Oat straw for ASfs?

[Ginevive]

I read in another post that someone was giving their asf's wheat grass for chewing. Is it OK to give mine some oat straw? I use it for horse bedding; if it could work for the asf's, I will add some.

[stangs13]

I wouldntsee why it would hurt, but grass is different than straw(assuming they mean hay). I have a bale of hay for my pig to use as a blanket( pigs in a blanket...LOL.) . ANSI as wondering if reg. Rats could use it to nest with, just make sure there isn't any bugs!!

[monk90222]

I use Oat straw, Timothy hay and some other type of hay for my ASF's, regular rats and mice. I've had no problems with it and they make a pretty cool nest for the babies with it!

[Ginevive]

Sounds cool. I added in some fresh straw. The hay is really not something I want to add for them, as it is alfalfa and they can't really digest it, as they don't have that organ that horses and rabbits have.. crap! what is that thing again!? The straw has been in the barn for awhile, frozen really..I would only really fear for spiders in it, and I sifted through to prevent those, or their egg sacs, from coming into the house (like it really makes a difference in this old country house!)

[stangs13]

Rumnets? Straw can be just as hard. Atleast yall can find alfalfa! Its excpencive here! And hard to find, we have this coastal crap. Good enough for bedding though.

[Ginevive]

Oh though, I bleed out of the wallet, when we pay the farmer that we buy the Alf from! $50 for relatively loose-packed large squarebales. (they are about the length, of the width, of a large pickup truck.) We go through about one and a half per month! As opposed to the straw. I do not bed the horses lightly, and I still have about 20 strawbales ("normal" smaller square bales) from April 2007, when I bought 72. These should last us through March if I play my cards right; horses are out a lot of the time though.

[stangs13]

Nice. I wish we had slot of alfalfa..

[Ginevive]

It is an alf mix; with timothy and some clover. You know what I love about hay? The fragrance. I love going out to the barn when there are 2 feet of snow everywhere.. and smelling the baled hay. The scent of summer!