to be that enthusiastic, at the treat level, about hay, and while I’m happy they’re happy, I’m still scratching my head over the business. Anyone else ever have their buns go nuts over new hay?

[ThorBunny]

Yes some kinds of hay are just as good as treats Is it Oxbow timmothy hay? Thor really likes that as well, but I don’t feed it that often since it is expensive. She likes the hay from small pet select almost as much and it is like 200% cheaper.

In our house, oat hay is clearly the winner Thor will prefer oat hay to anything except maybe bananas (but you know, those are bananas…). I have a small bag of oxbow oat hay I use as a treat. Last night, I accidentally spilled more than I meant to into her hay rack, and she spent at least an hour straight just sitting there stuffing her cute face.

[sarahthegemini]

My bunnies act like they’ve never seen hay before when I top them up 

[joea64]

Posted By ThorBunny on 9/20/2017 7:39 AM

Yes some kinds of hay are just as good as treats Is it Oxbow timmothy hay? Thor really likes that as well, but I don’t feed it that often since it is expensive. She likes the hay from small pet select almost as much and it is like 200% cheaper.

In our house, oat hay is clearly the winner Thor will prefer oat hay to anything except maybe bananas (but you know, those are bananas…). I have a small bag of oxbow oat hay I use as a treat. Last night, I accidentally spilled more than I meant to into her hay rack, and she spent at least an hour straight just sitting there stuffing her cute face.

No, it was the Pet Supplies Plus house brand of timothy hay. It smelled REALLY good, as I noted – very sweet, in fact – and it looked quite green and fresh with a minimal amount of dust. As I said, it’s cut shorter than their usual farm hay, but they don’t seem to mind that. 56 ounces doesn’t go quite as far as I thought it did, though; I may have to break open the second bag before Saturday…

I did consider getting Oxbow if there was a sale on it, but yeah, it’s WAY expensive for smaller bags. In candor, Friends of Rabbits sells farm mixed hay for so cheap – $24 for a whole bale which breaks down to $8 for 1/3 bale which is what I got last time though I may have to get a full half-bale this time (and buy another storage bin too!) – that I haven’t really considered Small Pet Select.

[Mikey]

Some rabbits are picky about how their hay is cut. For example, my buns absolutely love second cut hay and will munch on it even if they arnt that hungry at the moment. Theyre ok with first cut, as long as its cut short. They absolutely despise third cut and will throw it out of their cage because they dont even want it near them They eat it when they realize thats the only hay we have at the moment, but they make sure we know they are not happy while eating it.

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