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is oxbow orchard grass hay or grass?!

biscandmatt1

Wise Old Thumper
probably a stupid question :oops: but it says grass hay. does that mean it's hay? or dried grass, like readigrass? :wave:
 
Hi, Oxbow orchard grass is like hay. The best way I can describe it is, it looks more like dry long lawn grass. It is green & smells lovely. I mix in a pack of Burns mountain herbs too. Soots sez yum! Also, I have just bought Alfala King oat, wheat & barley hay for him to try. He loves this too & it keeps him busy as the seed heads drop through the straw & he spends ages digging & munching :)
 
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Hay

According to the above site, it's a grass hay (like timothy hay) as opposed to a legume hay (like alfalfa and clover)
It's less likely to cause allergic reactions than timothy hay and seems to be lower calcium but same level of crude fibre

Waffles and DP recently had a taste as part of a sample pack from the Hay Experts and considered it edible but unexciting



So i think (I'm making this up) that readigrass is like lawn grass, whereas grasses covers a wide range of grassy type things, like the longer grasses in the wild, of which orchard and timothy are covered
 
thanks for the help. i just have to be careful with bisc as he could never tolerate things like readigrass and i want to try even more different hays with him. although not oat either as this caused excess cecals aswell.

i did order him some oxbow western timothy though. to go with his other hay4pets hays. will try the orchard grass next :wave:
 
http://wabbitwiki.com/wiki/Hay



So i think (I'm making this up) that readigrass is like lawn grass, whereas grasses covers a wide range of grassy type things, like the longer grasses in the wild, of which orchard and timothy are covered

Readigrass is ryegrass. The difference come in the method of processing. According to the manufacturers:

"The unique low-temperature drying process removes the water, but leaves the fragrant grass aroma, vibrant colour and most importantly the high nutrient value of fresh grass. This gives a feed that is more nutritious than hay"

Hope that helps :)
 
Hay is just vegetation that has been dried, and usually baled, for use as a feed and bedding for animals. So that will cover a wide variety of different plants. Most common is different grasses and the legume alfalfa. Orchard grass is one variety of grass that is commonly dried and baled for animals. Readigrass is a grass hay as well, but made from rye grass, and I believe it is dried using a different method than typical baled hay.
 
All my bunnies eat orchard grass and as long as it's nice and green (no brown leaf) it keeps their teeth worn and they stopped having excess cecals.

Not sure on the classification though. I hope it will work well for Bisc if you should try him on it. :) xxxx
 
thank you everyone. :wave:

i ordered the western timothy hay yesterday and it came today! :shock: he likes it aswell so that's another hay to add to his collection :lol: eddie and mollie are also eating loads of it :thumb:
 
so it would appear that bisc can't tolerate oxbow western timothy hay. it's made his cecals too runny so they've left marks on the blanket and his underneath is dirty so they've obviously stuck to him aswell. so he won't be having that again :roll: not sure whether to even try the orchard grass now. it will probably be too rich for him aswell.
 
so it would appear that bisc can't tolerate oxbow western timothy hay. it's made his cecals too runny so they've left marks on the blanket and his underneath is dirty so they've obviously stuck to him aswell. so he won't be having that again :roll: not sure whether to even try the orchard grass now. it will probably be too rich for him aswell.

That's so disappointing :cry:

have you tried asking for samples of hay?
 
That's so disappointing :cry:

have you tried asking for samples of hay?

i had hoped that he would be ok now that his tummy is more balanced, but obviously not. he still has all three hay4pets hays so it's not the end of the world. i had just hoped to treat him with some other hays. he didn't get very gassy or anything though which he would have done in the past. and he's fine within himself except for cleaning alot. so it hasn't affected him in the way it would have in the past. so that's something.

i never thought to get samples :oops: will try that in future. :thumb: and if i can't get any, i have eddie and mollie to eat it :lol: they love it! :lol::love:
 
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