Deter horse from eating wood pellets

FlyingCircus

FlyingCircus

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So my horse is abit of a special snowflake and unlike most who test the wood pellets then give up...he seems to continually go back to them and it's concerning me!!
He has more than enough hay (same bales he has eaten many times before) that he is just ignoring, so not that he's hungry with nothing else to eat.

Is there anything I can put on the pellets to stop them seeming quite so appealing!? I've tried adding more water to get rid of the pellets but there will always some from a bag that aren't broken up unless I saturate the thing in water.

Thanks in advance
 
Resurrecting this thread! I have a similarly special pony who seems intent on tucking into his new wood pellet bed. I have sprayed it liberally with green gloop (which stinks) and broken up the stray pellets which haven't expanded and the little divil is still hoovering up the bedding! I can't believe it - he is out most of the time on ample grazing, has a small haynet when he comes in to be checked over, has a good mineral supplement and plenty of salt. I'm so worried about it now I leave him tied up with his hay as he seems to prefer his bed to his (very nice) hay. Can anyone help? Or shall I resign myself to taking the whole lot out and using something less likely to cause an impaction colic?
 
Thank you both, I'm going to get the bedding out this weekend so I can get something else down before he has to come in at night before Bonfire Night. It just isn't worth the risk. It's such a shame as I thought it looked as if it would a good bedding for us. That's horses!
 
I left mine in with them after his first few attempts at eating! He seems to have decided it's a bad idea now, think he just needed to get used to the fact pellet doesn't = food.
I made sure I kept an eye on him whilst he was in and he now seems more intent on pawing the bedding than eating it :')
 
I've changed mine to a half pellet bed. B's quite wet, so in prep for winter when more time in, I've put 2 bags of soaked pellets in as a base with shavings on top.

The first day he came in, he was sifting through and nibbling on the pellets that hadn't broken down, so I was concerned. But he's only coming in for a few hours per day at the moment still so nothing to really worry about for the time being.

It's been a week and he seems to have given up on them now, big sigh of relief and fingers crossed for a nicer bed through the winter!
 
Could u cover the pellets wildnwooly with another bedding like shavings or chopped straw. If pony couldn't see the pellets he might forget about his naughty little addiction. ..

We bed on a mix of pellets and chopped straw and I would definitely recommend. ...

Fiona
 
Thank you all for your comments.

Flying Circus - maybe mine will be the same but it is worrying me a LOT!! I don't feel I could leave him in for any length of time unsupervised (i.e. overnight) in case he didn't give up eating it.

Embo - pony hasn't had any prolonged time on the new bedding yet as he only comes in to be checked over at the mo but even allowing for the novelty factor, he does seem just a bit too interested in it. Despite my attempts to make it unpalatable he seems quite keen on eating the "sawdust". Grrrr!!

Fiona - Unfortunately I can't use shavings here but could try a decent layer of chopped straw on top. How do you find this combo works for mucking out or does it eventually all mix in together?

I've still got a bit of time to try and resolve this before Bonfire Night but if I don't feel confident that he isn't going to spend a night scoffing sawdust then the whole lot will be coming out. His well-being and my peace of mind go hand in hand.

Thanks all for your input.

W & W

W&W
 
wildandwoolly said:
Thank you all for your comments.

Flying Circus - maybe mine will be the same but it is worrying me a LOT!! I don't feel I could leave him in for any length of time unsupervised (i.e. overnight) in case he didn't give up eating it.

Embo - pony hasn't had any prolonged time on the new bedding yet as he only comes in to be checked over at the mo but even allowing for the novelty factor, he does seem just a bit too interested in it. Despite my attempts to make it unpalatable he seems quite keen on eating the "sawdust". Grrrr!!

Fiona - Unfortunately I can't use shavings here but could try a decent layer of chopped straw on top. How do you find this combo works for mucking out or does it eventually all mix in together?

I've still got a bit of time to try and resolve this before Bonfire Night but if I don't feel confident that he isn't going to spend a night scoffing sawdust then the whole lot will be coming out. His well-being and my peace of mind go hand in hand.

Thanks all for your input.

W & W

W&W
Click to expand...

Is there no way you could leave him in for a few hours whilst doing other bits and pieces? I hung up a haynet near the door so I could see if he was eating the hay and when he wasn't I went to go investigate what he was doing.
When I first wrote this post, he'd only been kept in for half an hour at most whilst I groomed and tacked up, so the novelty factor defo seemed to wear off when he was ACTUALLY hungry and realised hay tasted much nicer.
 
wildandwoolly said:
Thank you all for your comments.

Flying Circus - maybe mine will be the same but it is worrying me a LOT!! I don't feel I could leave him in for any length of time unsupervised (i.e. overnight) in case he didn't give up eating it.

Embo - pony hasn't had any prolonged time on the new bedding yet as he only comes in to be checked over at the mo but even allowing for the novelty factor, he does seem just a bit too interested in it. Despite my attempts to make it unpalatable he seems quite keen on eating the "sawdust". Grrrr!!

Fiona - Unfortunately I can't use shavings here but could try a decent layer of chopped straw on top. How do you find this combo works for mucking out or does it eventually all mix in together?

I've still got a bit of time to try and resolve this before Bonfire Night but if I don't feel confident that he isn't going to spend a night scoffing sawdust then the whole lot will be coming out. His well-being and my peace of mind go hand in hand.

Thanks all for your input.

W & W

W&W
Click to expand...

I do the same (use chopped rape straw on top, one sack of pellets on the bottom, pre soaked, bashed with shovel) leave for week or 2. It doesn't mix unless my lad does some determined pre roll digging :rolleyes3:
 
Answering OPs questions. ..

Wood pellets with chopped straw on top is a lovely combo. Easy to muck out, and very good to deep litter on a weekly basis...

Top tip for soaking.. Use a kettleful of boiling water onto a bag of pellets in a rubber trug. They break up and fluff brilliantly.

Then cover with chopped straw (sprayed with something if you think pony might try to eat though our 2 horses ans 1 pony never have) and by the next day even if u dig bed up, the pellets will be all crumbled. ..

Fiona
 
I've only just gone onto wood pellets for the first time 2 weeks ago and was paranoid by pony would think they were small pony nuts...thankfully most had fluffed up and he ignored them those still to do so in the bed. 3 years ago when I tried elephant grass as a bedding as was so much cheaper than anything else at the time he was dreadful for eating that and the chopped stalks are like bamboo so that time I had to get it all out quickly within about an hour of it going in! Told the place where I got them from and she said she'd never ever heard of another horse eating it so mine is rather special too :)
 
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