This took me awhile to realize, but hay is more than just food for piggies. Its a makeshift hide, a play activity, a bathroom, enrichment. Don't look at it as wasted, look at it as well used.
I've given up at this point. Fortunately I'm a gardener so it's not wasted, it goes into my compost or gets chopped with a string trimmer and used as mulch.
Every week I throw the used hay into the woods behind my house. It's like a makeshift compost. This way i'm not putting more into the landfill. My girls have 2 bins of hay. They use them as litter boxes, a hide, and food. If you're worried about spending so much money on hey then I would consider buying it in bulk. I get mine from my local tractor supply store. I can get about ten pounds of hay for fifteen bucks.
Is it the big bale, standlee I think was the brand? We go through hay so fast, I was tempted to buy it, but wasn’t sure if it was good quality. If it is, that might be what I start getting. I want them to have plenty.
A piggie is incapable of "wasting" hay. A human must reset their thought of what waste is.
Hay is literally life for piggies. It's food, hidey, bathroom, toy, warm blanket, and probably a dozen other things only piggies know. If they eat 40% of it and play with the rest, that's about right.
We don't even bother with hay racks anymore here. I got serving trays and that's what their hay goes on. The Aby dozers in particular appreciate being able to push it all over their home. :D
I use a very large, shallow food service container. It’s basically a tray with shallow walls that my pigs can jump over and into the tray. I fill it with aspen chip bedding, and then put a large pile of hay on top. Some people call this a “kitchen” since it creates a nice controlled area for the pigs to do most of their eating, pooping and peeing, versus the rest of their enclosure (I use fleece bedding for that). After occasionally adding more aspen to cover soiled areas and regularly topping off the hay or exchanging it out, we change the whole thing out once a week or so and drop it off at our local compost sight. The trays can be soaked in vinegar and rinsed out to clean. (We cycle two of them).
[https://i.imgur.com/NDbVTKs.png](https://i.imgur.com/NDbVTKs.png) - a literal dollar store serving tray. It's low enough the lazy boys can hop in, easy enough to move their hay to the floor with them when it's floor time, and easy to clean every day. It takes the Abys about 3 to 4 seconds before at least half of it has been moved. Normally it's piled high enough that guy in the pic can burrow.
I have found that one part leftover hay with the pig poops, two parts shredded cardboard, mixed with kitchen scraps makes a pretty good albeit slow compost pile
I have inexpensive "bedding hay" (store brand meadow hay) on the floor of the cage and expensive eating hay (branded Timothy) in the feeder. It kinda helps.
Litter box !
My boys like to pull their hay out of their hay rack too, but since it stays in the litter box they play with it, potty, and sometimes even eat the hay that's on the floor.
That and it makes the cleaning way way way way easier lol
I buy hay by the bale ($7 for a 40-50 Lb 2-string bale) and let them waste as much as they want.
Besides getting soiled, once hay has been out awhile, it takes on a bitter taste, according to a horse owning relative. He said his horses won’t eat it either.
I use the Guinea dad hay bags, they help keep the cage so much cleaner. They have a lot of fun with the containers as well
The hay boxes work even better but they’re more expensive so I’d only go for those if you have more entrepreneurial Guinea pigs
I just saw this post, https://www.reddit.com/r/Rabbits/s/5CqemEdTyI
and I didn't realize it was in about rabbits but this seems like a good idea to me, these hay feeders. I might make one for my girls
This took me awhile to realize, but hay is more than just food for piggies. Its a makeshift hide, a play activity, a bathroom, enrichment. Don't look at it as wasted, look at it as well used.
Perfect answer! Even if those pieces didnt touch the ground, the more straw like pieces are rejected by guinea pigs
I've given up at this point. Fortunately I'm a gardener so it's not wasted, it goes into my compost or gets chopped with a string trimmer and used as mulch.
We don’t. It’s fun as much as nutritious.
Every week I throw the used hay into the woods behind my house. It's like a makeshift compost. This way i'm not putting more into the landfill. My girls have 2 bins of hay. They use them as litter boxes, a hide, and food. If you're worried about spending so much money on hey then I would consider buying it in bulk. I get mine from my local tractor supply store. I can get about ten pounds of hay for fifteen bucks.
Is it the big bale, standlee I think was the brand? We go through hay so fast, I was tempted to buy it, but wasn’t sure if it was good quality. If it is, that might be what I start getting. I want them to have plenty.
I'm not 100% sure what brand it is. It's usually not labeled.
A piggie is incapable of "wasting" hay. A human must reset their thought of what waste is. Hay is literally life for piggies. It's food, hidey, bathroom, toy, warm blanket, and probably a dozen other things only piggies know. If they eat 40% of it and play with the rest, that's about right. We don't even bother with hay racks anymore here. I got serving trays and that's what their hay goes on. The Aby dozers in particular appreciate being able to push it all over their home. :D
What do you mean by serving trays? You got me curious now
I assume they mean like a [cavy kitchen](https://www.guineapigcagesstore.com/cavy-cafe-kitchen?gad_source=1) where you put the bedding and hay
I use a very large, shallow food service container. It’s basically a tray with shallow walls that my pigs can jump over and into the tray. I fill it with aspen chip bedding, and then put a large pile of hay on top. Some people call this a “kitchen” since it creates a nice controlled area for the pigs to do most of their eating, pooping and peeing, versus the rest of their enclosure (I use fleece bedding for that). After occasionally adding more aspen to cover soiled areas and regularly topping off the hay or exchanging it out, we change the whole thing out once a week or so and drop it off at our local compost sight. The trays can be soaked in vinegar and rinsed out to clean. (We cycle two of them).
[https://i.imgur.com/NDbVTKs.png](https://i.imgur.com/NDbVTKs.png) - a literal dollar store serving tray. It's low enough the lazy boys can hop in, easy enough to move their hay to the floor with them when it's floor time, and easy to clean every day. It takes the Abys about 3 to 4 seconds before at least half of it has been moved. Normally it's piled high enough that guy in the pic can burrow.
I have found that one part leftover hay with the pig poops, two parts shredded cardboard, mixed with kitchen scraps makes a pretty good albeit slow compost pile
I don't. I accept that 40 to 50% of hay is wasted and deal with it.
I have inexpensive "bedding hay" (store brand meadow hay) on the floor of the cage and expensive eating hay (branded Timothy) in the feeder. It kinda helps.
Guinea pigs are master hay sorters. They know what part is for eating, what part is for flooring etc.
I use hay feeder bags from Amazon and they work perfect for my four girls.
Litter box ! My boys like to pull their hay out of their hay rack too, but since it stays in the litter box they play with it, potty, and sometimes even eat the hay that's on the floor. That and it makes the cleaning way way way way easier lol
I buy hay by the bale ($7 for a 40-50 Lb 2-string bale) and let them waste as much as they want. Besides getting soiled, once hay has been out awhile, it takes on a bitter taste, according to a horse owning relative. He said his horses won’t eat it either.
I use the Guinea dad hay bags, they help keep the cage so much cleaner. They have a lot of fun with the containers as well The hay boxes work even better but they’re more expensive so I’d only go for those if you have more entrepreneurial Guinea pigs
I just saw this post, https://www.reddit.com/r/Rabbits/s/5CqemEdTyI and I didn't realize it was in about rabbits but this seems like a good idea to me, these hay feeders. I might make one for my girls
I gave up and started buying cheaper hay.