Timothy Hay Allergy

[breemarie]

My best friend/ex roommate has a bunny, and when he moved to a tiny apartment with no pets allowed I excitedly took his rabbit home and I love him with all my heart. My problem is, now that I'm back living with my parents and Cas lives in my tiny bedroom with me, I've come to realize I'm very allergic to Timothy Hay. I've tried allergy pills and everything, the only one that worked had sudafed in it and taking that at night led to me not sleeping. Cas is about 3, so he's always had timothy hay until recently when I tried exploring other options. I started with botanical hay because it was super cheap and I figured if he didn't like it then it wasn't a major loss. He didn't eat any of it. In hindsight cheap does not equal healthy, but I've become much more "motherly" since then:hearts: Then I bought a bag of timothy, hoping maybe it wasn't the hay, but then I couldn't breathe and my eyes were swollen and that was removed from my room very quickly. I recently purchased Orchard, I think, and he doesn't seem to be eating that either. I buy him Alfalfa cubes and he loves chewing on those (and everything else!) I know alfalfa isn't the best for them' but it takes him a few days to get through one so it's not an overload of calcium.
Basically my question is does anyone have any suggestions for what to give him that he might actually like and that is healthy for him? And please no suggestions about taking him out of my room or me just sucking it up.
Thankyou!

 

[Sophie's Humble Servant]

Another option could be to buy a small air purifier with a hepa filter for the room. My husband was really allergic to my cat initially and the air purifiers helped very much.

Handling the hay with gloves and being careful to not breathe in the hay dust while handling could be another consideration.

I'm not sure about other hay options for you.

 

[Imbrium]

First thing you should try is calling some feed stores in your area to find out what kind of grass hay(s) they sell. In some regions, it's timothy but in others it's completely different - down here, for example, it's coastal. If it's something other than timothy, ask if you'd be able to get just a handful so you can make sure your bunny will eat it before you buy an entire bale. Some feed stores will say no, but the majority will say "sure". Once you find one that'll let you grab a sample, head on over there, make sure it doesn't set off your allergies and then run it past your bunny.

If feed stores in your area only sell timothy, if they sell something else but you're allergic to that as well or if your bunny won't eat whatever it is they sell, then mail-order hay is your next best bet. I tried 14 different kinds/types/cuts of grass hay before finding one my girls would actually eat... and oddly enough, it was orchard - even though they NEVER wanted to eat the orchard grass sold in pet stores. If you're interested in trying mail order hay, I recommend Sierra Valley Pet Hay or KMS Hayloft - I've been very satisfied with both companies' hay (and more importantly, so have my uber-picky little girls).

If you're interested in trying the mail order stuff and would be comfortable PMing me your address, I can send you samples of the Sierra Valley orchard and KMS bluegrass hays (for free ). It only takes a handful to see if you're allergic and whether or not he'll eat it, which means I can send stuff via first class mail (ie super cheap)... and that way, if you do end up ordering some online, you can go for the best value (two 20lb boxes + 5 free lbs extra from SV or 45 lbs from KMS, either of which is around a 9 month supply for one bunny) instead of wasting money on small boxes with less cost-efficient shipping that you're not even sure he'll eat/you won't be allergic to.