Worthless hay?

[skysthelimit]

A kind friend offered to bring me hay. 3 bales, and I was happy until I saw it.

It looks like straw. The only reason I know it's hay, because I can see dried grass blades.

Is it worth feeding, or should I just use it to cover mud puddles int eh grow out pen?

Generally I don't feed a great deal of hay, I have sources for fiber, I want to know if this stuff has any nutritional value.

 

[MamaSheepdog]

Have you opened any of the bales? If it was stored outdoors in the sun it may just be bleached on the outside. Hay does lose nutrients over time, though, so if it is old there may not be much nutritional value left.

 

[Schipperkesue]

What kind of hay grows in your area? We have timothy and on a bad year it can look mostly like stalk, especially if there are grasshoppers. Those little pests can denude the leaves in no time flat. The remaining leaves and seed head have plenty of nutrition.

 

[Dood]

Hay is valuable as a roughage too, if it isn't dusty or moldy I'd use it

 

[Miss M]

:yeahthat:

Rabbits don't really need hay for nutrients if they're on pellets or if it's just a supplement to a natural diet. Its main purposes are as fiber to help keep things moving along in the rabbit's body, and as something for the rabbit to do. As long as it isn't moldy, it can still fulfill those even if all its nutrients are gone.

 

[Zass]

Yeah, I agree with everyone. As long as there is no mold and it's not dusty, it's fine. I had a bale or two like that this year. The rabbits didn't eat much. Thankfully, they like hay to tug on and play with too. Just having it around seems to offer some psychological benefit to rabbits.

 

[skysthelimit]

You know generally I just never feed it. It's almost the price of a bag of pellets, messy transporting, messy feeding, impossible to store, and hard to get.

They seem to get enough roughage from pellets.

I can't tell you what hay grows here, I live in the city. I know Ive bought grass, alfalfa and Timothy hay before, from a friend and mainly at TSC. Who knows where it comes from?

This batch came from about 60 miles south of me. I believe it's last years cuttings.

I opened it up, and it's not alfalfa, looks like timothy and orchard grass. I was so hoping it was alfalfa, since I'm having problems getting pellets again!

Smells ok inside. I fed some and they ate it, except a few, and Anise decided to build a nest instead.



It's kind of sad, I haven't learned much about how to tell bad hay from really bad hay all these years, because it's so hard to get, I haven't had a good enough sampling. Though in the beginning, I had this awesome green orchard grass hay.

 

[akane]

The alfalfa off my mom's field always turned brown. We did not have the proper storage for it out of sunlight. Majority of the small bales were in the end of the stable with 2 large sliding doors and the round bales were in a building with 1 large sliding door and the doors were always open. It all bleached within weeks. For awhile the inside would be green and the center bales would be greener but by the end of winter it would all be brown. The horses still ate it eagerly and kept condition without grain. Personally I disliked the whole setup. I wanted a nice grass mix (I have the suggested mix for Iowa equines from the top equine vet) and I wanted a dark place to store it. When we got the organic clover/alfalfa for the rabbits we tarped it inside the building to keep it green. It's not useless brown and they do still eat it if it started out rich hay but certain nutrients will be lost and it will break down sooner. A good fortified feed (pellets or a mix instead of straight grains) or vitamin/mineral mix is necessary when feeding hay of that kind. Protein may be a bigger concern with browned grass hay than our browned alfalfa hay. Alfalfa already has well over what the animals need to stay healthy. Grass is only going to start at about 12%.

 

[Miss M]

It's kind of sad, I haven't learned much about how to tell bad hay from really bad hay all these years, because it's so hard to get, I haven't had a good enough sampling. Though in the beginning, I had this awesome green orchard grass hay.

I was afraid I wouldn't be able to tell bad hay/pellets from good... so I've tried smelling good hay over and over again, so I get used to the sweet green smell, or the deeper less sweet brown. With pellets, it got REALLY easy all of a sudden. I saw all this dust fly up in a cloud around the opening of the bag, and I stuck my nose down there (mistake) and sniffed. And gagged. And coughed half a lung up. It was so musty.

Bunny-Wan Kenobi gave me my introduction to moldy hay, when he shook some, and it generated this fog. :x :x :x

 

[skysthelimit]

Bunny-Wan Kenobi gave me my introduction to moldy hay, when he shook some, and it generated this fog. :x :x :x

that is scary!!!!!

The year before, no one had hay. I heard folks were selling and butchering because they could not feed their animals. Last year TSC just had this awful stuff, even they wouldn't sell it. I just gave it up completely.