Grazing Muzzles again... have I tried hard enough?

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Chumsmum

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I bought a Shires bucket type one.
I tried it for 10 days from about 8am - 1pm and in all that time no-one saw him attempt to try and eat. I was worried about leaving him longer than 5 hours without food. I rang the manufacturers and did as they said re: starting off by feeding from a bucket, to on the floor etc.

Have I given it enough of a go or have I given up too soon?

Do you think it would be safe to leave on longer i.e how many hours and for how many days? Should I make the hole bigger or does that defeat the object? Should I buy a Greenguard one or are they virtually the same as the Shires?

He is in during the day at the moment and it is helping but is still overweight. I've been told by our groom that he is fast asleep in his stable ATM - I've got this feeling he is staying awake all night so he can eat as much as possible while he is out!

Sorry for all the questions - advice appeciated
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OMG I have had the exact same problem this week! Very experienced friend said it wouldn't hurt him not to eat for 24 hours and to just leave it on and if he was hungry enough he'd work it out, and that the biggest priority was getting the weight off because he's obese(which he is)....but I'm too soft and feel mean!!

So, I now have a starvation paddock! Is that possible for you?

Sorry can't offer much advice but can totally sympathise.
 
ive got the Best friend ones which are similar to the Shires ones. Maybe my horses are greedy but they got the hang of them really quickly and learnt how to get lots of grass. My lammi pony wears hers 24/7 at the moment.

Personally i would put it on him and leave him to it. If he doesnt realise he has to work it out himself he wont. When hes hungry hell start to work out how to get the grass.
How long is your grass?When the grass is long, I found that at first the ponies found it hard but as soon as they grasped it they pushed the muzzle along the grass in one direction then dragged it back enablig the grass to push through the holes!
 
When I used the bucket one it did take my pony a few days to get the hang of it.....but get the hang of it she most certainly did LOL!!

She wore hers from first light to dusk and then had it taken off overnight. She wasn't fat but had just recovered from laminitis and I didn't want her getting too much rich grass.

Just one thing to bear in mind with starvation paddocks (I am definitely NOT a fan of these), if you are going to put your pony in one then please make sure that he still has plenty of fibre in the form of hay or whatever. The other thing to bear in mind is that in one of these paddocks because the grass is so short that the only grass your pony will have access to, is the rich new shoots, which sort of defeats the object.
 
I would LOVE a starvation paddock - wish we had one! Will be moving to a new place with YO later in the year and I have put in a request for one
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Perhaps I should try it for 24 hours - what do others think?

Chum just nevers stops eating (unless he has a grazing muzzle on of course) World War III could be breaking out in the field next door and he never even lifts his head - I suppose that's hairy cobs for you
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Thanks for your sympathies
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I echo Tia's feelings on starvation paddocks. New growth is the stuff that causes all the problems & new growth is all there is in a starvation paddock
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I use a greenguard muzzle on my lad. If you persevere with the fitting of it, it works wonderfully well & the horse gets used to it.
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both ponies at ours have the bucket ones and got the hang of them eventually, if yours is in through the day why not put him out with the muzzle on instead, i'm sure he'll get the hang of it eventually. 5 hours isn't that long really , mine is in through the day for about 7 hrs with no food as is so fat and seems fine on that so i'm sure you could try a longer time with the muzzle.
 
I have a grazing muzzle on my mare aswell, she took a while to work out how to eat it. So i pushed grass through the hole in the bottom and she figured out how to eat with it on.
Keep perserving and if your pony still cant eat with the muzzle on cut the hole slightly bigger on the bottom.. x
 
Right - I will try it for at least 12 hours - surely he must be starving by then? Would you leave it on longer than that if still not eating??

Honestly, I am not a wimp about these things but I don't want to cause colic or something.
 
put on for 12 hrs then take off and allow some restricted grazing with hay available say 5 hrs, then put on again. i'm sure he'll get there. as said try poking grass through holes to encourage feeding through it
 
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