Oxbow Animal Health Western Timothy Hay All Natural Hay for Rabbits, Guinea Pigs, Chinchillas, Hamsters & Gerbils, 9-lb bag

First, I want to acknowledge that I understand hay is grown outdoors and it all depends on the conditions it’s grown in which isn’t any companies fault. However, I do wish these companies would allow us to see the hay we are buying in bulk before buying it (like you can at the pet store). Or instead, charge differently based on the quality of hay. I would pay more $ to get the same type of hay I want every time because it’s a waste gambling on these mystery boxes. I have only ever bought Small Pet Select hay in the 10 years I’ve had bunnies. I now have bunnies who need good quality hay so that they continue eating a lot of it. The last few boxes of 2nd cutting that I got from SPS were soft and had a lot of brown pieces and my bunnies were digging to the bottom of their hay piles to eat old hay that was better quality. For the first time in my life I bought a bag of Oxbow Timothy hay at the pet store (that was courser and greener) and my bunnies gobbled it up! A bag doesn’t last long so I ordered a 9lb box from Chewy on 8/23. Same awesome quality so I decided to order 2 9lb boxes on 9/7. These two boxes are soft with brown pieces. Something I would consider to be 3rd cutting and isn’t going to help with their teeth or digestive systems. There has to be a better way for us consumers to choose the quality of food that we feed our animals every single time.

I’ve been getting oxbow hay for more than 7 years. I noticed in the last 6 months there was a lack of consistency in the hay. The inconsistency has only but increased since then. The final straw was finding a dead INSECT in my rabbits hay. I’m glad I caught it because I know my rabbit would’ve eaten it. This insect was in the same bag of hay I just gave my rabbit who is currently sick (unrelated issue). I am not happy knowing my rabbit could’ve eaten contaminated hay. I cancelled my auto ship orders and will not be purchasing oxbow hay from here on out. I highly recommend finding a new source for hay. If you look at other reviews of this product, I am not the first to complain about the decline of quality control. I don’t know what is going on with Oxbow, whether the issue is with them or the farms they source their hay from, but they need to fix this if they don’t want to lose more customers.

What happened to the great long stalks of timothy hay in the 25 lb. bulk hay boxes!?! I get a notice 25 lb. no longer available, only 20 lbs. for same price AND its a crappy huge compressed block of short and stubby pieces of hay. So user unfriendly. I liked the flakes of hay in the 25 lbs. not this stubby block thing. Very hard to take apart so dusty too, and I dont have long fingernails, still hard to pull apart and distribute to my bunnies. Shocked Oxbow would do something like this.

My last two orders from of Oxbow Timothy Hay have been problematic. On both original orders the Timothy Hay was very bad quality (damp, musty, weedy, brown scruffy fuzzy stuff in it) and my guinea pig wouldn't eat it. Both times I requested a replacement. The replacements were better, but the hay still didn't seem fresh. It was more yellow than green with short strands and was dry. I'm not sure what is going on with the Oxbow hay. If it continues to be a problem, I'll have to look for a new brand. Chewy has been great with rectifying the problem and sending replacements quickly, but I'm very disappointed in the quality. I also find it suspicious that the Oxbow label with the Lot Number and Freshest By Date were covered over on the bad box. Was this done by Oxbow or Chewy?? Attaching pictures of the original bad box and replacement...