Pawing food dish

[debbiesshelties]

Hello everyone,

My yearling stallion always paws his food bucket until his food is all over the ground. I have tried putting it in a bucket and tying it down with a bungie cord. He still finds a way to spill it out. I feed him and my weanling colt away from the others because they need more food(diffrent kind). I do not like him eating it off the ground!! What can I do? Is there a reason he does this? He has done this since I have owned him, about 5 months. One more thing they have a run-in shed but not barn, so feeding him in the shed is not an option. Help!!!

 

[rabbitsfizz]

They do it because they cannot walk forward and eat, which is what instinct is telling them to do, and so they paw the ground. Some horses are less patient than others- hence the reason that a lot do not do it. I do not feed on the floor if there is a choice, I use feeders hung on the fence- the danger there is with big horses, rather than ours, they can still paw and may bang their knees.

 

[ChrystalPaths]

I have the cute lil rectangle plastic ones mounted with a piece of 2x4 to the wall with BIG screws. I have 2 "pawers". As Jane said they are the worryers and in a hurry before someone else gets it. Course all of mine are fed alone in a stall and I have raised each from a baby so I have no idea why they do it! :lol:

 

[justagirl]

I have 2 dish pawers.......simple solution......hang their feeders, it stopped immediately in my barn when I did this.

 

[billiethekid40]

My horse did this a lot too. I finally got tired of him finding a way to dump his feed so if I fed inside I just pushed back the sawdust and dumped it on the floor, if I fed outside I dumped it onto a piece of board so he could eat off the "ground" he was happy, I was happy.

Now he has a wooden square, deep feed sish I made for him in his stall, nailed to the wall. He can't push the feed out like you can with a rounded feeder. And outside he has a large round feed dish, that he occasionally dumps, but mostly just pushes the feed around. I think mast of the reason he dumped his feed is because it gets into the corners of the feeder and is harder to get. If its on the ground he can just lick it up with his tongue.

:

 

[yellerroseintx]

I have a pawer/digger too.....even with his is in stall corner feeder..aren't they silly...I also have a big horse that is a 'grain flinger' !!!! One thing you might try that works is dropping the feeder inside an old tire..some fit in there pretty snug and then they can't tip it over.

 

[wishful]

I had to go to the bunk feeders made for calves because of this problem, its one that drives me crazy

: . If the bunk feeders arent an option and hanging doesnt work you can always dig a hole and bury your feeding dish to ground level. This will allow him to eat from the ground without eating off the ground. Good luck.

 

[Margaret]

I have a stallion that does this when I feed "grain" in a "hook over the fence bucket". My biggest concern is to "keep him from spilling the grain", and that is one reason I think he does it-as he'd rather eat it off the ground. So now I have it tied to the fence, and although he still paws while he eats it,- he cant dump it. So now he uses his nose as a scoop, and scoops some out everytime.

: So I spend a little feeding time with him now, in the beginning to try to discourage him from doing this.

 

[Whitewave]

my stallion does the same thing... I have tried to hang the bucket but he just works at it til he gets it dumped on the ground,,,so i put a feed tub on the ground he still dumps it over...I just make sure the area has no shavings and let him have at it..He doesnt like to put his face in a bucket no matter how deep it is..He will dump his water too if it wasn't snaped to the stall, he still manges to get that darn water bucket tiped ....He's just a big ham and loves to play....try giving your guy a football or small basketball my guy loves them both....

 

[JO~*]

I just sweap off part of the rubber matt and pour the feed on it. Other option is use rubber maid tub.

If I use a regular size feed dish/bowl or whatever one of mine will get a big bite then chew not over the dish and drop it all over the ground.

 

[Cathy_H]

Get one of those heavy rubber mats & put the feeder on it...... We have one of those in our stall that is not full matted.......... The mat is about 100 pounds & can not be moved by the horse. Will cost you $30 + bucks though....... Can you keep an area swept to put the feeder on? Our dry lotted horses are fed undeneath an overhang. I sweep this area every few days where we feed them & throw their hay.

 

[Sandee]

My little filly (now 8 mo.) paws while she eats. The "while" she eats is an improvement over standing "in" the feed dish pawing. I think it may have come from being in with so many other "babies", most of whom were older, at the breeders and having to rush to get her share. All my horses are fed in seperate pens or stalls by themselves but then that's the advantage of only having three (for now!).

My little stallion, purchased at 1 1/2 yr, is from the same breeder but because they didn't geld him early he was seperated and in a pen of his own. He doesn't paw at his food.

 

[debbiesshelties]

My little filly (now 8 mo.) paws while she eats. The "while" she eats is an improvement over standing "in" the feed dish pawing. I think it may have come from being in with so many other "babies", most of whom were older, at the breeders and having to rush to get her share. All my horses are fed in seperate pens or stalls by themselves but then that's the advantage of only having three (for now!).

My little stallion, purchased at 1 1/2 yr, is from the same breeder but because they didn't geld him early he was seperated and in a pen of his own. He doesn't paw at his food.

Hi guys,

I have even tried pouring right on a rubber mat. He will paw at it until it is scattered everwhere. I know he is not getting the amount of food I want him to have, but I hate to just waste it!!

 

[Margaret]

I have found that when I put the grain into a heavy "hook on to the fence type hay feeder," at chest height, with straight up sides, that my boy has a frustrating time scooping it out, and "does give up" trying. It is "secured" onto a fence rail so- he "cannot" flip it off, or budge it either...So far that has been my best way of out-smarting him..

: Hope that helps.

 

[Relic]

Some of ours paw so they have the big black rubber feeders that are a foot tall with 2 large rocks in them and the grain just gets dumped in there and now they have to work to eat the grain and stopped the pawing because of the rocks. Mostly we use the long cattle troughs no feet in there and at least 6 of them can eat at there own spots without a fight. We gave a guy one of those nice fancy ones you hang on the fence and he ripped it right of same as when we'd hang a bucket managed to flip the grain right out. lf we feed of the ground they paw it with a front leg and scatter it all behind them so never use the ground

 

[pepperhill]

For what it is worth, I had one "pawer" that used to flip his bucket all the time...even when I affixed it to the fence. I finally figured out he didn't like putting his head down inside the bucket. It wasn't particularly deep, maybe 8 inches, but when I switched to a flat rubber pan on the ground, he quit pawing at it. I have also used the pan in a tire method and had good success with it. Linda

 

["City Slicker"]

:bgrin Mine will pull it out of his bin and all over the kitchen floor, he'll eat it all and not miss a peice! When he is done, he comes walking into the living room with the recycle bin hanging in his yap, (this is where the better half starts laughing) and throws it at me! Ya gotta lov'em though :aktion033: