Oat Hay?

avaheartdog · Jan 16, 2014

I am trying to cut down my costs since going from ONE Chinchilla to Two Guinea pigs, a chinchilla & a rabbit in the course of two weeks. I am thrilled to have them all but bagged hay can be quite the expense for me! I emailed a local feed store asking for their pricing. They have a 3ft by 1ft bag of OAT hay for $3.50 which sounds like a great price to me, I can't wait to see how long it lasts me.

[That being said, they only have Oat hay or Alfalfa hay at that pricing. My guinea pigs would benefit from the alfalfa but the rest of the animals are a bit too old for it.]

However, I am concerned this won't give the nutritional value that our current timothy hay is giving them. Anyone have any input on this?

{My current bag of Timmy hay was "donated" to my Moms dog rescue {I know, right?! The heck?! lol} that's why I have it.}

akane · Jan 16, 2014

Oat and other grain hays vary a lot by when they are harvested. If it's harvested before the grain heads form it is equivalent to grass hays like timothy and should be fine in unlimited amounts. If the grain heads have started to form it may be too much fat and carbs and should be used more as a treat. If it's harvested after the grain heads have matured it will be oat straw and a brown, low nutrient form with full oats on it.

Kmshayloft has bulk boxes of hay. Shipping is a little high but it's still much cheaper than the little store bought bags. Oxbowhay.com also lists a few vendors for their hay.

ticklechin · Jan 16, 2014

I personally dont feed oat hay anymore, due to the drought conditions in alot of areas where oat hay is produced, high levels of nitrates are fairly common in oat hay grown in that environment, causing nitrate toxicity in chins. My vet was the one who discouraged me from feeding it.

akane · Jan 16, 2014

We don't have droughts. We have floods. Iowa is always wet and sometimes too wet. Occasionally really too wet such as you can't cross the state or get to the other side of town because the highways have become rivers.

ticklechin · Jan 16, 2014

The forum is made up of members all over the world, the USA has 11 states now that are in a state of drought emergency, thats alot of oat hay that could have issues that members may buy not knowing there could be a issue.