This time of year hay can be hard to find in these parts, that should not be a problem with better planning next year.

So I call my neighbor that trades horses and raises goats to see if I can buy a bale from him, I expected to pay top dollar in the winter.

He is running short himself, so he can only let me have one square bale, but that will do me a long time with only seven rabbits. I was floored when he charged me only $2.50!

The hay looked great to me, I could see some clover in it and still lots of green. I asked him if he thought rabbits would eat it, he said he wouldn't think so (he is a horse guy) to him this was low quality hay.

Turns out the rabbits love it, currently I give each cage a handful in the morning and they are always waiting for it. I then feed pellets when I get home. I hope I can get a few more bales next season, as this may turn out to be a pretty cheap supplement to their diet. Or maybe I should look at pellets as the supplement to the hay!

Can't wait to get a hold of some of his "good stuff" next year!

Once you find a good source for hay, buy early and buy enough. The farmer we've been getting hay from will store it for me if we prepay, which is good because we can only store about eight bales at a time. Last year we ran short of alfalfa hay, so I had to supplement the remaining grass hay with alfalfa cubes to give them enough protein, since I do not feed pellets. It worked fine, but it was much more expensive.

If I'm using more hay and supplementing with pellets, how much hay do they need per day,and how much pellets? I was feeding 1 cup of pellets to the 6 mos and older group, and free feeding nursing does, kits and juniors. I've been reading I can give as little as 6oz of pellets, an then how much hay? I am feeding 20+ rabbits, assume that pellets was the main staple, and that I am not feeding any fresh greens (not cost effective no matter what I do).

Mine are getting pellets every other day now so they eat more hay cause it's tons cheaper. I feed unlimited hay.

Free feed a high quality hay, adjust pellets down as you monitor condition. When adding in fresh, I found supplying in this order helps-- at start, hay, fresh, then pellets, later, once the gut is nicely adjusted, fresh, hay, then pellets. I am so looking forward to a large, dedicated bunny bed in a garden this summer---

It is so much cheaper it's not funny. And the rabbits actually leave the pellets to eat the hay. I don't think I'm ever going to go totally off the pellets, but I would like to reduce the amount drastically. This hay is the orchard grass, I usually feed an alfalfa/timothy/clover mix, but the feed store ran out. I am worried that I will miss something, there is not as much information as there is for natural dog feeding, and if I goof, I can blow a show coat and run into a problem with my show bunnies.

Sky-- there a few people out this way that grow a high quality hay--we can put our heads together and see about getting some first cutting-- IN fact, Betty has some camelids-- and it is fron the hay she keeps for them that She has pulled single bales for me in the past. we can also hit the fundraiser auctions--no need to buy a ton at a time!

First cutting is usually skipped as rabbit and horse hay due to stemmy inferior quality. The later cuts are what you want. If they can get a 4th cut around here it's usually amazing stuff provided the person is putting any effort in to the field but most only get a 3rd cut.

My regular place will get it back soon, I will eat $50 plus in gas going that way for hay, that wouldn't be cost effective. Just for now, I'm using the orchard, and without the alfalfa, it changes how much of a cup of pellets I feed.

My husband gets some nice grass hay from his cousin.the rabbits love it.

I had more trouble than I expected finding hay. I finally found one feed store that had hay bales -- "coastal bermuda" (aka bermuda grass) which apparently is the main hay grown south of the Mason Dixon. (Paid $6) Timothy is quite costly ($25) if you can find it and I got odd looks when I asked about alfalfa...a coworker mentioned her son's pet rabbit likes pine needles...fine but that don't count as hay even if it does come in bales!

I'm seeding my lawn with white clover and will being growing various peas and beans and understand that the vines make good "hay"... combined with coastal hay as they come available I hope that will be a good mix for them. Of course, they'll be getting pellets (MannaPro) at least until I learn how to feed them more and more natural.

I feed coastal bermuda grass hay. I had to get a bale twice as large this time, 150 pounds rather than 75, because the hay hasn't been harvested around here yet, and they trucked this stuff in from California. Paid a pretty penny for it, too, but I needed it. Nice, green hay. It'll last me nigh unto forever, too...

I don't understand the different cuttings. What's that all about? I hadn't even heard of third and fourth cuttings.

I feed alfalfa and really wished I would've bought more of the good stuff (2nd cutting) when I had a chance, now I'm stuck with the coarse, stemmy 1st cutting unless I wanna to cough up 12.00 clams a bale, which is cheaper than pellets by far but is still pretty steep for 2nd cutting around here

Cuttings refer to the number of times a specific field gets harvested during the summer. A person can have an early cutting of some hays, (alpaca people love pre- head timothy) First cutting is usually after flowering. Second cuttings can be sometimes lower quality than first (first cuttings tend to carry the most leaf per stalk-- very desireable)
If the summer is long, and weather is agreeable, a third cutting is a blessing to hay growers, and to get a fourth-- just a lot of extra profit off that field for the summer! Now, a first cutting that has seen rain, is NOT going to be as good as a second cutting that is labeled 'no rain' When hay is cut-- if it gets rained on during the drying and tedding process-- it goes south-- real bad, real fast--

OK... i have long thought that the idea of feeding hay... was to add 'long fiber' to the rabbit's ration. The way they devour stemmy hay made me think That was the kind to feed. I have deliberately avoided alfalfa hay. Should i rethink my hay feeding ???