horse eating straw

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tontoandtigger

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hi, one of my horses wont stop eating his straw and i dont wont to put him onto shavings as he is such a dirty:eek::eek::eek:. so does anyone have any suggestions as to what i can try to stop him eating it. he has rubber matting and just straw banks with a top layer of straw.

also how much are you paying for shavings?
 
My mare ate the straw, Jeyes fluid or not! And when I say she ate it, I mean ALL of it. There would be a few strands sticking out from under the poo piles and bare boards, and I used to give her a nice thick bed.
 
Hi

Does it matter that he eats his straw? As long as its not too dusty he is only adding extra fibre to his diet. Perhaps you could cut down his hay a bit if you think he's generally eating too much.

Both my boys eat their beds & I've given up worrying, but I do try & make sure its clean straw - not dusty. One has mats too so I keep the bed to a minimum- just enough to soak up the wet. The other box walks a bit so its all stirred up & he doen't fancy it any more.
 
All of ours eat their beds, this year we were going to try the jeyes fluid solution, mind t is lovely oat straw and looks good enough to eat, they will also grab a mouthful in passing on the way to the field, I would rather they
eat their beds than go hungry or it could be plain boredom and they get adlib haylage
 
Please do not sprinkle jeyes fluid on to your straw. It can be toxic and there is absoloutlely nothing wrong with horses eating straw. It probably helps prevent gastric ulcers as their stomachs are kept full with fibre and they are producing saliva that buffers the stomach acid. It has also been proven that horse's on straw beds are much less likely to develop oral stereotypies i.e crib-biting etc. probably because they do eat their beds.
 
he eats his bed and then gets a cough and also the snots!!:eek:
i think im gonna have to bite the bullet and go back to shavings .i put him on straw as he could use 2-3 bales of shavings in a week!!!:eek:
but he eats the lot and you go out to rubber matting and s**t in the morning.
my mare eats her straw but she is fine no cough or anything . the shetland eats her straw and is fine but my other mare also has to be on shavings as she would eat the entire bed in the night and probable give herself colic:(
everything is going to be so expensive this year and i was just hopeing that i might be able to get away with only one on shavings.:p

gonna change his bed tonight!!!!
 
Be careful about using straw, I covered mine in Jeyes one night and still no bed next day, missed uni to watch my horse have a poo (told uni I was ill, didnt think they would understand).


Toffee is a skank in the stable. She was on rubber matting with a 3ftx 4ft area of straw which she used as a toilet, might work with shavings?
 
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