Banana skins

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Annagain

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Most people on our yard have taken to feeding the horses bananas over the last year or two after someone read an article about the potasium in them being good for them. The boys absolutely love them to the point that if you take one into the field you get a string of horses following you. One woman though has started feeding the skins to her horse as well. She said that there's more potasium in the skin and that the only reason humans don't eat them is that they taste a bit bitter (I hate bananas so wouldn't know!) I'm a bit concerned though that they might not be good for them (for no reason, other than it just seeming wrong!) Can anyone shed any light on the matter either way?
 
I have no idea if they are ok for them to eat or not, but I got mugged for my banana skin the other morning!!
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I've never fed bananas. Didnt realise horses liked them! At what point would you feed them, for example when they are still a bit green, nice and yellow or starting to go black.

Reason being I have a couple in my kitchen which are half black that will go in the bin if I cant feed them to my horse hehe!
 
Mine gets them from when they're just starting to get black spots on them to completely black and mushy. He has no preference and would eat them at any stage but I'm stingy and won't buy them for him specially, so he just gets the ones my OH decides are over-ripe (ie as soon as black spots appear - not being a banana eater I wouldn't know but it seems very wasteful to me, can a black spot really make that much difference?) One friend's horse will only eat them when they're completely black on hte outside and all mushy and another will only eat firm ones, so it depends on the horse!
 
Skins are absolutely fine. I have no idea if there is a higher content of potassium or not, but that really doesn't matter.
 
Aww. I'll try putting them in my mare's feed tomorrow. She always leaves her carrots to last so will be interesting to see if she doesnt eat the banana at all or maybe loves it so much she'll eat it first. Not sure how tasty banana will be with applechaff, carrots, pasture mix and garlic powder though!
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I gave my lad a bannana,he took it and bless him he was sooo disgusted he couldnt spit it out,it stuck to the roof of his mouth
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,however he loves tangerines
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,no he dosnt get them on a regular basis,i only realised this because i was eating a tangerine whilst he was eating his tea and he left his tea and wouldnt leave till he had eaten mine,lol
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My old boy used to love tangerines
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Hated banana's though. I havent tryed the new one with anything like that, but he mugs me for anything im holding so im sure he wouldn't say no x
 
mine wasn't impressed to begin with, kept spitting them out, but I was taking them up the farm and dishing them out to the other boys as my OH is so fussy and they would otherwise go to waste, so I kept trying him with them. One day he took it and now he can't get enough of them. Maybe he's like a child and you have to feed him something 10 times before he accepts it!
 
I tried my lad with banana cos he loves mostly all other fruits, pear; plum; nectarine; peach; cherries (without the stone.....difficult!!) but he wasn't overly impressed.

My mare tho ate it all up but then again she will eat anything!!!
 
We tried my horse with one as someone in our block feeds them and my mare turned her bum on us! The woman that does feed them feeds about two a day and I would be worried that they could be fattening?? Just that her two horses are rather fat, but i know they do get other stuff as well as the banana such as marmite sarnies...
 
As a weightwatchers pupil, albeit at F- standard, I know the points values of most things (even things I don't like!) A banana is 1 1/2 while an apple is 1/2. When you consider the size of a horse I doubt 2 bananas a day would cause too many problems.
 
Never fed my man a banana. He couldanage them!! He has half his front teeth missing due to injury so finds apples and carrots hard to eat but loves a soft pear!

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Henry goes bonkers for bananas, but when I first got Chloe, I tried feeding her one and got that "URRRRRRRRRGGGHHHH YOU'RE TRYING TO KILL ME!" look. Henry is most pleased, as it means more nanas for him!
 
Never tried banana but Che loves blackberries, fresh from the hedgerow, likes to pick them himself, clever boy. He seems to like almost anything I'm eating as he's another one who leaves his own dinner to come and investigate whatever I happen to have.
 
Mr M won't touch bananna but loved bananna flavoured treats, he just smells it and starts blowing like your trying to poison him
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I suspect they'd need to eat alot for the potassium to be any problem.

The only comment i'd make is, and i'm just thinking outloud here, chemically there are similarities between potassium and magnesium, and my gut feeling is that if you're feeding a magnesium based calming product it might be wise not to increase potassium in diet. in cattle if you have too much potassium in grass you get magnesium deficiencies so there is a relationship - not suggesting a few bananas would give deficiencies, but make sense not to feed if using magnesium calmers!

Do we have any biochemists on here?!?!
 
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