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Will horses eat around bad hay?
Horses will eat moldy hay, especially if they have no alternative forage, but consuming moldy hay is dangerous and can cause digestive and respiratory diseases. However, when hay is left out too long, it develops mold, and horses will eat the mold-laden forage, which creates health problems.
How do you know if hay is good for horses?
Good quality hay should be bright green in color with little fading. A bleached, yellow, brown or black color may indicate aged hay, mold or poor storage conditions. Storage condition and age have a significant effect on vitamin content of hays.
Why is my horse not eating his hay?
Illness, dental problems, extreme fatigue, or the discomfort of gastric ulcers might keep some horses from eating. Alfalfa (lucerne) or an alfalfa/grass mix will be appealing to most horses. On the other hand, horses might refuse to eat hay that is moldy, old, coarse and stemmy, or full of weeds.
Can horses eat slightly moldy hay?
Don’t feed moldy hay to horses. Most moldy hay problems are from mold spores, which can produce respiratory disease in horses. Many of the common mold toxins develop in the field during a delayed harvest.
How long before hay goes bad?
Storing Hay You can store hay indefinitely if the stack is managed correctly; although, in humid climates, using hay within three years of harvest is ideal. Hay growers need to bale it at correct moisture levels because if it’s baled too damp the hay will generate heat, which leads to molding.
Should horses have hay all time?
Conclusion. Horses don’t have to eat all the time, but having constant access to hay helps keep their digestive system working correctly. Allowing your horse to graze on pasture grass is safe and keeps them healthy. A healthy pasture provides all the nutrition horses need.
How can I stimulate my horses appetite?
Ways to Improve a Horse’s Appetite
- Break up the feed to smaller meals over several hours.
- Gradually change to new feed.
- Add B-Vitamins to their diet.
- Provide a cool bath in hot weather.
- Ease up on intense workouts for performance horses.
- Provide a buddy to ease anxiety offering turnout.
How do you get a horse to eat feed?
Encourage Him to Eat
- Choose forage with a high leaf-to-stem ratio.
- Feed a higher-quality hay.
- Make supplements more palatable.
- Check feed labels.
- Adjust fat content.
Will horses eat rained on hay?
Hay that has gotten wet and is fed immediately is perfectly fine to feed to horses, and a bale of hay that has been rained on and then dried thoroughly, and fed within a week or so is also not going to cause any problem whatsoever.
What to do if your horse won’t eat hay?
If your aging equid can’t or won’t eat hay, don’t worry: there are several other fiber options available. Raise your hand if you’ve heard the following statement before (or, as all of us here at The Horse have, more times that we can remember): Forage should be the basis of all horses’ diets.
What happens if a horse eats moldy hay?
Dusty and mouldy hay may even do your horse harm, and its overall poor quality might bring on a case of hay-induced colic. Buying in hay is the only option if you can’t afford the luxury of shutting up a paddock.
Should I buy my horse Rumpty Hay?
Secondly, horses will struggle to get any real nutritional value from rumpty hay. They may not even eat it. Dusty and mouldy hay may even do your horse harm, and its overall poor quality might bring on a case of hay-induced colic. Buying in hay is the only option if you can’t afford the luxury of shutting up a paddock.
How can you tell if Hay is good quality?
Good hay is a pale green to pale gold in colour. If it looks dull and brown there’s a good chance it copped rain while drying. If it’s really golden, it may have been too dry when cut. The best area to assess colour is in the heart of a bale, not the outside, which can bleach out in daylight.