Wood pellet bedding and snak balls

[Bustalot]

So my pony has pony nuts in his snak ball every night to keep him amused while stabled. I am looking at moving to wood pellet bedding. Just worried he may confuse a pony nut with a wood pellet.... Or am I just being silly?

 

[SpruceRI]

I would worry!

I stopped giving my shettie his snak ball in his miscanthus bedding for the same reason. I'm sure he'd end up eating the bedding too

 

[Jesstickle]

Do you not have a bit of bare concrete at the front of your box? Nitty is on pellets and has a snack ball and she just rolls it around the bit without bedding. Although she can also sniff a pony nut at a million miles away so I doubt she'd confuse it with bedding even if she did take the ball off to the bedded part of her box!

 

[appylass]

When I started using wood pellets I took a feed scoop of them and offered them to each horse! Most looked away in disgust, very greedy section a had a little sniff and said no, very hungry 'because-no-one-ever-feeds-me' highland had a good look and a sniff but refused to even try them (I was surprised!). They convinced me and I've never seen any of them even look at them since.

 

[starryeyed]

I don't use a snak ball in the stables now I've switched to wood pellet bedding purely because my horses aren't the brightest and I'm sure the whole bed would be hoovered if they realised part of it was edible! So they have them in their fields in the day time instead to keep them entertained, there's not much grass left and they enjoy chasing them about.

 

[mini-eventer]

Try smelling tasting a pony nut and tasting a woodpellet...

Horses are not stupid they can tell the differance.
If you horse is inclined to eat wood pellets they will eat them weather you have a snack ball or not. I think it is unlikely they would eat wood pellets.

I have 20 horses on wood pellets at work. Some are on very restricted diets and not one attempted to eat the wood pellets. They easily hoover up any nuts that fall out of their breakfast buckets.

My boy took a mouthful of my first bed of wood pellets and spat it out pretty quick.

Horses also are amazingly good at picking out the feed they like. I know one that leave all the pellets out of a mix in his bowl but hoovers all the other stuff up.

Have you ever mixed tablets into you feed only to find them left in the bottom of the bucket the next morning?


I wouldnt hesitate to give a horse on woodpellets a snack ball

 

[lachlanandmarcus]

My Haffie doesnt eat her wood pellets even tho she is a total hoover and she can pick out a pellet of feed (a single one) from the wood pellet bed. Also she tips her hi fi lite into the bed and manages to pick that out too.

I wouldnt worry but if you are concerned either spray the pellet bed with dilute jeyes fluid or make a bare patch at the front for the snack ball.

 

[TallulahBright]

My Hoover has a snack ball mon her wood pellet bed, never tried to eat bedding.

 

[OFG]

My little Welshie had a go at eating the wood pellets the first night I changed her bedding to them. Think she thought she was in heaven!

Was slightly alarmed to start with and had visions of her puffing up like a balloon but needn't have worried as she spat most of it out pretty quickly.

she has a snak ball and manages to sort through the bedding to find the nuts if she has managed to roll the ball into the bed.

Just keep any eye on your pony to start with.

 

[HarryParson]

Unless your horse is completely starving, i don't think you have anything to worry about! I use pellets and have never had a problem.