Timothy vs orchard grass?

[chiaismypet]

Hi. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but i'm no expert in hay. What's the difference between Timothy hay and Orchard grass hay? My chinchilla seems to eat orchard grass way more than timothy, so I only feed her that now. Is that okay? Does she need timothy too? She will barely touch it, but she'll be so excited for the Orchard grass one... Please let me know!

 

[Snickers]

It's ok to give orchard. I purchased a a bale of orchard about 3 weeks ago my chins hate it. I'm trying to give it away for free. They love the timothy. It's funny how chins are so different.

 

[Dreamlite]

Both are good types of hay. I switch back and forth depending on what my local farm has in stock.

 

[halfstache]

I had bought a bale of orchard when I couldn't find any timothy and it was the absolute worst thing I ever bought for my chins. I'm sure that it was a bad bale, and likely not representative of all bales of orchard grass, but this thing was terrible. The amount of dust that was in it was horrifying, when picking it up and trying to give it to the chins there would be so much dust in the air and on my hands that even I was having a hard time breathing around it. Ended up just throwing the whole bale away.

 

[aznmexaggie]

Timothy and orchard are both grass hays and fine as a staple hay. What's most important is the quality of the hay. Because of the drought in CA this yr, most of the hay has been really bad (and expensive!) I have found some nice bales though that were shipped in from OR.