I have an 8 moth old foal, she has a problem with chewing and wood and other objects. Is it time for a cribbing collar or is there a alternative solution?
Is she actually cribbing or just chewing? My now 11 mo filly chews things when she has teeth coming through and just to investigate. If she starts chewing things she shouldn't I just apply something nasty tasting to the object eg cribstop.
My foal chews on EVERYTHING too! Actually, he's 1 1/2 years now, but he still chews on whatever he can get his mouth on. I was told by a trainer I am working with that's he's teething and will be doing that for a while.
He also ate other horse's tails until very recently. Thank goodness he seemed to quit that. I make sure he always has at least a little bit of hay between meals and that has helped. But I think the need to chew is a normal baby thing. I have had the best luck with coating tails, wood, lead ropes, etc, with habanero (sp?) pepper hot sauce. Basically the hottest cheap hot sauce I could find at the dollar store. Worked better than a bitter no-chew spray I bought.
Do you have a mineral block out and is she using it? Many horses chew wood, particularly trees, if they are mineral deficient...it is a natural instinctive behavior to get through to the cambrium layer, which is high in mineral content...
A cribbing collar will do nothing to stop a chewing horse, cribbing and chewing are two very different things. Cribbing is when a horse latches on to an object arches it's neck and makes a quiet belching sound, what they are really doing and why is still a hotly debated topic. In cribbing the object they place their teeth on is usually unharmed.
Most young creatures, horses included, do a lot of chewing as a way to experience their world, usually its harmless and they grow out of it in time. One of my horses never grew out of his mouthy stage and still gnaws on things like an oversized demented beaver, I have found slow feed hay nets very helpful in keeping him from totally destroying my barn.
Thank you all for your help and comments. I was told today like faceman had commented about mineral deficiency. I do have a mineral block but the block is only a trace mineral. I bought some bagged mineral and feed her 6 oz. of the mineral and it was licked cleaned. We will see if this is what is missing from her diet. Thank you all, also there were other great points made, that I have looked into and keeping a close look at.
All great advice. Just wanted to let you know some horses remain mouthy their entire lives - lol lol lol
My "can't-keep-his-lips-off-anything" fella did, however stop trying to chew the barn down when I changed everyone's vit/min supplement. So there was deficiency somewhere.
Howeverrrr, Rusty's been with me since he was 2-1/2; he will 18 in April and can't keep his lips off anything.
He has the run-in stall when they come in at night and it's a good thing because he's not even allowed to have a heated bucket. He can go under the overhang and drink from the heated stock tank if he drinks his personal rubber (not plastic) bucket empty. He chews plastic horse buckets into oblivion.
He will grab the paper towels out of the portable groomer if I forget to put them up. I don't even tie him to bath him or trim his hooves because he unties the rope anyway.
When I used to trail ride, I couldn't use a slip knot to tie him because he'd untie himself. He always had a quick release snap on his lead rope in case of emergency.
He can and will unsnap a snap in the blink of an eye. I watched him one day. He was so fast that it took me longer to realize what he'd just done than it did for him to unsnap the snap - lol lol
My other three are nothing like that. My alpha horse always has a heavy duty extension plug hanging in the corner of his stall that is for his fan or water bucket. Never in his life has Duke bothered that cord. Rusty would've had it chewed clear to the barn roof.
Rusty is a very oral horse and never grew out of it --- be forwarned - lol lol
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