My Horse is eating her bedding!

Just V

Just V

New User
Joined
12 June 2012
Messages
8
Location
Bristol
Visit site
Hi guys

New to the site and ive read a few threads on this subject before but my 21yr old TB mare has been off her hay since mid april and is devouring her straw bed whenever shes in.

Shes on summer turn out at the moment and its only been in the last week with all the rain that shes been coming in on the odd night and im coming up the next day to find she has virtually no bedding at all!

Shes still on a feed twice a day as her paddock is small and i was concerned that shes not getting as much grass as she would normally have. Her other paddock is recovering at the moment.

Ive tried spraying her bed with disinfectant, ive even put her hay down as bedding instead of her normal straw bed and the bed and the hay net are still there come morning.

Ive soaked her hay, put carrots in her hay net, mixed straw with her hay, left it dry, put it on the floor, in a net and nothing is working, the only plus side is that shes grazing happily in the field despite its size and shes not off her feed.

Any ideas??

Thanks
 
No idea why but my three enjoy straw, they have haynets full of oat straw and they all enjoy it and it does them no harm at all, I often watch them walk back from fresh grass have a few mouthfuls of straw then wander off again, as they are all good doers it nice to have something they can eat as much as they like without worrying about it.
 
Is she overweight? Unless you're trying to diet her it wouldn't bother me if she's eating her bed. Straw is cheaper than hay and lower calorie so tbh I'm pleased if my horses enjoy eating it. If she's ending up on a bare floor try deep littering, they will only eat the fresh stuff off the top.
 
wellsat said:
Is she overweight? Unless you're trying to diet her it wouldn't bother me if she's eating her bed. Straw is cheaper than hay and lower calorie so tbh I'm pleased if my horses enjoy eating it. If she's ending up on a bare floor try deep littering, they will only eat the fresh stuff off the top.
Click to expand...

no her weight is fine and i would deep litter but shes really messy when in, and i mean stupidly messy. she used to be on that elephant grass and was so messy on that, after a month on it i changed to straw and she was fine.

im partly putting it down to 2 things, spring grass is more appealing and it could be a bad cut of hay that shes just not happy with.

its just frustrating to come up the following morning to find she has no bedding and a full hay net!
 
Just V said:
im partly putting it down to 2 things, spring grass is more appealing and it could be a bad cut of hay that shes just not happy with.
Click to expand...

That sounds the most likely, sometimes they can smell/taste something in the hay that we can't see.
 
the only problem is, how many bales of hay do i throw away until i find a good one that she will eat. i just she snaps out of this soon and finds something she likes
 
What about putting some straw in haynets, she might have some bed left in the morning, also we bought 2 hestons of hay a couple of years back and neither my arab or cob would eat it though no-one could see or smell anything wrong with it.

I wouldn't worry too much about her not eating hay, if her weight is ok she's getting enough, are you on a yard? If other people source there hay from somewhere differant you might be able to find out if it's just one lot of hay or if she just doesn't want any at all.
 
Last edited:
Where I work they have a 24 yr old TB mare who is VERY fussy, she gets Timothy Hay in bags (food bag size) and they cost £6 bag!!!!! She won't eat anything else now:rolleyes:
 
Devonshire dumpling said:
Where I work they have a 24 yr old TB mare who is VERY fussy, she gets Timothy Hay in bags (food bag size) and they cost £6 bag!!!!! She won't eat anything else now:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

im not introducing her to that lol normally shes fine with her hay and she scoffed it all over winter.

im sure she will snap out of it at some point
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top