Drs Foster and Smith

[SatinsRule]

I've grown weary of the Bermuda grass hay we have around here, and I began looking into options for getting timothy grass hay.

A little bing.com searching led me to a listing for a pet supplier named Drs Foster and Smith. I'd ordered a few dog supplies from them in years gone by, and was familiar with them.

Anyway, they have a signature line of timothy hay in 128 oz. containers (8 lbs) for under $10. Since orders over $49 get free shipping, If I were to order 6 containers, it would run me just south of $60 for 48 lbs, which when I consider what I'd normally use anyway and what I'd pay for gas to and from the nearest supplier of timothy hay, works out pretty well in terms of $$$.

Anyone on here have any experience with them? Good or bad, feel free to share.

Thanks in advance.

Satins Rule, Baby!!! :mrgreen:

 

[Dood]

I have no experience with the company

BUT

A bale of horse Timothy hay weighs 50lb and shouldn't cost more than $10/bale ($5 here)

Have you tried sourcing some from equestrian farms in your area? Surely there are ones close enough that you wouldn't need to spend $50 on gas to pick up a few bales.

 

[AmysMacdog]

Have you checked at walmart, TSC, petsmart or petco? They all carry similar bags of timothy hay.

 

[SatinsRule]

I have no experience with the company

BUT

A bale of horse Timothy hay weighs 50lb and shouldn't cost more than $10/bale ($5 here)

Have you tried sourcing some from equestrian farms in your area? Surely there are ones close enough that you wouldn't need to spend $50 on gas to pick up a few bales.

That is the problem. The only way to get it into this state is to fund the freight, and that drives the price/bale up dramatically. Most of the horse farms in the state either grow their own hay (usually either Bermuda or alfalfa) or buy it from someone who does grow and cut it locally. The closest timothy hay dealer I've been able to find is located west of Fort Worth, TX and that place is more than 450 miles each way. Driving there and back is mega $$$ in gas alone, and the actual cost for a bale of it is $45 before I add in the first dime of transport/shipping. That adds up to a much more expensive bale of timothy hay than what I'd pay for it this way.<br /><br />__________ Thu Jul 04, 2013 11:07 am __________<br /><br />

Have you checked at walmart, TSC, petsmart or petco? They all carry similar bags of timothy hay.

Yes, and they are very cost prohibitive. Their costs are the same up front for less than half as much hay in plastic bags which I'd go through 2 of in just one feeding.

It takes me 4-5 months to go through a full-size bale of hay, which normally weighs between 40-50 lbs. 6 bags of the aforementioned hay gets me to that point, as the total weight comes to 48 lbs.

I'd continue feeding Bermuda hay, but it seems that I waste far more of it than actually gets fed. Some of my rabbits eat it religiously, but most don't, and some are animals which I know ate timothy hay from WM, TSC, etc. religiously and like the earth was coming to an end tomorrow.

I don't mind paying for something like this, but I want to know ahead of time whether or not anyone else has had any experiences with the product, and of course, it only makes sense to buy it in a way which is least expensive while getting a quality product. IOW, why pay $135 for 3 bales of hay plus $125 on top of that for driving down to pick it up ($260 total) when I can pay $60 three times in a year ($180 total), have it delivered to my doorstep, spend way less time travelling, and save $80 for what amounts to the same product, right?

All this may sound rather insane especially if you have it as readily available as some posters on this forum who live near the places it's cut and baled, but when you want a product which you cannot get locally, it comes down to having to pay more than you're accustomed to paying in order to get it. And again, I want to know that I'm getting a good product before I commit myself to doing so.