Hay or Straw?

[moonchild]

I always use hay for winter bedding for my rabbits because I know they will be chewing on whatever I give them. Someone told me I should be using straw, but I am not sure why? Does it make a difference?

Please don't tell me to put my rabbits inside. They are not happy in the house because of their background.

[Mygala]

Hay is good, straw is good.

The more dry hay you have in your rabbits diet, the better. If bedding helps that, then do it. Just use good Timothy, not Alfalfa. Otherwise your rabbits might get a pudgy. Alfalfa is pretty rich food for them to have access to all the time.

bob

[jewels]

What exactly is the difference between hay and straw? Maybe it's because here in the South the words are interchangeable - but is there a difference?

It's all hay to me, either Timothy, Orchid, or Alfalfa - unless it's grass, it's hay.

**Says the southern belle...**

[Mygala]

Straw it the yellow stuff you see in bales around Halloween. It's used for bedding because it has very little nutritional content. It looks like hollow yellow "tubes" when examined closely. ...sort of.

Hay is usually a grass (Timothy or Orchard Grass for example) or a legume (Alfalfa). Hay is green, or a variation of it. It is dry, but still nutritionally significant.

bob

[jewels]

hee hee... I really must be southern - and raised just so...

My granddad would always make "bales of hay" from his cow fields...

The South will rise again, eh? - not in this century!
You learn something new everyday.

[moonchild]

Jewels, what kind of hay do you buy in Tennessee and where do you get it? I get hay from a friend who has horses for about $2 a bale. If I buy it at a pet shop, it is very expensive.

[jewels]

I was buying Alfalfa hay at PetCo for Rocko, but I'm starting to ween him off it now. I get Timothy hay and Orchid grass from my Brother-in-law's family - they have about 8 acres specifically for growing hay (and then a ton more acres for cows), so they don't even charge me for the measely half-bales that I get from them. Sometimes during the winter I have to buy hay from the petstore, but they sell it here for about $3 for a large bag of Timothy. I don't use hay as bedding for them (they all have bins) so I don't need anymore than what they eat.

[storminstaffs]

i use both hay and straw for rabbit bedding as my rabbits seem to like both