How much hay does your cavy eat???

[andrea1970]

We recently adopted a young adult cavy from the local rescue.  Everything I've read is give them unlimited access to timothy hay.  That's fine, but Javelina seems to really eat a LOT of hay. I'll put a handful in there (at least a couple cups worth) in the morning and it'll be gone by dinner. How much is typical for a cavy to eat?  He gets 1/8 cup of oxbow cavy cuisine and a 1-2 cup green salad with his vit C extra each day.  Is he eating so much hay because he needs more to eat?

Also, is there any differences/qualities to look for in buying timothy hay?  Is there any traits to evaluate on anything besides price?

[TheChicagoCrew]

Guinea.

Pigs.

Eat.

A.

Ton.

And they drink enough to drain Lake Michigan!!!!

-Melina

[andrea1970]

I guess "pig" is the operative word. LOL  So several cups a day of hay is not unusual it sounds.  He doesn't seem to drink a ton at this point - maybe a couple ounces a day.  I'm new at this and trying to make sure I find the balance between feeding him enough, but not letting him eat himself to obesity.  He's about 930g now.  The rats never ate EVERYTHING in the cage, so I never worried they were starving.  I knew if they were hungry enough, they'd raid the harlan stash.

[tamena]

he will and should eat as much hay as you can give him.  I currently go through a bale a week here (with 30ish pigs) and we supplement with veggies and tons of treats
very spoiled piggies live here LOL

My gang prefers a leafier timothy.  Surprisingly enough we've found that the mini bales sold by Petco under their brand name are very nice and extremely easy to handle. 
The Kay-Tee brand is always a last resort for me because it's usually filled with stems and dust.  (we use the smaller bags like this when we're showing, I refuse to carry around the big flakes from the big bales LOL
don't get me started on what a mess the big bales make in my house!)
Oxbow has amazing hay you can buy retail and order online too if needed.  With only one piggies I'd suggest the bales from petco though, they're resealable, the have actual bales in the bag and the hay is usually pretty nice...I only had one bag I returned so far and that's out of about 15 that I've bought.  I returned it because it had too many stems in it for my likes and Mary took it back with no problems.

The best thing about the brand name hays over the locally grown stuff is that if you're not using it really fast you usually don't have to worry about mold or bugs in the commercial stuff.
I can't tell you how many big bales I've tossed out because it molded on me within a few days of me bringing it in - so very frustrating and I sure don't need to be wasting $20 a month like that
hope this helps

[ScoutGotBig]

Guinea pigs eat all the hay you will give them - 3 sisters together would rountinly eat every last strand of hay in a plastic shoebox that had been stuffed full, then be begging for more.  They never got obese, but they didn't gourge on pellets or veggies, just hay.  I figured it was fine.  As for how much in a month?  A bale between 2 rabbits and 6 pigs seems right, because the bunnies were very wasteful of their hay.

And 32 ounce water bottles are your friend.

[andrea1970]

I ended up buying a bag at Target the other night because thats where I was and needed some and didn't know enough about it to know it made a difference.  I think it's the Kaytee sold under Target's Animal Planet brand.  But I can tell it's not as good quality as what the rescue gave me for starters.

I'm pretty sure hubby would have a conniption if I brought home an actual bale of hay.  Do you ever give anything besides Timothy Hay for variety?

Dumb question -- how do you tell it's moldy?

And finally -- how long should I expect a 5 lb bag of cavy cuisine to last 1 piggie?  My best estimate is about 3 months.  Will it go bad if I buy the 10 lb bag and it takes 6+ months to use it up?

[tamena]

moldy hay smells funky - that's the best way to tell LOL it doesn't have that nice fresh scent to it.  You might also notice it's powdery...not dusty like normal but there's a milky colored powder that comes off it

The mini bales at Petco are awesome for storing reasons specially with only one pig.  They can survive just fine on only timothy - pigs ain't that smart to truly appreciate variety IMHO LOL  We give it to them cause it makes us feel better I think

Feed freshness - the stabilized vitamin C in cavy food has a shelf life of 90 days.  Check the mill date on your bags, a 10# bag over 6 months is actually too long unless you're supplementing with vitamin C in another form.  You can do this by adding it to their water but it's a pain in the butt and not cheap - you're probably better off using the 5# bags

We feed a lot of different hay types as treats.  The only thing I don't feed freely is the alfalfa to most of the herd here.  I DO give alfalfa to lactating sows, pregnant sows and youngsters.  Once they hit intermediate weight (22oz and up) they go to timothy.
One thing the crew here LOVES is wheat grass.  The inhale Orchard Grass and since we don't use anything to fertilize our lawn I go out once a month and collect grass clippings when my beloved cuts the lawn.

[andrea1970]

ooh ooh -- that raises another question.  Hubby fertilized the grass in the back yesterday.  How long til Javie can be allowed to play on it and obviously chew on it?

We feed a Vit C fruit/veggie with his salad everyday -- bell peppers or oranges.

I just considered the 10# bag since I'm going to have to pay to have it shipped and the 10# isn't much more in base cost and doesn't add any cost to the shipping. And the less often I have to remember far enough ahead to order, the better!!   I wondered if I could freeze it to maintain freshness or something.

If I end up placing the order at Dr Fosters/smith, I may try some of the oxbow hay too since they have it on sale.

[tamena]

while I LOVE Oxbow products and use to feed it exclusively I can't afford it with my gang anymore - we got through a 50# bag of feed here in just under 2 weeks!
It would cost me more to feed our herd Oxbow than it does my human family at this point

If you can afford it, I'd still suggest the smaller bags especially if you're buying direct from Oxbow - they will always send you the freshest stuff they have.
Oxbow does have 50# boxes of hay too btw.
Depending on where you live there's also Kleenmama's stuff that's wonderful too - if you're on the west coast it might work out better for you cost wise
http://www.kmshayloft.com/
the people I've known that use her feeds have always been very happy.