Product Review: KMS Hayloft Timothy Choice Guinea Pig Feed

Back when Lola was diagnosed with bladder stones/sludge, we started looking into what we could do to prevent her stones from getting any bigger. In our research, we saw that some people claimed that KMS Hayloft is even better than Oxbow when it comes to pellets that won't contribute to bladder stones. This also how KMS Hayloft markets their pellets; they claim: "The calcium/phosphorus levels are right in line with the current literature in keeping with urinary tract health." Therefore, we had our humans order the  KMS Hayloft pellets at the same time as they ordered the bluegrass hay.

The first thing we noticed was that there was some packaging issues. The pellets were in a plastic bag that tore inside the cardboard box from being pressed against the bluegrass hay.

Where did all the pellets go?

The humans had to dig around the side of the box in order to get the pellets for us. We didn't care too much, although our humans looked mildly frustrated by this.

Every morning, the humans would give us 1/4 cup (1/8 of a cup for each of us) in our bowl.

It's good stuff!

KMS Hayloft Guinea Pig Feed pellets tasted just as good as good as the Oxbow pellets in terms of taste. Both are a great way to start your day. We're not sure if these pellets made any difference in Lola's condition before she passed, but at least she enjoyed eating them with us. These pellets are a great choice for any piggy concerned about stones/sludge, although it would be nice if the packaging was a little less flimsy. 4.5/5 stars!

Product Review: KMS Hayloft Bluegrass Hay

Our hearts are still aching from the loss of Lola. It just won't be the same reviewing products and answering questions without her, but we'll try our best to continue on. We're sure she'd want us to keep the blog that she worked so hard on going. Just an FYI, this was the last post we were working on before her untimely passing, which is why there's a picture of her in this one.

Readers probably know that when it comes to hay, Oxbow and Small Pet Select tend to be our favorite brands. But did you know that there's another brand of hay out there that tends to be highly-regarded by reputable guinea pig sites? They're called KMS Hayloft (formerly known as Kleenmama), and they're mail-order only. We actually reviewed them before, but it was several years back so we had to remind ourselves what we had said. It looks like it was so different from the store brand hay we were used to at the time that we weren't sure whether we wanted to eat it or not, and held off on reviewing it.

KMS  Hayloft sells two types of hay: Timothy and Bluegrass. They were out of timothy when we had the humans order, and I don't think we've ever tried bluegrass, so we went with that. We actually hadn't heard of bluegrass before (it wasn't listed on our hay post), so we checked their website and found more information about it:

"The beautiful hay we carry called 'bluegrass' is actually a hybrid seed my farmer has developed. It is an orchard/bluegrass seed. For those of you that are used to orchard grass, this will be similar except it has a beautiful blue/green color. After viewing more that 30 farms and countless hays, it just didn't do justice to call my hay 'orchard', so I have chosen to call it 'bluegrass'. It is a wide bladed, leafy variety that is soft and pliable. Nutritionally, it is equivalent to orchard grass."

This is what KMS Hayloft's bluegrass hay looks like.

Keep in mind that guinea pigs need to have a grass hay, but it doesn't necessarily have to be a timothy hay. There are some slight nutritional differences between grass hays, but generally not enough to make much of a difference. (Remember, legume hays, such as alfalfa hay, are a different story, however! These should not be part of an adult guinea pig's diet in most cases.)

Lola seemed to enjoy it! (Poor Lola... We miss her!)

Bluegrass is fragrant and delicious. Our only issue with it is that it doesn't have any seed heads, which is our favorite part! But, if you want to mix some bluegrass with timothy hay, you could then mix things up without missing out on the seed heads.

Some of you may be wondering: How does KMS Hayloft compare with Small Pet Select? Well, let's do a comparison:

• In terms of price, Small Pet Select seems to have higher list prices. For example, at the moment, Small Pet Select has 20 pounds of 2nd cut timothy hay for $44.99 ($2.25 per pound) and 60 pounds for $84.99 ($1.42 per pound), while KMS Hayloft has 40 pounds of 2nd cut timothy hay for $28.00 ($0.70 per pound). So at first glance, it sounds like KMS Hayloft gives you more for less. However, this is only before you factor in shipping! On this order of KMS Hayloft hay, it cost $32 for shipping, roughly as much as the order costs, and bringing the cost up to about $1.50 per pound. However, they were shipping from the west coast to the east cost, so the rate would probably have been cheaper if we lived closer to them. Small Pet Select, on the other hand, usually offers free shipping if you subscribe to their newsletters and find the weekly code in each one. (Even if you don't have a code, they offer free shipping on orders over $40.) If you're a cost-conscious hay buyer, you may want to get a free code for Small Pet Select, determine the shipping cost for KMS Hayloft where you live, and then calculate the price per pound for each to figure out the better deal for you.
• We should also point out that Small Pet Select has a "schedule & save" discount of 15% if you're willing to commit to having hay automatically ordered on a regular basis. If you're willing to do this, you should also take this into account when figuring out the best deal.
• In terms of shipping, they use different companies in case you have a preference; Small Pet Select uses FedEx, while KMS Hayloft uses UPS. A Consumer Reports study found FedEx to be a little better than UPS for what that's worth.  They also ship from different locations; KMS Hayloft ships from Spokane, WA, while Small Pet Select ships from Louisville, KY. How close or far these locations are to you will probably affect the shipping speed as well as the cost. Finally, we should point out that in our most recent orders, Small Pet Select took 1 day to ship the hay from the order date, while KMS Hayloft took 2 days.
• In terms of quality, we have no complaints about either one.

In summary, both Small Pet Select and KMS Hayloft are good options. We'd probably go with Small Pet Select if we're running low and need the hay in a hurry to avoid running out, but otherwise, it's kind of a toss-up.

We'll give KMS Hayloft Bluegrass Hay 4.5/5 stars!

A New Place to Store Timothy Hay

The newest shipment of timothy hay came in last week from Hayloft! Last time, we had the humans order 15lbs of second cut timothy hay to see if we would like it. 15 lbs lasted us nearly three months, and we liked it so much that this time we ordered 25lbs! That's half a year's supply for around $50, which, if you compare with pet store prices, is very cheap.

So the package arrived and the humans decided that they needed a place to store this giant bale of hay. Rather than have the massive cardboard shipping box sit in the middle of the living room (which doubles as our spot for floor time), they invested in a wicker hamper from World Market. Check it out:

It takes up much less floor space, which means we'll have more room to run around.

How to Get Carefresh Pet Bedding Cheaper (By Buying in Bulk)

We guinea pigs are rather high maintenance pets. Readers of our blog have seen the humans' attempts to save money on our hay by buying in bulk from Hayloft (formerly Kleenmana); now they have started searching for deals on our favorite brand of litter. Carefresh is a great choice for guinea pig bedding, but it is quite expensive. Usually pet stores carry it for $18-20 for a 50-50 liter bag, and one bag will last us about two weeks. Therefore, the humans have been paying up to $40/month just for our bedding!

There are cheaper options out there. Some guinea pig owners choose to use fleece to line their cage, and wash it every so often to keep it clean. This is probably the cheapest way to line your guinea pig's cage, but if you live in an apartment without easy access to a washer/dryer like we do, this isn't possible. Even some guinea pig owners who choose fleece sometimes will still use some Carefresh to control odor. Whatever you do, don't use wood shavings- the natural oils and dust can cause serious lung and skin problems for us. Guineapigcages.com has a great comparison sheet with more information on the pros and cons of different types of bedding.

If you're going to buy Carefresh, don't pay $20 per bag like the stupid humans have been doing. Buy it in bulk and save! Using the following method, you can get a 60 liter bag of Carefresh bedding for $14.15 delivered right to your door. And that includes tax and shipping! Here's how:

1. PETCO sells Carefresh Natural in bulk. Three bags cost $44.91 (not including tax), and if you buy three at once, shipping is free.
2. After adding to cart, use the following code for a 10% off discount: GEEK10
3. With the discount code, the free shipping for buying in bulk, and tax, your three bags come to $42.44, making each bag only $14.15!

How cool is that? Readers, if you have additional suggestions for guinea pig discounts, feel free to reply. We'd love to hear them.

Kleenmama Hayloft Hay for Guinea Pigs Review

Up until now, the humans have primarily fed us Oxbow hay. We love it. It has a great percentage of seed heads to crunchy green stalks. But at around $10 for bag, it is rather expensive. Petco's brand of Natural Premium Timothy Hay is less expensive, but it is not as tasty. It's more yellow than green and has fewer seed heads and we just don't like it as much as Oxbow. 

But we go through a bag of hay per week, so the humans began exploring more economical ways to keep us well fed. Guinea pigs need unlimited, unrestricted access to fresh hay. Hay is really the most important part of our diet, and choosing the right hay for your budget and piggies is a task worth exploring.

We heard great things about Kleenmama hay (now called Hayloft) from other guinea pigs. Even with shipping, this hay cost way less than any other hay out there, and it comes right to your door. We had high hopes for this hay, and we were very excited when the 15lb box of second cut timothy hay arrived at our pigloo door.

But for the first two weeks, we really didn't know what to make of it. It was bright green and clearly fresh, though it did have fewer seed heads. It was just very different from the pet store hay we were used to eating. We honestly did not like it very much at first. We wheeked and pushed the hay around our cage. We didn't eat it and the humans began to worry about us.

New hay!

Hmmm... 

In fact, Buffy lost 30 grams over those two weeks and Lola lost 27 grams. While guinea pig weights can vary due to a number of different factors, losing this much weight and not eating much of the hay was worrisome.

After about two weeks, we realized that this new hay was not going to hurt us, and we began to eat it up more enthusiastically. We gained back some of the weight we lost. We are starting to like Hayloft hay more and more each day.

But you know what? This isn't Hayloft's fault. Astute readers will notice what our humans did wrong: rather than introduce this new alien hay bit by bit into our diet, they cut off our supply of our usual hay all at once and just started feeding us this strange new hay out of the blue. What they should have done is introduce it gradually into our diet. Start out by mixing 75% old, familiar hay and 25% new hay, then increase it to 50/50, then 75/25, and finally switch to 100% of the new product. That would have been less of a shock to our systems. I guess they were just too excited about the new hay to remember to do it.

So in conclusion, we will be asking our humans for Hayloft hay from now on. We may even wish to experiment with first and third cut hay types!

(Because the humans messed up, we're going to hold off of rating Hayloft hay for now. We feel we haven't given it a fair trial yet.)