Feeding hay

[mkeawsh]

My husband made a 4' x 4'x 2' rabbit tractor and so I have been putting Obi Wan and Chewy out in the front yard during the day, where they are eating all the new vegetation coming up.
I have hay in their inside enclosure all the time in the cat pans that they go to bathroom in and in the one that they lay in and keep adding to it for a couple days, empty them and replace with fresh hay.

Right now hay is at $4.50 but will go down by this Summer. Happens every year. We have a lot of horse people but they don't seem to be think the same way as the ones around you.

 

[lastfling]

I've been looking around here for some hay since I'm close to running out. What I'm finding is horse quality orchard grass first cutting $6 a bale, and at another location orchard grass / timothy for $7. As hay hasn't been cut yet this spring, I'm assuming the 1st cut reference is stored from last year. I feed mine hay daily - filling the hay racks I made. Some will empty it in a day -- pulling out, while others, it will last a day or more.

 

[justin]

For me hay is free, my parents have 30 acres and a large chunk of that they grow alphalpha on plus another 10 acres that they let the farmer use as payment for cutting and bailing on the 30 acres. I have always fed hay as a treat, is it safe and healthy to cut pellets out completely? I am raising meat rabbits if that makes any difference.

 

[nerissad]

I would rather feed lots of hay, even when it is getting wasted. $6 for a good quality bake of hay or $13 for the cheap 50lb bag of pellets. The more hay they eat, the less you spend on feed. Rabbits don't even eat enough hay for me to measure the difference in consumption. 9 rabbits compared to 5 goats and 4 horses.

I wish quality hay was $6. Not even the bad hay is $6 here.

Ditto.

 

[hemet dennis]

I would rather feed lots of hay, even when it is getting wasted. $6 for a good quality bake of hay or $13 for the cheap 50lb bag of pellets. The more hay they eat, the less you spend on feed. Rabbits don't even eat enough hay for me to measure the difference in consumption. 9 rabbits compared to 5 goats and 4 horses.

I wish quality hay was $6. Not even the bad hay is $6 here.

Ditto.

They charge you $6 around here just to look at good hay.

 

[terri9630]

I gave up on hay bales and started feeding my horses hay cubes. It is about the same price per day to feed.

 

[mkeawsh]

I gave up on hay bales and started feeding my horses hay cubes. It is about the same price per day to feed.

What is a hay cube?

 

[terri9630]

Hay that has been chopped into 1in lengths and compressed into a cube. I have no waste now. What ever falls the horses can find and the wind can't carry it away. And most importanly, my feed room is soooooo much cleaner!

 

[mkeawsh]

I wonder if that would be good for goats. They are so wasteful.

 

[hemet dennis]

I wonder if that would be good for goats. They are so wasteful.

They're good for horses goats and rabbits.