Feeding Snowball

Ralph Blaine

It happens all over the neighbourhood. Mornings, afternoons and evenings, a young man is seen climbing the steps of a house with a paper bag in his hand. He sets the bag down, rings the bell and returns to his car to deliver another bag on another street. I am no longer surprised that people call an Uber to get a Big Mac delivered to their door.

But on returning from my morning walk a few weeks ago I spotted a pickup truck fitted with neat racks of tidily arranged paper bags and cellophane pouches containing what looked to be a brown substance. The truck was parked in front of the large apartment building on the corner of Stewart and Nelson. Now, I had seen signs in the windows of our local cannabis shops vying for attention among the flourishing tattoo parlours, advertising a home delivery service. Could this truck be a weed wagon?

No! But you might call it a hay wagon. This is what I learned when Dave Sparrow, of Sparrow Farms, hopped out of his truck to answer my questions. Turns out that Dave also delivers food door to door, but the consumers are pet rabbits, as well as guinea pigs and chinchillas. Dave’s wife Tina told me that about 80% of a rabbit’s diet is hay. And rabbits are the third most popular pet after dogs and cats.

A few years ago, Tina told Dave that the timothy-based hay they were growing in one of their fields, east of Ottawa, would make perfect feed for rabbits. So they decided to give it a try. Now, Dave has a full-time job managing this business and making home deliveries every Thursday, right across Ottawa and Gatineau. He has about thirty customers right here in Sandy Hill.

How good is this hay? Let me quote Colleen McDonald who lives on Besserer Street:

“I’ve been using them [Sparrow Farms] for months now and it is the best thing to ever happen to my six guinea pigs. Their quality of hay is so, so soft, my girls love it so much.”

But Sparrow Farms supplies a lot more than hay. As just one example, their oldest daughter uses some of the loose timothy to make strawberry- and banana-flavoured “cookie treats” for her furry fans. You can find a full range of their products at www.sparrowfarms.ca