Daft horse eating his bed

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dodgers89

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My horse is on a straw bed and has a plentiful supply of haylage in his stable. I've noticed over the last couple of days that he doesn't seem to be eating the haylage and tonight I caught him merrily munching on his bed. Does anyone have any tips for deterring him from bed scoffing? I didn't have this problem when he was on hay over the summer. I can't put him on anything other than straw because that's what is available at the yard. Thanks!
 
dodgers89 said:
My horse is on a straw bed and has a plentiful supply of haylage in his stable. I've noticed over the last couple of days that he doesn't seem to be eating the haylage and tonight I caught him merrily munching on his bed. Does anyone have any tips for deterring him from bed scoffing? I didn't have this problem when he was on hay over the summer. I can't put him on anything other than straw because that's what is available at the yard. Thanks!
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Maybe the haylage is too acidic for him and he is trying to compensate (I feed haylage to mine who are bedded on straw and they don't eat their straw bed but the haylage is a dry type)? If you are worried about it being dirty put a straw net up for him to pick at or clean straw near his haylage ration. Usually they know what they want/need.
 
We had a horse eating her bedding on box rest which lead to colic...we put watered down jeyes fluid on her bedding on the vets advice which cured the problem
 
Please can you teach mine to do this? He has a 18ft x 18ft stable with a full bed and I get as much free straw as I like with my livery. Will he eat it? Will he heck!!!
 
Most likely explanation is a problem with the haylage rather than the horse wanting to eat straw. Even my most food obsessed horse will refuse forage if it isn't right, despite it smelling and looking ok to me.
 
MerrySherryRider said:
Most likely explanation is a problem with the haylage rather than the horse wanting to eat straw. Even my most food obsessed horse will refuse forage if it isn't right, despite it smelling and looking ok to me.
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Totally agree with this - if you can't use an alternative hay/haylage just do what we did and put down extra straw! I hasten to add that we continued to put up the haylage nets and could see when they started eating it.
 
Mine have a small straw net alongside their large hay nets at night. So that they have fresh clean straw to nibble if they want. The nets are mostly empty in mornings. I tried upping their hay rations but they put on weight. I would rather they ate straw than the stables.
 
Mine snacks on her bed, they're on very nice barley straw and I think she just seems to like a mix of forage, she'll pick between hay and straw. It's never caused her any problems, not sure how it would be more likely to cause colic than hay in a horse that has turnout, it's just a different sort of forage.
 
I only use oat straw for bedding down the barns and all of my crowd love it! They have superb quality hay which they like too but the moment I put in new straw bedding, they're all in there munching away. I have no problem with them eating the oat straw as it's clean and dust-free.
 
Thanks for the advice guys! I had assumed that eating straw would be bad for him. I gave him a net of haylage and put some on the floor underneath and he ate the stuff on the floor so I wonder if it's just that he's too lazy to pull it out of the net...?
 
Mine hate eating from haynets, they get frustrated. If he doesn't need it in a haynet why not feed it on the floor? It's more natural for them to eat that way, allows mucous drainage and prevents muscle problems from tugging at a net.
I'd also go back to hay if he didn't do it when he was fed hay - it's likely he needs a more fibrous type of roughage, hence the bed-eating.
 
Penny Eater said:
I'd argue that long term feeding from nets CAUSES teeth problems and neck pain. Chicken and egg scenario.
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So if this horse has been eating from a net and now wont surely you agree it is worth checking there is not a problem?
mine are always fed from the floor but if given a net mine would eat from it, if I took a horse on (I have liveries) and it would eat from the floor and not a net I would get things checked
 
I believe OP said he was eating hay from a net fine? But is not now she's switched to haylage. Strikes me that the horse doesn't like the haylage that much, so initially I'd try feeding from the floor and/or going back to hay to see if that solved the issue.
If it was an ongoing pain issue that prevented the horse from eating above floor level (it's natural for them to browse hedges etc, although the action is nothing like standing tugging at a haynet for however many hours a night) I'm sure you'd see other signs and would then investigate further.
Some horses just don't like eating from haynets. Mine will, they just get a bit p*ssed off, I would too if I had to pull all my food through a nylon net.
 
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