[mcginty]

My 18 month old filly is eating her bedding,straw and shavings : I have sprayed with disinfacton and give her a lick,
i have her on rubber mats with a handful of shaveings on top, looks cruel.
Any help or ideas.

[SallyintNorth]

Well, horses do love good straw.

If you need to be managing her intake, then maybe you have to be switching to sawdust, paper, or something else hopefully inedible.  I would definitely be wary of wood shavings unless you can be certain what woods (some are poisonous) and that they have had no treatments.  Same applies to sawdust of course, if she eats that too. 

If she's only 18 months old she should pretty much be able to eat as much as she wants, though, shouldn't she?  In which case the straw-eating is only a problem if your straw is more expensive than other fodders she could be munching.  You could try a different kind of straw - wheat straw would be cheaper than barley and possibly less appealing, though my Fells eat any straw at all!

[ellied]

At 18 months and at this time of year your filly will be needing pretty much ad lib forage and barley or oat straw is a perfectly good bulk feed to fill in between whatever hay you're able to provide her.  I would not use shavings if she is eating them as they could cause her problems and if she still eats them when you've treated them with chemicals then more so.

You don't say anything about how she is managed, whether she is out grazing, what her hay and feed rations are etc but as an ideal she should be out as much as possible where she will graze almost non stop if there is grass to eat.  If not then hay is basically dry grass so her system is demanding non stop forage and that is the ideal she will seek.  When it runs out she will take straw as the nearest feasible substitute but I personally would increase the hay volume first, let her have a straw bed to pick at, and leave the shavings until she's older and needs weight restriction which at her age should not be an issue.

If she doesn't have something to eat, she'll chew wood, learn to crib (swallow air) and develop all sorts of gastric problems.  At her age worry more about development than weight and feed accordingly.

Hope this helps - for comparison my 18 month old fillies live out, with a round bale of hay weekly and a bale of barley straw in the field at all times as a backup and a mineral block (Rockies red) also but no hard feed at all.

[mcginty]

Yes,she is out during the day, not much grazing as this has to be managed for the summer.
She gets hardfeed, with chaff for bulk, and hay.
Straw is not that expensive cheaper than hay,i was concerned she may eat a gut full and cause colic
Sawdust might be a option if not dusty.
She was purchased from a horse sale about six months ago somewhat neglected,
i havebeen feeding well so as to make height. Standing now at 15H piebald.

thanks for your help.

[Sylvia]

She's like a teenager, ever hungry. Good, clean sraw will do her no harm

[humphreymctush]

Our ponies, cows and sheep always have a couple of mouthfuls of their fresh barley straw when they are in. Once its been trodden in a bit it becomes unpalletable and they go back to the haylage.

[waterhouse]

When OH bought her first horse he was 12 and the sign outside his stable stated "eats his bed" to which had been added in a different hand "by the bale". He's 26 now.  When her pony got colic it turned out to be from ulcers caused by infrequent feeding of a hard food diet by a previous owner.  Little and often is good.

Having been neglected may make her eat when she can.  You can get beddings with a nasty taste but it sounds like you've tried that.  Short staple straw is pretty digestible unless she stands all day filling her face.  Flax, hemp and rape are less digestible: we do minimum bedding on mayo mats where minimum means just a sprinkling to soak up wee and use flax or hemp of that. 

[Herdygirl]

Poor thing is making up for lost time, if you can afford it just give her ad lib hay during the day and the night, you will know when she has had enough because she will have some left when you next visit.  it could take her 12 months to realise that she will always have food and the constant eating will gradually decrease.  you just have to be patient (and have deep pockets!) 

HTH

[lachlanandmarcus]

Oat straw is the most palatable if you can find it. A young healthy horse with good digestion and an ad lib supply isnt likely to colic on it, more important that the gut is working all the time on forage.

The important caveat to that is: best to have ad lib hay available as well as straw so that the horse is eating both, which lowers any risk of impaction as hay is thinner stalks.

 Also, straw is very low in protein (3.4-3.7 against hay 8-13 depending when cut so, especially for a youngster, should not form the whole forage diet. It is also low in calcium.  Hay has more protein/calcium, also alfalfa too.

With a greedy youngster who needs the nutrients, I would feed hay ad lib and something like D&H suregrow as a balancer. If you are feeding chaff that is generally chopped straw anyway, sometimes with alfalfa added, so would try for something else unpalatable as a bed.My very greedy cob doesnt eat her wood pellets/hemp mix

[arl]

Hi straw eating is more worrying than some people think, i had an arab gelding who ate his bed when i first got him he had been ill treated before i aquired him and thinking i was giving him a luxurious comfy straw bed to settle down in with a nice feed and as much hay as i thaught he could eat didnt turn out as you would expect. I found him next morning in agony instead of eating the hay he had eaten his bed and the consequences turned out to be impacted colic because of the shiny exterior to straw the gut cant digest it.Anyway to cut a long story short an old friend suggested i drenched the straw with jeyes fluid at a strong dilution in the morning when i prepared his bed so when he came in at night it had dried but the taste was still there. Pongs a bit but worth it he soon stopped eating his bed and realised what hay was about.
Hope all works out well hes lucky to have you
Arl

[mcginty]

Hi! again, eating her bedding has gradually decreased over the past couple of weeks,
keeping her busy with hay seem to help, i don't use straw just shavings on mats.
As was suggested feeding little and often also a help.

[Brijjy]

I keep my little Sec C mare on EVA mats only. They are very warm and comfy. When I first put them down the kids wanted to sleep in her stable . She has ad lib hay and two feeds per day. I also hang swedes and giant carrots for her to browse on. I will be investing in a stable toy for her too. One of those treat balls that dispenses pony nuts as they roll along. I decided not to go down the straw route as she would have eaten most of it and not having straw cuts down on the amount of waste that I have to get rid of.