Oxbow Animal Health Oxbow Hay Blends Western Timothy & Orchard, 90-oz bag

I have purchased this product for years & have never had a issue with it before. A few weeks ago I found a very large bird feather in one of my hay bails. I didn’t think to much of it because it’s hay. But today I opened one of my brand new bags of hay to discover a rotting crushed rat in it. The smell was revolting. This is absolutely disgusting & needs to be solved. This company cannot distribute hay if it contains these contents. Be very careful when purchasing from Oxbow!

I've been buying this brand of hay for my rabbit for the last 3 years. I've always been happy with the freshness of the hay, and it appears my rabbit has too. And it was a good value for the quality. However, at the bottom of our last bag, I found a card from Oxbow, informing customers that they would be reducing package sizing in the future. Same weight and quantity of hay, less packaging. Great, they're taking steps to reduce their footprint, looking out for the environment. Well, I thought it was "great." Then I got my new, smaller bag of hay. Same good quality, fresh hay, smaller package, but, now, they've begun chopping the hay smaller to fit into that smaller package. And now, I find myself using more each day since it's more finely chopped. And the finer cut also makes a bigger mess than what I had before. I'm still at the very top of the bag and finding lots of fine cut scraps, as if I was near the bottom and at the end of the bag. At first, I though that perhaps this was how the hay had been stored at the warehouse and perhaps the fines had shifted towards the top of the bag. I'm now realizing that this is just how much fine scraps there are in this bag. And I can only imagine how much scrap will be in the bottom once I finish it. Before the package change, the hay was similar to long cut grass, I could fill Lucy's box and she was able to nest in it, hide, play, could snack all day, it didn't tamp down quickly, she was good to go for the better part of the day. Now, with the finer cut, there is no fluff, the short strands land on the bottom of the box, there is no volume. It looks like she's lost interest in it as well. Where it was once an exciting time of the day for her fresh hay, now, she really doesnt pay much attention, as she did before. And the size of the package doesn't really save much space on my end. So, while the company may be able to stock more product on their end, I'm not seeing the value on mine. I'll be looking for another brand, something more like the product that was offered before the packaging change. To be clear, this is not an issue with Chewy. Their service has always been phenomenal. This is an issue with Oxbow. I'm including a couple of pictures, for what it's worth. Unfortunately, I never took a picture of my hay before their packaging change, so no way to show the difference.

I found the perfect blend of hay for my guinea pigs. They love this mix of Timothy hay and Orchard grass and Chewy currently has the best price on this 90 oz bag @ $20. This Was the whole reason I purchased my hay from Chewy and I was thankful that I did, because it has led me to even more great price finds for my Guinea Pigs. Now I have auto ship set up for both my dogs and Guinea Pigs and I’m saving money. Oxbow has excellent quality products and I’m very pleased with my purchase.

My guineas love this hay and I’ve been really fond of this brand in general. However I found an old plastic bottle at the bottom of the bag. Really bummed about it because I feel they should be more cautious when packing these products at the factory. I’ve also found plastic twine in the past as well. Wondering if I need to change brands now. Idk.