Chewing Monster

[Theresa_F]

Chancer at the moment is very bored - he can only spend so much time eating in the field and being a youngster, there is only so much I can do with him. Cairo does play with him - but again only for so long. He is the sort that has a very busy mind and into everything.

He has taken to chewing wood and kicking his water container round the field - I had him checked out last week when the vet was down in case he had a tooth or belly problem with regards to chewing. Vet says he is fine and it is boredom. He is at grass but gets two small chaff feeds a day with supplements and carrots. When in, he has ad lib hay.

I am going to go out and try to find a very large piece of wood - hopefully a big branch/small log with bark on for him to chew and kick to pieces. I plan to take off any small branches but can anyone think of any problem with me doing this?

Think if I buy a ball it won't work - it is wood that he is fixated on - he aims for it minute he is out of the field.

 

[Box_Of_Frogs]

Maybe his mum was a rocking horse?????

 

[sikaran]

I would be worried about splinters. Also you don't really want your fences destroyed! Another youngster to play with might be an idea.

 

[Halfpass]

Alee is exactly the same at the moment. She finds the whole chore of grazing quite boring. It doesn't matter where she is she takes huges chunks of wood from doors fences etc etc. I have an anti weave bar up for another reason but it stops her doing it on her stable door!!!
I wondered if she was teething, maybe chancer is too and is a little uncomfortable?
I had considered giving her an anti inflammatory supplement for a few weeks to see if this helped!!
The only other thing I can recommend is to cover evrything with creasote (sp?) this stopped Alee for a while.

 

[Thistle]

I give mine whole Ash tree branches, they eat the leaves, strip the bark and gnaw on the logs.

 

[Theresa_F]

Teeth are fine, this was the first thing I checked out with the vet who gave him a once over whilst checking Cairo's eye, at the moment nothing going on. He cannot get to the fence - we have an inside electric rope to get them off - Cairo uses them to itch on and pushes them over as he is so big.

Luckily he seems to do it when living out rather than in, hence I think he is bored. Another youngster is not an option, we are on a small yard and full. Cairo does play with him for ages - he is not a grumpy old horses that refuses to when asked and often starts off the fun.

Have seen a large oak branch up the bridleway and am going to try to persuade Cairo to drag it back if I can rope it round the western saddle.

 

[Ginn]

Tilly is exactly then same - she seems to constantly try to chew bits of wood and has stripped all the bark off the trees!!!

YO's OH has been trimming some branches from trees so she now has a nice selection of varying branches in her field to play with and loves them!!

I think its probably teething, and I guess in the wild bark stripping is probably a good thing to do with teething gums

 

[harrihjc]

Flash is the same, he chews everything tho, not limited to wood, even the electric fence gets chewed!

 

[Theresa_F]

Chancer loves to chew the electric tape and has now received several shocks when it has been turned on.

He is then wary for a while and then starts testing it again. Last time he got a zap, YO looked rather happy, (actually he cheered) but then Chancer had just chewed through 10 bags of shavings that were stored at the end of the school, his new planks of wood for fencing and the hosepipe.

He is a little varmit.