Tail Eating?

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domane

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I have a lovely three and a half year old Comtois X gelding, Arthur. He arrived at the end of June and instantly became great friends with my 2yo traditional gelding, Albi... they play-fight a lot as youngsters do, but no real wounds. However at the end of September I noticed that Albi had lost some of his tail and we now realise that Arthur is eating it. Not just biting it off in fight, he actually stands and munches on it, like hay and then swallows. This is a little disconcerting and inconvenient and we have tried smothering the remains of Albi's tail in Crib-stop which Arthur doesn't mind in the slightest (and that stuff really DOES taste rank, I can assure you!)

I know Arthur's history since birth, he has had no bad experiences.

Do you think he may be deficient in something or is this just a bad habit? He was in a herd of five until yesterday... and ranked at the bottom so thankfully he only at Albi's tail. However, yesterday I moved them both to share with a little Welsh A mare and today I see that half HER tail has gone. I've just sent an apologetic email to her owner!

I can plait the remains of the tails as this seems to put him off but I wondered how to break the cycle?

Any helpful comments or advice would be very gratefully received, thank you.
 
my weanling ate his mothers tail then went to live with 3 older geldings , he ate my tbs right to the dock , we tried everything safe including mustard , oil of cloves and paprika , he just went yum yum and carried on munching
 
Mineral definciency. Get a big red rocky and put it out there for them....stops it right away. We have to do it with our babies....Mine got chewed off this year by one of the other colts as they'd finished their one without me realising -_-
 
Binky01 said:
Mineral definciency. Get a big red rocky and put it out there for them....stops it right away. We have to do it with our babies....Mine got chewed off this year by one of the other colts as they'd finished their one without me realising -_-
Click to expand...

I dont think there is any scientific evidence to support that idea. A bit like when a horse eats its dropping, traditionally people thought it was a mineral deficiency but actually thats not the case. Usually it is boredom, a learnt habit or/and the horse just likes doing it!
 
^ What Tally linked to :)

Might not be scientific evidence, but after being around the breeding stock over the years and noticing the ones which have had the additional rockies or other kind of ad-lib mineral supplements available to them...there's been no hair chewing. The ones which haven't had them available....there has been hair chewing. Evidence or no evidence, I'll be inclined to personally believe there is something in there related anyway :)


Domane - no problem! I feel for you....hair chewing is a nightmare lol. My rising 2 y/o cob colt looks like a 6 month old shire foal now with his chewed off!

I get mine from my local feed merchant/country store. SCATS, countrywide, or other similar places should stock them!
 
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Well, I'm willing to try anything and a mineral lick certainly won't be detrimental.

We've gone from this...

DSC04283.jpg


... to this....

IMG-20111113-00108.jpg


:( :( :(
 
Try some tabasco sauce in the tail getting chewed but make sure you wear disposable gloves then bin them asap. U don't want to get that in your eye etc..

My friend's foal has a taste for chewing mum's tail - stopped with tabasco. They have access to a mineral lick as well.
 
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