hay from the market

[Candiflare]

My OH, with the best intentions, bought our rabbits 6 bags of hay from the local market which was just bagged up (no brand name, just somebody selling pet stuff.) He also bought straw but it's got bits of black on it.. I'm thinking it probably isn't a good idea to use this stuff? What's the risk?

 

[bunny babe]

Personally I would never buy anything from a market.

We had a rabbit when we were younger (he was 9) and we bought some food from the market as we had run out (normally got it from a shop). The following day his water was completely gone and he had green all round his mouth. We took him to the vet and lost him unfortunately. We were told that it was likely to have been poison.

 

[Candiflare]

Gosh, that's horrible.. now I've got to sneak all the bags of hay out while my OH is away. It's sad because he thinks he's done a "good thing" for the rabbits and will get annoyed if I don't use it. I'll pretend I've used it all up then when he tries to buy some more I'll tell him that story.

So sorry about your bunny

 

[youngbunny2]

we used to use market hay for our buns as a child and never had any probs:?

 

[bunny babe]

Gosh, that's horrible.. now I've got to sneak all the bags of hay out while my OH is away. It's sad because he thinks he's done a "good thing" for the rabbits and will get annoyed if I don't use it. I'll pretend I've used it all up then when he tries to buy some more I'll tell him that story.

So sorry about your bunny

Thanks, he was my sisters and we thought we had done good too.

When we contracted trading standards to report it (it was about 25 years ago) they said that poison could have been added to the food sacks e.g for rats. We never got any proof. I'm sure things may have changed but personally, I would not take the chance again.

You could always say it smelt a bit funny to him and you didn't like to give it to the bunnies. Bless his cotton socks for thinking of them.

 

[Stator]

It depends what sort of market it was really. If it was a scabby dealer at the market then no, but a lot of farmers sell stuff at markets so it could be quite good. I think I would inspect it myself for any critters or excess dustiness etc.