Frustrated with Oxbow!

[undergunfire]

I found a good deal on Oxbow pellets from rabbit-cages.com...and ordered a 50lbs bag of BBT for $63 (cheapest I could find!). I placed my order on July 19th and received it within a week or so. I just finished up my last 10lbs bag last night, so I opened up the new 50lbs bag tonight to feed the bunnies and what do I find? Dust....literally dust. The pellets are practically flaking apart when I put my scoop into the bag. I tried shaking the bag to sift the dust to the bottom and all I get when I scoop again is dust. I am so peeved.

I probably got a "end of the barrel" bag, but I still payed $63 for a bunch of dust. The bag isn't due until March 2010...so it should be fresh...but yet it doesn't look or smell as fresh as other bags of Oxbow that I have gotten.

I called rabbit-cages.com to see about them sending me a brand new bag or a refund, but their office was closed..so I left a message. Hopefully they call me back tomorrow..but they might have me call Oxbow directly. I realise Oxbow is the ones at fault here, not rabbit-cages.com.

I HAVE to feed this because, well...I payed for it and it would be a real waste of money if I had to go to PetSmart and buy 5lbs for $14 :grumpy:.


They seriously better refund my money or send me a brand new FRESH bag. This stuff is too expensive to be getting CRAP.

 

[Happi Bun]

Hey Amy,

The rabbit rescue I volunteer with has the same problem with their 50 lb bags! They shake out the dust into a separate container. They got a hold of Oxbow and they said that they don't sift through the 50 lb bags, only the 5 & 10 lb ones. That makes sense, because the smaller bags I buy are okay.

They also said they are working on the problem and gave him a bunch of free 5 lb bags. Maybe they can do the same for you? Hopefully so, it's really ridicules.

Hang in there! From what I heard improvements are in the works.

 

[undergunfire]

Erika....I have purchased a 50lbs bag like a year ago and it was okay, not at all dusty like this bag! My 10lbs bags were a dream...so fresh and very pea-green colored. This 50lbs bag is a nightmare. If I would have known it would be this nasty, I wouldn't have ordered it. I didn't expect this from Oxbow. What makes a 50lbs bag of less quality then the smaller bags? I don't get it. I am not pleased at all! I definitely expect them to "repay" me with new 10lbs bags now. Thank you for letting me know...I would have hated to have gotten another dusty 50lbs bag!

I am just disgusted....I can't even explain it! It makes me want to quit buying their food, but it is the best food that I can get through ordering online. I want to try Sweet Meadows....but it is like $70 for a 50lbs bag!!

 

[JadeIcing]

undergunfire wrote:

I am just disgusted....I can't even explain it! It makes me want to quit buying their food, but it is the best food that I can get through ordering online. I want to try Sweet Meadows....but it is like $70 for a 50lbs bag!!

So worth it though. Love them.

 

[Gordon]

undergunfire wrote:

My 10lbs bags were a dream...so fresh and very pea-green colored.

Pea green? Really? My 5 pound BBT bags have always seemed really fresh and smelled great(sort of sweet, like molasses to me ) and been intact with no dust, but the pellets have always been brown, never any shade of green. That's interesting.

 

[Lucy123]

Hello!

I also use to use Oxbow hay and pellets. I was told it was one of the top brands, however I had a few bags just like what your describing, and it was getting so expensive. I ended up switching to Sweet Meadows Timothy pellets (strictly a pellet, no seeds or anything. I order it by the 50lb bag for 22.99. I also get the Timothy first cut hay. 4 bags for 20 dollars. All I can say is my rabbits love this brand also, and atleast it's affordable. Also it ships extremely fast....I'll give you the website just to check out!

http://www.sweetmeadowfarm.com/pel_rabtimothy.html

 

[mouse_chalk]

We order Oxbow in the 50lb bags over here, which is imported in. We used to order it from one company but we had the dust problem too. On a couple of bags, I actually sat there and sifted them, cup by cupful, into a bin bag, to shake out the dust, and I ended up with about 5-6lbs of dust by the end of it :shock: The pellets were crumbly too. We complained to the company but never heard anything back. We eventually found the UK distributor (Petlife I think) and called them, and they told us the company we'd been ordering from hadn't ordered any pellets for a 'good few months' so they were probably stale. We ordered directly from the distributor, and no problem since! Super fresh pellets that don't crumble and aren't dusty. Also, it's a few quid cheaper too!

I'm wondering if it's a similar story for you- the company you ordered from just hasn't ordered any fresh in a while, and they've gone stale.

I'd definitely try for a refund

 

[undergunfire]

West Coast Pet Supply ( or rabbit-cages.com) is sending me five 10lbs bags and they should be here next week. The guy I spoke with, Paco, was super friendly and was a great help!

I am going to be contacting Oxbow directly in a few minutes to let them know how disappointed I am :grumpy:.

 

[degrassi]

I had problems with some Oxbow hay I ordered. All the pieces of hay were 2-3" and LOTS of it was just dust. I emailed Oxbow to complain and they sent me 5 bags of new hay for free.

Call Oxbow, they were really nice when I dealt with them. The email I sent took over a week to be answered, so calling might be a better idea.

 

[undergunfire]

I sent an email and I understand they are only in office Mon - Fri....so I probably won't hear back from them until Monday. If I don't hear back by Monday, then I will call on Tuesday.

 

[ra7751]

I stopped using Oxbow pellets and hay quite some time ago...and I have moved away from Critical Care. If you actually break down what is in their pellets....they are really average at best and sometimes lack some supplements that domestic rabbits need in their diet since they don't eat a truly natural diet. The last straw for me and Oxbow was the change to their distributorship program. When you can't order directly from the producer and have to go thru a "middle man"....that always adds costs. And if the distributors follow normal retail models, they double the price they pay and when you pay that plus the high cost of shipping....it's not worth the finalprice when you get an average product at best. So now you have increasing prices so another level of distributing makes moneyalong with a so-so product. And unless you have a large number of rabbits to feed....it is usually better quality wise (maybe not so much price wise) to buy in smaller amounts. And pellets should be a very small part of the diet......even our largest Flemish get only about 1/3 pellets per day to share between the two of them....but they do get unlimited hay.

I put Oxbow in the same category as Disney....they are very good at promoting themselves. There are a lot worse products out there...but there are also better quality products at better prices. One place they have really made a nitch for themselves is in vet clinics....and the perceived reputation of Oxbow has made their products a huge profit center for those clinics. I know what they pay at the clinics. It all goes back to money.

There are several regional and national suppliers of quality rabbit pellets. There are acceptable options that provide quality at a fair price.

Randy

 

[undergunfire]

Randy...my rabbits really love Oxbow and do really well on their pellets. They each get 1/4 cup daily along with unlimited hay. I'm still having issues with my Holland, as always...he never seems to be "bulky" (I have a thread about it in the infirmary).

I'd like to try Sweet Meadows...but I could buy two 50lbs bags at the cost of shipping !

 

[TinysMom]

I've got to say that I'm really shocked at Oxbow's prices...I just bought 300 pounds of rabbit food today for just over $100...(I'd have to add the receipts as I got the food from 2 different places). Of those - two bags were Purina - 2 were Manna Pro and 2 were DuMor..

Of course...it will all be gone way too soon with my herd...

 

[undergunfire]

That is such a good deal, Peg! I am jealous...300lbs would last me 3 years!!!

I wish I could find a local feed that was good quality timothy based, but...yet again, timothy based pellets are limited .

 

[momto1]

I had a problem with oxbow awhile ago I bought a bag of hay which looked good through the packaging but when we got it home it was brown and gross to the point our chins wouldn't eat it. I emailed and they basically ignored me. I use the oxbow hay now because I do not like kaytee hay (it's very hit or miss) and it's the only 2 brands that are here at the stores.

how fresh is the sweet meadow hay? If I bought the huge bunch of it how fresh will that stay for 2 chins and a rabbit?

 

[Lucy123]

I've been ordering from the Sweet Meadow Farm for a long time now, and can say I've never had a bad batch. Always fresh, but I only order first cut Timothy, so I can't speak for the other types of hay. You can order however many bags you need at different sizes. I order 4 bags at a time to feed four rabbits and it all stays fresh in the zip locked bags.

 

[TinysMom]

undergunfire wrote:

That is such a good deal, Peg! I am jealous...300lbs would last me 3 years!!!

I wish I could find a local feed that was good quality timothy based, but...yet again, timothy based pellets are limited .

2-3 weeks here...then again - I have more bunnies than you and now that I have the flemmies....oh well.



Still yet - they're worth every penny (and nickel, dime and dollar) that their feed costs..

 

[undergunfire]

TinysMom wrote:

undergunfire wrote:

That is such a good deal, Peg! I am jealous...300lbs would last me 3 years!!!

I wish I could find a local feed that was good quality timothy based, but...yet again, timothy based pellets are limited .

2-3 weeks here...then again - I have more bunnies than you and now that I have the flemmies....oh well.



Still yet - they're worth every penny (and nickel, dime and dollar) that their feed costs..

How much is you're bill going to go up when all those Flemish babies start eating :shock:?!



I am selling my 2 old rat cages, so I am going to use the money from that to stock up on pet foods & litters....maybe I will save $70 of that money and buy a bag of Sweet Meadows when my 50lbs of Oxbow is gone (in like 6 months, lol!!).

 

[BethM]

Amy, earlier this year I switched to American Pet Diner Timmy Pellets for my bunnies. I did this right after Oxbow raised it's prices. I had been buying the locally available small bags of BBT, and it was costing me just over $3 per pound.
I then looked into order the 50lb bag of Timmy Pellets directly from APD, and that quantity, even with shipping, amounted to about $1.42 per pound. I know you are ordering the 50lb bags of Oxbow, so you're obviously paying less than I was paying at the petstore, already.
I did have to scramble to find freezer space for most of it, as my 4 bunnies can't eat 50 lbs in the recommended 6 month time frame. (Between the 4, I only feed a cup of pellets a day.) But, at the price I am paying, I could throw 1/3 of it away and still be saving money over what I was paying.
Of course, the shipping charge varies depending on location, so it might be more or less to get to you. I like that I'm ordering directly from the company, and not paying a middleman.

I am very happy with the quality of the pellets, there was very little dust in the bottom of the bag. The pellets smell fresh, and bunnies love them! Several people in my rescue feed the Timmy Pellets to their own bunnies, and they are regarded as a very good quality pellet.

 

[momto1]

how much a day do the flemish eat?

I think I will try the sweet meadow hay when this oxbow runs out, but we'll probably order soon.

How long is the hay good for? My bags usually go pretty quickly here though but I buy a bag at a time.