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A stupid question! Hay and Straw...

Jonny

Warren Scout
Pardon my ignorance here - but what exactly is the difference between hay and straw?

My understanding is that buns are supposed to eat the hay, and the straw is pretty much unnecessary as it just serves to soak up wee and provides a soft surface for their paws.

Am I right?

Thanks!

(I spent a fortune on Oxbow timothy and they won't touch it. But I have seen them nibbling at straw. Have bought one of those sample packs from the hay experts that someone recommended to see if I can find something they'll like).
 
Hi Jonny,

Hay is dried grass, whereas straw is the shaft that is left when crops such as oats / barley etc have been harvested, so very different..

You could try a dried grass such as "just grass" or "readigrass" and see ifyour buns prefer that.

Hope that helps

Jx
 
e=hay is for eating, but can also be used for bedding, straw is jst for bedding (although saying tht, I have seen the boys nibbling on a piece of straw sometimes too). Whichever u use for bedding, it does more than soak up wee - it keeps them cosy and so healthy :)
 
I picked up a packet of regular 'meadow hay' this morning, in case my buns had some odd dislike of oxbow timothy. They got stuck in immediately! :lol:

Relieved to see them at least eating hay - hopefully when my sample packs come I'll find a good quality one that they like.
 
Slightly off topic perhaps, but when I bought my first bag of Oxbow Timothy Hay a few months back, they absolutly loved it (had to be rationed to a handful a day with meadow hay to top them up) they would always eat the Oxbow stuff first. I bought another bag this weekend, Barley didn't touch it, Dolly ate the first bit but then went back to her normal meadow hay, Timothay stuff was still there the next morning *confused*...
 
My buns 'ruffle' their straw and snap it.

Mines go on and off the Oxbow hay too! They eat lots more of it if I cut it into smaller strands and mix it up with other hays.

If that still doesn't work, hang on to it. They are usually so fickle that they will love it in a couple of months if they haven't seen it for a while! :lol: Just as long as it is kept dry it will keep for quite a while.

Fiona x
 
Mine don't really like the Oxbow Timothy either. Maybe they had a bad quality harvest this summer. But I don't mind if they prefer the cheaper types of hay. :lol:

I use straw in the litter boxes only, and hay in both litter box and their hay corner. I think they do eat a bit of straw sometimes, too. Straw feels nice and warm when you rip it out of the bag, I am sure it insulates quite well. But my two prefer to sit on the newspaper and get cold feet. :D
 
There are different cuts for Timothy hay. My rabbits used to love timothy and once I bought three bags and they wouldn't touch it. It looked so much better to me, it was greener and coarser than the usual. This was the problem, it was the "first cut" and they didn't like it. Unfortunately, the bags are not marked with what cut it is so you can only see by the eye. I guess if you were getting from a company, you could ask them what cut it is.
 
Mine love Timothy with Rye from the hayexperts. Other than that they get local baled hay which is stored on top of the hutch and they seem to like that fine.
 
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