# Hay for bedding?



## Demonic Hope

Today while playing with one of my bucks I apparently had a piece of hay in my hair leftover from dragging around hay for my horses :roll: . Chase seemed to adore it and was nibbling away. I went out to the barn and gave each of my tanks a good handful of hay and they seemed to go crazy for it, nibbling, running through it.

I know a lot of breeders use hay for their main substrate and I'm thinking of maybe doing that.

Does the type of hay matter? I feed Alfalfa to my horses and at 21 bucks for a 40lb bale its to expensive to be using as the main bedding. I also buy Tifton 44 horse hay to toss out in the pasture for them to eat when grass is low. A 1500lb round bale is 65 dollars so much much more reasonable to give the mice. I keep them bales under shelter so they would be nice and fresh for the mice.

I also have a mouse with bedding allergies. He is currently on corn cob since he's allergic to both pine and aspen. Do you think the hay would bother him?

Do you cut the hay in any way before giving it to them? Or do anything other then freeze it?

Thanks!


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## BlankAndWhite

Hay is great! Not sure about the one with allergies, though. Try it and see? As long as it doesn't have any added vitamins for the horses or anything like that, and it's pure hay, excellent! You might want to bake it before it goes into the cages though, to get rid of any mites.


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## Miceandmore64

I give them haay but I don't freeze it. Only problem 3 of my mice have buggered eyes from how are you in there eyes :/ totally your choice I still use it


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## PPVallhunds

I use hay. I don't freeze it as I buy it in smaller bags not big bales. But putting some in a bag and freezing will kill off any bugs. At work we are having to freeze all hay befor using as the small bags they got ended up having hay mites in them all. By time it was noticed it was too late to send them back so new we freeze a bag 24h befor using.

It's nice and warm and the mice like to munch it. That's the only down side you habe to keep topping it up.


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## Serena

Mine have Hay at all times. I don't freeze it, but I have rather few mice, so treatment in case of mites is not too much of a bother.
It's good bedding and they like to destroy it and eat some of it, too. good source of fibre.
when using hay for your mice you shoud look for the same quality as you do for your horse. It doesn't have to be alfalfa, but it needs to be of a good quality.


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## mich

Compressed hay is good. Pasture hay might be a little unsuitable for rodents. There is a large range of hays for small animals in pet shops. I myself use compressed straw and hay.


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