Pet Habitat South Africa

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15 Jan 2017

Difference Between Bedding & Feeding Hay

Posted By : Guest

Did you know that rabbits and guinea pigs need different types of hay to sleep on and to eat? While grass and herb based foods, such as pellets, will provide a good portion of your pet’s fibre needs, grass is what they would naturally nibble all day long in the wild.

Providing enough fresh grass every day to meet your rabbit or guinea pigs’s needs is difficult, hay has just the same health and digestive benefits as fresh grass – but is much easier to store.

In fact, studies have shown that feeding hay should make up to 85-90 per cent of your small furry’s daily diet, that’s around 1kg of hay per week, to maintain a healthy gut and weight and keep teeth healthy.

However research has shown that the majority of rabbits and guinea pigs are not fed the correct hay, and instead are forced to chew on bedding hay, which, while comfortable to sleep on, is often unpalatable and has an unknown nutritional value.

So what’s the alternative? Feeding hay such as imported Newhay timothy hay or Bunny Nature meadow hay is in rich in fibre and low in sugar so it’s fantastic for gut health, playful foraging and enrichment, and, because the rabbit and guinea pig eats it by grinding back and forth, it also works to wear down teeth, improving dental health.

Bedding hay is characterized by the following:

Often cheaply and quickly manufactured, can remain packaged for long periods
Comfortable to sleep on and provides insulation during Winter
It has unknown nutritional value
Usually less palatable (not tasty) thus reducing intake to a level which is insufficient to support dental and digestive health
Can be yellow or brown and dusty, and contain mould spores
Alfafa based hay (lucerne) is high in protein and calcium, and can cause urinary tract problems and obesity

Feeding hay offer the following health benefits:

Grown specifically for feeding purposes with proven provenance.
Cutting at full bloom is more expensive, but is the best time to cut as it results in a lush green and long hay ideal for foraging and enrichment, contributing to a rabbit's emotional well-being
Rich in nutrients and laboratory tested to check nutrient levels. Newhay is award-winning timothy hay with highest nutritional content and hence exclusively used to feed racehorse industry n U.K.
Tasty and high in fibre for a healthy gut. Imported Newhay and Bunny Nature timothy hay is better quality than local produced hay in South Africa due to higher fibre content, is more palatable and is great for chewing and maintaining healthy teeth
Fresh and sweet-smelling fragrance and packaged within 48 hours after cutting to maintain nutritional content.
Low in sugar, high in fibre and good for dental health. Gently machine dried and dust exctracted to help maintain respiratory health

Newhay have developed their unique British-grown feeding timothy hay which we like to think of it as a new fragrant "superfood" for rabbits and guinea pigs! Exclusively grown for feeding, every step of the harvesting process is designed to keep the hay as dry, fresh and green as possible.

The Newhay crop is turned several times a day, machine dried and stored in dark, closed barns – with the whole process from field to pack taking just 48 hours. In fact, it’s so good; it’s even used to feed racehorses.

Bunny Nature Freshgrass hay is unique because it contains a mixture of different plants and herbs which is bursting with different tasty flavours and nutrients for small animals.

Bunny Nature hay offers the highest quality with maximum plant diversity containing plants such as:
timothy grass • meadow fescue • meadow foxtail • ryegrass • red fescue • bluegrass • bentgrass • cocksfoot • creeping red fescue • german ryegrass • dandelion • silverweed • chickweed • yarrow • ribwort • white clover • red clover • birdsfood trefoil.

Ensure your rabbits and guinea pigs are given enough feeding hay every day and alongside our Bunny Nature tasty pellets, natural snacks, fresh greens and fresh water, your bunnies and piggies will be blooming!