Straw Eater

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Piglet

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As the title says, I am off to RC camp next month, unfortunately I have a horse who LOVES to eat straw. I bed him down on shavings and wood pellets but at camp he will be on straw, any suggestions as to what I can do to stop him from stuffing his face
 
What's wrong with eating straw? It's high in fibre, takes ages to chew, full of vits & mins and low in sugar, obviously very palatable and cheap :D
 
tallyho! said:
What's wrong with eating straw? It's high in fibre, takes ages to chew, full of vits & mins and low in sugar, obviously very palatable and cheap :D
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My horse is allergic to straw! brings him out in 'hives'. I don't know what I would do in this situation as I tried everything and nothing stopped him eating the stuff. Only thing would be to leave the wet in and mix it all up,but not very nice!
 
Nothing wrong with eating straw but I don't think it is s'posed to be eaten in large quantities, also I may well come down to find him on concrete!!
 
Lol!! There's eating a bed and then there's your boy!!!

I don't know what to suggest apart from taking your own bedding to camp with you.

For what it's worth, I feed mine straw in large quantities and many laminitics are fed only straw and they eat only straw in spain and portugal and sometimes france so hopefully nothing to bad will happen but you don't want it to be the off chance! I completely understand if he stuffed his face he might get a belly ache...

I think jumpthemoon has a good idea... find the muckheap and mix in some soiled straw with your fresh stuff...
 
Thanks for the comments appreciated, I don't think (hopefully) he will eat too much only going by his reaction to a bale of straw left in the field once as a jump - he couldn't stuff enough into his mouth quick enough!! The "dirty" bed is definitely worth a try, maybe a weak solution of dettol sprayed on the bed?
 
Jeyes fluid sprayed on usually does the trick
But our TB can clear his bed in a night leaving the wet patches and half a haynet.
My logic is they generally know what they are doing, it saves time on mucking out, so I leave him to it.
Our gelding spreads his bed over a large stable, leaving enough for his needs,
again we leave him to it.
I like a cool bed, my OH likes a warm bed, horses for courses, eating straw shouldn't do him any harm
 
I have tried the disinfectant idea on hemp bedding as mine used to eat that - a word of warning. When dry, it doesn't smell that much and when the horse gets used to the smell, he will still eat it as he thinks the smell has "gone". He'll end up eating poisonous chemicals.
 
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