Slowing down a fast eater

[WispyBegs]

This morning my horse coughed around 3-4 times after he had had his breakfast - I will continue to monitor this... however I do suspect it’s because he wolfs it down so quickly.

does anyone have any tips on how to slow down a fast eater?

(he is fed chaff, balancer and a supplement twice per day)

 

[White Horse2]

Dampen it down, that will stop him inhaling his food, or you could consider adding some mush, like speedibeet, good for getting fluid in as well

 

[WispyBegs]

Dampen it down, that will stop him inhaling his food, or you could consider adding some mush, like speedibeet, good for getting fluid in as well

he has his food as what can only be described as a thick broth, with lukewarm water - I will look into speedibeet however my boy is a good doer and would be cautious with adding more calories/sugars to his diet.

 

[White Horse2]

Teeth check????

 

[White Horse2]

Ps, I wish mine would t a lot quicker, she takes ages and has to savour each mouthful, whilst gazing at the view between each mouthful!!!

 

[WispyBegs]

Teeth check????

he had his teeth done in December. Just wanted to see what the options were - ie, different feed bowls, slow feeders etc.

 

[muddybay]

You could split it into different bowls and then give it to him at different times

 

[Pearlsasinger]

The traditional advice is to put a brick in the bowl/bucket. We had an elderly cob who choked on soaked grassnuts the day we ran out of grass chaff to add to the slop. We found that the chaff stopped her rushing the meal.

 

[laura_nash]

I had the same problem with my new mare, there will be a thread on here somewhere about it. Solution for her was some Top Chop Zero mixed in well so she had to eat it with the rest, plus more Top Chop Zero in my other horses feed so she finished first and didn't need to worry about him pulling faces at her whilst she ate.

 

[AdorableAlice]

Have a walk up a shallow stream and find some big smooth oval or round stones. Or go to a garden centre and buy them. Then buy the biggest shallow bottomed feeder you can find. Sprinkle food all over base of feeder and put the stones in too.

The food needs to be only a cm deep so no big mouthfuls can be grabbed. This method worked for my cob for 20 years. Any other method and he choked on a regular basis. If you are local to me in middle England you can have my well used stones as I don't have the horse anymore.

 

[WispyBegs]

Thank you for all your ideas!

I’m certainly going to give the stones a go firstly - hope this will work for him !

 

[turkana]

I used to have a speed eater, she stuffed so much in her mouth she looked like a hamster with full pouches! I solved it with a really big bowl & spread the food thinly over the base. That slowed her down as the food wasn't deep enough to grab big mouthfuls. The stones, also sound like a good idea.

 

[Northern Hare]

When I had a super-fast eater (who'd suffered choke a couple of times), I used to put a block of Himalayan salt in the bottom of his manger - the type you get from feed merchants with a rope through it for hanging as a salt lick.

He never used to attack the block of salt and it lasted ages - he just used to push it around to get to the feed.

 

[Polos Mum]

I remember reading on here about rubber coated bricks used to practice diving in swimming pools being an alternative to a brick that would be easier to wash and kinder on teeth if accidentally nibbled