Loose Hay/Hay Cubes

BooBoo*TheKiddo* · Jan 12, 2014

Currently I give my chins loose hay and hay cubes together.

Hay cubes for the front teeth and loose hay for the other teeth.

Lately I've noticed they seem to waste more of one or the other, depending which cage is it.

I've read that some people give hay cubes in place of loose hay.
I've always heard they should have loose hay daily, so the replacing loose hay with cubes confused me.

So I was thinking about giving loose hay one day, and cubes the next day, and repeating.

Would that be okay?

akane · Jan 12, 2014

That should work fine. We used hay cubes for the first 4 months until we got everything rearranged for the 2 ferret nations making it easier to clean around them. If you get oxbow hay cubes they have longer hay strands than most feed store cubes I've seen. We used to feed only those for hay to guinea pigs. Their site says it is still long strand fiber.

BooBoo*TheKiddo* · Jan 13, 2014

I buy hay cubes from Tractor Supply and usually they love them. But lately they all seems to be wasting more than usual of one or the other. I want to continue giving both, so I thought every other day would still give them both but not so much at once and maybe cut down on waste.

ticklechin · Jan 13, 2014

I never had luck with cubes, they would lay there virgin until I threw them away. Some people will drill holes in cubes and hand them like toys, gives the chins some more entertainment.

jacoby · Jan 13, 2014

I just tried the cubes with Jacoby for the first time in the past few weeks. He went gang busters for them at first and now he doesn't eat them as much. Meaning I still see them in the bowl. He is still eats both the fresh hay and the cube.

BooBoo*TheKiddo* · Jan 15, 2014

Shiloh doesn't seem to care for the cubes. A nibble here and there, but that's about it.

Chase only like them if they are thin. He won't touch the thicker ones.

Gizmo and MaveRick LOVE them. Granted when I adopted MaveRick he never hay or hay cubes. When I first gave him one he carried it around with him and laid it beneath him while he slept before eating it. He's loved them ever since.

Luna, Pip, and Squeak all seem to like them okay. I find some shredded and some left in the cage whole, but I tend to put more in their cage because there is 3 of them so I could just be putting to many in it. I'm trying to slack off on how many I put in there, but want to make sure I put enough for all 3.

Macy seems to like them too. When she was sick she went back to eating hay cubes before pellets and loose hay.

I completely forgot about putting them on hanging toys. Thanks for reminding me, Dawn.

Gizmo and MaveRick will love that. They'll just have to get them off.

greychins · Jan 17, 2014

My chins/rescues never cared for the cubes... until I put em on wire and strung em up like toys. Then they devour em, go figure, but I put em in the cage and they ignore em otherwise. I now have these hay cube holders (bought from Shoots on their odds and ends page) which hold several hay cubes.. works almost as well as stringing em up, but saves me the time (and hay-dustiness) of drilling.