HAY!!

[patdbunny]

No, seriously - I need hay. It's gone over $15 a bale at my local feed store. I need bermuda grass hay.

I have baby parrots to trade. I'll hook you up w/ parrot, cage, food, vet check. Or I'm willing to pay cash.

Kaylayluh - Does your BF have any hay connects in Imperial County?

Entranced - Any budget friendly tips for feeding?

My horses and goats thank you in advance for your consideration.

[kaylayuh]

I'm not sure if he does, but I'll have him call around to find out.

[kaylayuh]

He gave me the names of some places, but he doesn't know how much hay there costs.

Imperial Hay Sales, Inc. - 760 344 6450
Golden Eagle Hay - 760 348 2274
J & K Feed Store - 760 355 1331
Cowboy Corral - 760 365 7582

Cowboy Corral has a website - http://www.cowboycorral101.com/products/trucking.htm
They also have wholesale rates. Quarter Truck $0.50 off. Half Truck $0.75 off. Whole Truck $2.00 off. All include free trucking.

Imperial Hay Sales and Golden Eagle Hay also have websites, but I didn't google them yet.

[patdbunny]

Kaylayuh -
Thank you!!

It's a lead for me to investigate!

Thank you AGAIN!

[kaylayuh]

Always happy to help.

I'm actually surprised there aren't more hay suppliers in the area. There's also Twin City Seed & Feed in Calipatria (760 357 3281) that might have hay, but neither of us are sure.

[kaylayuh]

Since the birds are finally quiet, I figured I'd google some hay suppliers in the San Diego area.

Southwest Feed Grain & Hay
2671 Monument Road, San Diego
(619) 428-5439

Kahoots Feed & Pet Store -
kahootsanimalsupplies.com
947 Main Street, Ramona
(760) 788-7785

Lyons Valley Trading Post -
17608 Lyons Valley Road, Jamul
(619) 468-3172

Alpine Feed-Hay Grain & Supply
9154 Riverside Drive
(619) 445-2232

Carter's Hay & Grain Inc
10227 Palm Row Drive, Lakeside
(619) 561-0689

Julian Feed & Supply
2902 Washington Street, Julian
(760) 765-1212

Flinn Springs Feed & Supply
15430 Olde Highway 80, El Cajon
(619) 561-0391

R Hay & Grain
535 Opper Street, Escondido
(760) 489-9775

[entrancedbymyGCC]

I can't help much with budget friendly options... If push came to shove, I'd get the best forage I could and dump anything else I was feeding. Since I board, I'm isolated from the prices. How's alfalfa right now? It's not as totally evil as some think, the main issue is the Ca:Ph ratio plus it is richer so if you feed the same amount you might get fat/high horses. Plus they do pee more on it, eliminating unneeded protein, but the veterinary consensus is that that isn't really harmful.

In extreme desperation, you can go to pellets and cubes, but I wouldn't unless I absolutely couldn't get longstem hay. Got any pasture going?

[patdbunny]

My vet recommends against alfalfa for mine since they're old and it's hard on the kidneys, and pony's fat. No pasture. I'm in hi-desert. The two old boys are on soaked beet pulp and senior horse feed, too.

I'd usually not complain about the price, but I got laid off late '09. Horses are expensive to feed. Some people'd get rid of them first with a lay off. We just stopped going out to dinner. My dumb*ss neighbor just starved one of his to death. He says it was old. It wasn't that old.

I use grass hay for nest boxes, too - just adding that to keep this remotely bird related.

[entrancedbymyGCC]

It's actually been proven not to be hard on the kidneys, but a lot of vets still say that... it's not the best choice, though. But in desperation... your neighbor, I'm speechless. Be less cruel to use a gun, not that I'm in favor of that.

My horse is probably getting a long trailer ride to a friend in Pennsylvania with land. My soft money position is softer than it ever has been, and I'm going from 3month reprieve to 3month reprieve -- we have to cut expenses just in case.

Would alfalfa be a bad idea in a nesting box?

[patdbunny]

I know what you're going through. I absolutely couldn't afford to keep my horses if I had to board them. A lot of people are ditching their horses according to our local wolf sanctuary. I had inquired of them at the beginning of the winter if they take horse donations for food. They said they've been inundated with "donations" of healthy horses so they no longer take a horse w/out a vet note saying the animal needs to be put down. I was inquiring because one of our old boys looks pretty horrendous and he has bad days where he's gimping around from a way old injury from before my time. I just want to have a plan in place for when the day comes and I don't think turning him into dog or cat food (we have a large cat sanctuary near us, too) for a good cause is a bad thing. You know, that circle of life thing. But, luckily my boy's the energizer bunny and he keeps going and going and going despite missing most of his teeth.

For a while I was feeling so bad for the neighbor's horses that I was throwing hay over the fence. But he had 6 of them. I just couldn't keep doing it. Animal control got an anonymous call on him, but they said the horses looked fine to them. I swear, the animal control officer was high. I'm not a horse expert and I could see they were thin. One of them died about a month later. He said it was old. It was under 20 years old. We both know in this day and age, that's not that old. My two are pushing 30 and don't look like his. I have a huge tolerance for the variance in the way people keep their animals, but he's just an *ss clown.

Alfalfa in the nest box is a good thing. It's very high in calcium (you knew that). In some of my boxes I have alfalfa, grass and pine shavings so they can chew and ready up their rooms all squishy comfy. I actually throw handfuls of alfalfa in my bird cages every so often so they can dig through it and chew it up and get some extra calcium. Plus, I think they find it fun. I suppose in the home that would be a huge mess. I'm just used to mess everywhere. I don't have a household vacuum, I have a shop vac in the house. My husband's always picking feathers, seed hulls, hay, fur offa me before we go out. Any my shoes - fuggetaboutit - we live down a dirt road so I'm always covered in dirt.

Did I mention I live on Green Acres?