Anybody feed bread?

MotherOfChickens said:
I've used marmite sandwiches to hide a large amount of medication (cimetidine for melanomas). he was having two slices (wholemeal!) a day, used to leave it out to go a bit stale. horse also liked a very little bit of croissant in the mornings. wouldn't do it as a regular thing otherwise. I am also not convinced that carrots contain so much sugar they are a health threat-but don't feed them often anyway.
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Mine had cimetidine in a marmite sarnie too, it was the only thing with a strong enough taste to hide it. I was told you should only feed it stale, as if the yeast is still active in fresh bread it can cause problems. I have no idea if this is true (doesn't sound plausible to me as yeast is normally a good thing), but he only ever got stale bread anyway as I'm too stingy to buy it specially for him!
 
I thought feeding bread was actually good for putting condition on the horse? I heard of someone who used to do that, they'd get the stale bread loaves from a supermarket. I don't do it unless Im trying to really hide medication, fed one of my ponies jam sandwiches with his powder sprinkled on it. I also fed marmite sandwiches to a horse I thought had sweet itch for a while as I'd heard that marmite helped (it didn't). Normally my horses just get the usual carrots (I get the big bags but only feed about 3 carrots mixed in with their feed) and sometimes apples, turnips and general veg peelings (one of mine loves parsnip peelings). They also get branches if my mums been pruning in her garden (obviously only safe ones), all of them spend ages stripping the leaves off and then chewing the bark off.
 
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Years back, when I lived on the edge of the East Anglian fens my first horse had to spend a season in a field just behind a major baker's premises. The smokers would come outside and feed her a slice or 10. In the end we negotiated for no more than a loaf a day. She never came to any harm, but she did get emphysima, perhaps as a result of all that passive smoking.
 
Odd, sure I replied to this thread!

My neighbours give me any bread they are not going to eat, usually because it is getting dry and/or hard. In France, bread can be a huge part of an equines diet as the bakers never sell bread over a day old, and give it away to regular 'customers' with horses. They do not sell much supermarket bread but usually fresh bakery bread.
 
I worked with horses in Australia, where they was fed a loaf of white sliced, with a dressing of molasses poured from a 44gal drum over it. I was never quite sure, but they seemed to do OK.

As an aside, I saw a lady at a show recently feed a portion of chips to a donkey. WTF?
 
HAHA reminds me of my old pony who used to eat absolutely ANYTHING! I remember eating a custard doughnut next to her once turned to talk to a friend turned back and half my doughnut was gone! Cheeky mare had scoffed it! :L
 
My old instructor would regularly give all her horses a bucket of stale bread and any vegetable peelings she had that day. They have all lived to a good age with no problems.

I have done some work experience at the Donkey Sanctuary and they all get their daily medications in a jam sandwich. I have given marmite sandwiches for meds before. Wouldn't give it all the time though!
 
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