The Chipsi Sunshine Meadow Hay for Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and Small Pets is naturally dried meadow hay from JRS - a mix of grasses and herbs rather than a single species, meant to be in front of a rabbit or guinea pig all day rather than given as a treat.

Key Features

• Meadow hay, so it is a mixture of grasses and herbs rather than one grass. That variety is what makes it good foraging material as well as food.
• Naturally dried rather than heat-treated, which is how the scent and the softer stems survive.
• High in fibre, which is the part that keeps a rabbit or guinea pig gut moving.
• Chewing long-stem hay is what wears down teeth that never stop growing.
• Suitable for rabbits, guinea pigs, chinchillas, degus, rats, hamsters and gerbils - as food for the herbivores, and as nesting and foraging material for the rest.
• Block-pressed bale, so it takes up less room in a cupboard than loose hay.

How To Use

• Offer it free-choice and top it up every day. Hay is not rationed and it is not a treat.
• Refresh it even when it looks untouched - rabbits and guinea pigs eat far more of it when it is fresh.
• Put a handful in the litter tray as well. Many rabbits eat while they toilet, and it helps with tray training.
• Stuff some into a cardboard tube or a paper bag to make them work for it.

Good To Know

• Hay is the most important thing a rabbit or guinea pig eats - vets generally put it at around 80% of the diet. Pellets and fresh greens come after it, not instead of it.
• A low-hay diet causes dental disease in rabbits and guinea pigs, and dental disease in these species is painful, expensive and often lifelong.
• Guinea pigs cannot make their own vitamin C and hay does not supply it. They need a vitamin C source every single day, from fresh food or a supplement.
• Check every batch before you feed it. It should smell sweet and feel dry. Throw away anything damp, musty, discoloured or warm in the middle - mouldy hay can kill.
• Meadow hay varies from batch to batch because the meadow does. A change in colour or in the mix of grasses is normal.
• Hay is dusty by nature. If you or your pet are sensitive to it, shake it out away from the cage.
• Store it somewhere cool, dry and airy, not sealed inside plastic. Hay sweats, and sweating hay goes mouldy.
• Small animals hide illness until they are very unwell. A rabbit or guinea pig that stops eating or stops passing droppings for 12 hours is an emergency, not a wait-and-see - gut stasis can kill within a day. Sneezing, laboured breathing or wet eyes and nose need a vet who sees exotics.