Grass nuts - messy!! and taste like chocolate!

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Polos Mum

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Any tips on how to manage grass nuts without pony licking/ spilling liquid green all over himself/ inside of stable/ pony next door!! My stable/ yard looks like something with green blood has been murdered all over it!

Any tips on slowing him down while eating his grass soup? It's getting stuffed like it was chocolate.

Finally how long can they be soaked for - will they go off if I soak them overnight in this hot weather?

Many thanks
 
I don't think you need to create soup out of it. When I soak mine they just go mushy, maybe you are using too much water??? Yes they do start to ferment in hot weather. I'm not sure if this would work but what about putting them in a small enough bucket to put inside a freezer box with ice packs in, so that the ice packs are each side of the inside bucket (if this is making any sense at all.) That should keep them cool I think. Might be worth trying.
 
After my other horse choked on unsoaked nuts I always soak them.

I soak his evening nuts for 24 hours, and then make up his breakfast / lunch while i'm there in the evening, so they're ready to feed when he needs them.

You don't need them like soup though, more mushy.
 
I soak them half an hour before feeding. One part nut and 2 parts water give me a crumbly mash rather than a gloopy mess.
 
We found that 10 mins was long enough to make the grassnuts soft enough for our old lass to manage. We always mixed them with dried grass/hay chaff to avoid choke. OP it does sound as if you are using more water than necessary.
 
Thanks all, I need to soak them pretty well because the little pony has no teeth left :( but I'll try cutting down the water - I'd been adding more to make it increase in volume more to make it last longer as he's having them as a complete hay replacer.

It's only been a week so maybe he'll slow up as they get more boring as he gets them again and again - at the moment theyy're going down quicker than a hard feed! The do smell lovely and sweet tho so I can't blame him really.

They seem to take a good 3/4 hours to really go to mush - but I'll experiment to see if he'll eat them after a brief soak.

In the winter I'll soak over night - he'll be eating a lot more and I don't think they'll go off in cold weather
 
You can make them with less water to they are more mashey and less soupey.

To slow him down, just mix them with chaff - the longer fibers stimulate him to actually chew his food instead of just slurping it down!
 
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