Bad new habit!!!! Pawing at her feed dish

[misty'smom]

Misty started this new habit of pawing at her feed dish every morning and evening as soon as I put it down. She does it until it spills or completely tips over!

Now Josie is doing it too!!!! They both hunt through the cedar flakes for the lost feed but since they are both babies (10 & 11 months) I want to be sure that are getting enough nutrition.

Should I continue to use the feed dishes that I put down in their stall or should I look for a type I could hang up ????

 

[DixieGirl89]

My APHA mare does this exact same thing, it's just paw, paw, paw till the dish flips over. I suggest getting a feeder box for them or possibly hang up buckets. We got a feeder for the horses and now they don't have the opportunity to dump their food.

 

[Minimor]

Hang buckets--it is the only way to be sure they get their ration, and without having to pick

It out of the bedding. Even with a non-tip feed pan they will paw at it and probably manage to fill it with crud...shavings, or manure if they make a pile, step in it and get it stuck to a hoof and then paw it into the pan.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

Yes. A pail that hangs on the fence is the answer. Do it and maybe you can nip the habit.

 

[Shari]

Maggie has always done that, but she is old enough she waits to flip her non flippable feed pan, until after she finishes eating. Never been able to break her of that habit sadly.

There isn't a feed pan she can't flip and she takes great pride in it. (rolling eyes)

So if you can, hanging a bucket would be best.

 

[AnnaC]

You need to get hold of some hanging mangers (preferable to buckets as a youngsters head in a hanging bucket can be an accident waiting to happen IMO. Also it is not good or safe for them to hoover for their food when it has spilt amongst 'shavings', they do not want to be ingesting shavings!

If your stalls are large enough, then for a quick 'fix' you could sweep back your bedding from one area and put down smooth mats, then just tip the food straight on to the mats - it would do until you can find the right type/size of manger to suit.

 

[LAminiatures]

Both my filly and stallion do this and always have. I sweep the bedding away and put the feed right on the mat. You will prevent choke as well when they eat from the floor. I also have a gelding that paws the entire time he eats, he never knocks the dish over but paws and will hold his leg up while eating.

 

[dannigirl]

We use this type of feeder in most of our stalls. Since we don't actually have a board to hook it over, we put a piece of wood in the hook--making the wood a bit longer than the pan--and use heavy screws to screw it to the walls of the stall. If, like some of mine do, they take their noses and push it out onto the floor, put a baseball size rock in the pan that they can't push out, but can eat around. I have used large pieces of salt block also for that purpose. These little beggers just love to play with their food.

 

[dannigirl]

had the wrong feeder on the other post. Sorry.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=62180730-82d8-474a-a14e-31d1dd1d6411

 

[Jill]

This, I think, is natural. I've learned it comes from the fact that horses were actually built and wired to eat while grazing, which involves moving. Concentrates aren't actually native to a horse's way of being, though most of us feed them (me too). Standing stationary at a feed pan isn't what our horses were meant to do, and some of them will paw. Hanging buckets and no tip pans have been our solution.

 

[chandab]

had the wrong feeder on the other post. Sorry.

http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=62180730-82d8-474a-a14e-31d1dd1d6411

I have the same type of feeder, well a couple of them, usually use them for loose minerals and built a couple little wood "racks" for them to sit in on the ground (almost untippable). For feeding I like the hang on the fence buckets without handles, they are called hook and hang or something like that (just looped over a panel bar the horses flip them off, so they need to be tied down or stuck between the boards, my barn has one removable wall, so I stick them between boards in that wall - I set 3 up in one stall when I was feeding babies last summer, they lined up so cute). Here's the 8 qt version: http://www.horse.com/item/8-quart-hook-over-feed-pail/SLT312003/ And, the 4 gallon version: http://www.horse.com/item/fortiflex-over-the-fence-feeder/E000523/ I've seen the square ones in different sizes depending on where you look and the brand.

Currently my babies are sharing a old crystalyx tub, works great, they can't tip it. [They also have a bigger rubber tub, but once they are done eating, it becomes their favorite toy.

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I use the hang on the fence feeders too- I use the biggest I can get as they have less waste that way, and when feeding in the field I use tubs with their handles tied to the fence so they cannot be run off with- they are around ten gallon size but one of my little darlings can still get them off the ground, complete with feed, and make off with them!! As Jill said this is normal behaviour, it will not change and it is dangerous to have them hoovering through cedar chips- sooner or later they are going to ingest some of those chips. I have never fed on the ground, not feed or hay, and I have never had a problem with it. I know some people do not like feeding clear of the dirt, but I think it is just wasting so much to have it on the ground, if there is a better way I am all for it!

 

[Foxhaven]

Bloody L.

Legend has eaten his hay on the ground for all his 5 years, and apparently demands it that way. I thought for sure the bucket method was the cure, and cheap too. Excitedly, I hung the bucket with a safety bucket hanger (not possible for them to unhang the bucket, and nothing to hurt themselves on, at least not without determined effort).

The little booger proceeds to stick his head in the bucket, pull out hay, swing the bucket as far as it will go and tip more out, puts his hoof in the bucket to flip it as far as he can, and anything else he can think of to defeat the best laid plans. Of course, he emerges with hay all over his forelock. And, I swear, a sly grin. Luke took some time to adjust to the bucket but is compliant... except he starts a bit as Legend is banging around in the stall next door. Sam the donkey just quietly munches his orchard grass hay out of the big rubber dish. And occasionally looking over to the source of all the banging around.

Legend's stall is resplendent in orchard grass hay bedding.

Looks like I will have to get a corner hay rack with a solid mount tray below it. My concern would be that Legend will paw at the tray and get hung up in the hay rack... aaargh. That means mounting it higher. There are some quite reasonable ones on horse.com. Any other sub-$90+ solutions are appreciated.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I feel for you. I have the hanging feeders for my boys. I bought the really heavy ones that have deep hangers and they are on my gate. When I approach to put in the feed my one boy picks up the feeder bucket and pitches it over his shoulder and then does the same for his buddy. Sometimes I would get so frustrated I would just walk away, one morning when leaving I had to chuckle at my boy watching me walk off he picks up the bucket and is trying to hang it back on the gate. I swear he is too smart for his own britches. I still use the hanging buckets but they are on my side of the gate and I don't hang them on the other side until I am ready to feed them. Works well that way. How I slow my smarty pants boy down for his pellets so he doesnt finish in one gulp and attack my other boy is that I put a small handful of hay in the bottom of the bucket and throw the pellets in on top. He has to root and sort to eat the pellets and it allows my other boy to eat his. My buckets are very heavy and have a much deeper hook than the one linked in other post. I never found anything to keep my boy from flipping his bucket and from using it like a soccer ball once it is on the ground. Some are just funny. I did once use a bucket with a hook and found my boy with his foot inside it standing and it made me very nervous so I went with the throwing buckets as I call them and just don't leave them on the gate once they are finished. Set low on the gate with the big hooks gets their heads down in proper eating position I don't have any tossing of buckets while the feed is in, just once they are empty. . Best wishes. smart little guys.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Foxhaven, I swear by slow feed hay nets. I hang mine (with a single rubber bungee with a caribiner clip on it) so they hang near the floor and I sweep all the bedding back from around that area. No waste, the horse eat longer without getting too much hay and I can't see any dangers for them. Of course a determined horse might come up with something... I have minis, not shetlands so they never have shoes (some horses do like to paw at the net to knock the leafy stuff out) and I never leave their halters on in their stalls. I feed there pellets in small rubber pans on the floor next to the hay net and when they are done (I have one gelding that always empties his and eats off the floor

) the dish is a handy stall toy

 

[Foxhaven]

I've certainly considered hay nets but would worry about a hoof getting caught in it... especially as he paws it. This was also a warning from a horsewoman at Big R when I was looking at them. Trailer only in her opinion.

 

[shorthorsemom]

No hay nets in my opinion. Luckily my guy was so unflapable the two times he undid the snaps and dragged the hay net around on his leg . I have a modified goat feeder with trough underneath for fines outside in My dry lot and for pellets I use the buckets as I described already. I tried the slowfeeder hay net and my pawing boy got impatient with how slow it was going and kept putting his foot in it.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

I'm not sure what kind of nets you used, I have to say that there is no way (well never say never lol, horses can find the dangdest ways ....)for a horse to hang up in mine. They do not have any holes nor loops big enough for a foot to get into. There is a learning curve for most horses tho and it is recommended that they receive the net as an 'extra' at first and gradually increase the amount of hay they get that way. Occasionally I have heard of a horse that just would NOT learn to eat that way but of the 18 I owned when I started using them (down to six now) each and every horse learned in less than a week and I have used them for ummm... I think 4 years now without incident. A long time ago I tried a standard hay net and the first time I used it - hanging at head level to discourage pawing- one of my horses reared up, put her foot thro a hole and was hung up standing on her rear legs. Thank goodness I was watching to see how it worked. Threw that one away the same day! but the small hole nets I use now will not allow an adult horse's hoof in anywhere, I would not use them for a foal tho.

 

[Foxhaven]

Do you have a link to that hay net? If against policy to post... pm me.

 

[Jill]

I've not read through the thread but did read the OP's post.

From what I understand and have learned, horses are (we all know) grazing animals. I've read that that pawing activity is because they are designed to be in some kind of motion when eating (grazing).

This has stuck a chord in my mind, and I do not mark it off as a bad habit, but really just horses trying to do what they were designed to do.

Our solution, depending on the horse, has been either to hang flat back buckets for the "grain" (it's a complete pellet here), or to give them pans that cannot be dumped (like the kind for mineral blocks).

That pawing, imo, is just a reflection of their instinct and also how happy they are to get the concentrates we feed them.