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Post by truecolours on Jan 20, 2018 18:11:46 GMT
My husband Roger and I operate True Colours Products up in Canada - www.truecoloursproducts.com - where we supply hay, shavings, pellets, treats, etc products to piggie and bunny owners as well as some really cool animals such as kangaroos and the like ...
We have a 50 acre farm where we grow our own hay and Ive been involved in hay growing for our own horses for a very long time, so if anyone has any hay related questions as to what might be wrong with your hay, or what might be better - ask away! Even if you aren't close enough to buy from us, I will help however I can to sort out any questions and concerns you might have ...
We have met some absolutely wonderful owners and piggies through our business and are having a lot of fun searching the world (literally!) to find new products to bring in and sell that were not available here previously
At the end of the day, you are the only advocate your piggies have to make sure they stay happy and healthy so they more you can learn through forums and members such as this group, the more you can question what you are buying for them to eat, and play with and sleep in if it doesnt seem to be "quite right"
And I am very much looking forward to meeting everyone and their special piggies in this group!~
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 20, 2018 22:12:59 GMT
Hello and welcome. It's good to know a good source of guinea pig and rabbit products in Canada.
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Post by Bean on Jan 21, 2018 9:30:40 GMT
Hello and welcome to Wheekers!
Glad that you are sharing your great hays with our piggy friends! I always buy mine from a farm (I'm in the UK) and shudder when I see the quality of what's for sale at pet shops. Living in a city, not everyone is as familiar with what great hay looks like, so if the sad, stale brown stuff they see in little bags at the pet shop is all they know, they won't ever question them needing something better.
Mind you, buying from farms does have its downsides - because I buy all the bedding in bulk, you can never get into our shed!
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Post by truecolours on Jan 21, 2018 11:40:59 GMT
Thank you for the welcome! I posted this on another Forum - really important for those of you that must buy your hay from pet stores because there is no other choice for you ...
Here is "Hay 101" for those of you buying your hay in plastic bags from the pet stores in your areas ...
Something to remember about hay ... Hay is NEVER meant to be cut and baled and then stuffed into a sealed plastic bag for months and years. It just isnt. Its an organic product that is still emitting gases as it continues to dry down and cure. Hay is never baled bone dry - the acceptable range for baling is up to 18% moisture. If you baled bone dry all the stalks would just shatter and you'd be left with nothing but pulverized dust and some stalks and nothing else. SO ... the hay continues to dry down for a good 3-4 months after baling and its why good ventilation is very important for hay as it continues this process ...
Where we store hay in our barns after we cut and bale it, it has ventilation on all sides and when we sell it, we hand out a sheet to customers telling them to keep it up off the ground, dont seal it up and allow air to get to it at all times and keep it out of direct sunlight.
When our customers get our hay, in some cases it is 1-2 days or a few weeks old after it was baled. It is as fresh as fresh can be! Next time you are in the pet store, look at Best Before dates on the bags of hay you buy. Its enough to make you shudder! In some cases I have seen Best Before dates well into 2019 and 2020!
So ... you are going to be buying hay that has been sitting in a bag, crammed into a master carton in a distribution warehouse for XX months or years, before ABC Pet Store buys it, keeps the master carton out back in their storage area for XX months, before they put some of the bags on the store shelf and you come along and buy it ... Hay CAN be kept well and kept nutritionally viable for years but NOT sealed into plastic bags!
Our hay bales at about 26-28% protein and each year it will lose about .5 - 1% protein through aging and no more. Thats because it has been kept in "Optimal Hay Conditions" while we are storing it until it has been purchased.
If you notice a very very fine dust that comes out of your pet store bought, plastic bagged hay, that hangs in the air - those are probably mold spores. Its simply what happens when you take an organic product that is still holding some moisture and stick it into a bag and seal that bag up and then stick it in the dark. Its also what happens to some of our hay bales that have been in a closed section of our barn where full air cant get to them, they are on the bottom row, and as soon as we pick up that bale and we see the telltale fine dust coming off of it, that bale is put aside and we have a cow farmer that buys them from us. Cows have 2 stomachs and can process mold without adversely affecting them. My horses and your guinea pigs and bunnies have only 1 stomach and mold can either kill them or cause respiratory issues for them and for you - their owners. Its a totally different kind of "dust" and its really critical that you - as their owners - can differentiate between a very fine, microscopic "hazy" dust that has an earthy, acrid smell to it that is probably mold spores and will have permeated the entire bale and should NEVER be fed to them, as opposed to "field" or "barn" dust that is airborne dust that has simply settled on the bale and is on the top and thats it, and can be shaken off and wont affect the quality of the hay in the bale. Field dust is also much heavier and it will go up into the air and then settle back down again very quickly - it doesn't "hang" in the air for a long time
I will see if I can get a little film of a bale of hay that has mold spores on the bottom. You wont be able to visually tell there is anything wrong with it - its just when you see this very fine, hazy cloud coming off of it that hangs in the air (almost like a fire that is just starting and you have the fine smoke coming from within) that you know its a bad bale and cant be sold.
Its also imperative that you smell each bag of hay that you buy and if it does have an "earthy" smell to it instead of a sweet smell, you take it back to the store and insist on another bag or a refund or it can cause health issues for your piggies ... I recognize that many of you live in areas that dont offer bulk fresh hay to you like we do in Canada for our customers, so you need to understand what makes "good hay" and hold the pet stores and their suppliers accountable and insist on nothing but top quality for your piggies. Perhaps if more customers return their hay with valid issues with it, it will force them to re-examine their processing protocols to ensure better quality hay for all of you that have to buy this way and they will understand that its not "just a guinea pig" and not "just a rabbit" that is eating what they are producing but a living, breathing little creature that means a great deal to their owners and deserves nothing but the very best ...
Hope this helps!
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Post by truecolours on Jan 21, 2018 11:48:38 GMT
Here is what I want to see on my hay bale when I pull it out from the pile The stalks are all "fluffy" and separated and I know there won't be any issues if all sides look like this
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Post by truecolours on Jan 21, 2018 11:51:30 GMT
But when I flipped this bale over (it was a bottom bale) look how close together everything is in comparison and the slight yellowing This bale needs goes to the cow farmer
It also has a very acrid smell to it and it is moldy ...
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Post by truecolours on Jan 21, 2018 11:55:54 GMT
www.facebook.com/donna.hiscock.1/videos/1476176479092136/
Here is a video to show what mold spore dust will look like See how it almost lazily curls and wafts into theair and just hangs there? Barn dust is far heavier and will poof up and fall down quickly in the same area - it won't engulf and permeate an entire room and just "hang there" for you and your animals to breathe in on all levels ... It is SO important that you recognize what mold spore dust looks like and smells like so you can take the bag back to the store and insist on another. That is the reason why most animals wont touch the hay - their smell is so much better than ours is and they know there is something wrong with it and they would quite frankly rather starve than eat it ...
www.facebook.com/donna.hiscock.1/videos/1476176479092136/
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Post by jolovespiggies on Jan 21, 2018 15:39:43 GMT
Welcome to our happy family love.
Hugs JO xx
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Whimsy
Bronze Member
Posts: 400
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Post by Whimsy on Jan 21, 2018 21:48:00 GMT
Interesting. I'm in BC, so I don't know if buying hay from Ontario will work for me, but it's good to have all this information.
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Post by 3piggles on Jan 22, 2018 0:38:40 GMT
I couldn't open the link, but I know what spore dust looks like. I had one piggy who got pneumonia, and by the time we had cured that, he had developed allergies to every type of dust. I had to mist the hand by the handful, before I put it in the cage. Same with pellet dust, which collects at the bottom of the food bowl. It's important to even lose some pellets rather than have the piggies breathe it.
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