How To Stop A Wood Chewer?
Posted by Zolly | Under Nutrition Saturday Nov 28, 2009I have a horse at my place who is destroying everything by chewing. He never used to chew until he came 2 months ago. At first, we thought it was a lack of nutrition, so he was put back on the multi purpose supplement he was on before he came and we put him on Quitt. That seemed to work for a little while, but he’s back at it again. He plays with my horse and toys all the time, and nothing’s changed feed-wise. Any other suggestions on how to stop him??
I had an old gelding that would play “termite” if you didn’t give him enough feed, if he didn’t like the food (He would also take WHOLE flakes out of his feeder and dump them in front of his stall if he found mold in them at a boarding stable.). He NEVER windsucked, he just let you know the food wasn’t right! I once watched him “tell me” that they hadn’t fed in the morning by looking at me, then at his feeder and then he grabbed the side of the wood stall and RIPPED! Then looked back at the feeder again. You know I’d love to have a 100 of him, ’cause when it came to feed, he was no dummy!
Try setting a couple of timothy hay flakes out for him and see if that curtails the chewing.
try putting some hoof oil along the edges where he likes to chew and then when he goes to chew he will get a horrible taste in his mouth and this should make him not want to do it, my friend tried this with her cribber and it worked. also whenever he does tell him off so he that he knows it wrong. hope this helps
xo
cribbing halters most of the time work but there are alot of different kinds and the metals seem as if they dont work as well but a horse at a farm has a all leather one thats called miracle cibbing halter. also another horse did that at my barn and we sprinkled this red hot cayenne pepper on it…it was for horses
The chicken wire and metal edging is probably your best bet. I have a gelding who will chew in his stall so I bought a bunch of angled metal bars to put all around his stall and door (it worked). He and my mare also chew tree bark in the winter and the chicken wire stops them (at least on that tree).
ok…so its called cribbing….the horses usually do this because they are bored…try looking on horse supply sites, such as doversaddlery.com for things to help stop his cribbing most horses cant stop completely but can get better. you can use a grazing muzzle which lets him eat grass and hay but not wood, there are sprays, feeds, pastes, and cribbing collars
well i don’t know if you like electric fences but you could wrap a electric fence around the trees he chews on. you could also get him a cribbing collar. or maybe you could wrap plastic fencing around the trees….. so ya theres some ideas (hope you like my ideas… good luck)
p.s. how old is the horse if hes a baby hes probably going through that chewing stage…. (he’ll get over it)
I used Tabasco sauce once. It worked for awhile, then the horse liked it. That wood chewing drives me crazy…talk about destroying a barn.
cribbing halter. More riding or pasture time cribbing sign bordome. New callenges in riding
Have you tried a cribbing collar? That might help.
Is he chewing or cribbing?
I was sure you were not one of those that didn’t know the difference:)
Cribbing is setting his teeth down on a ‘ledge’, arching his neck and sucking in some wind which sounds like grunting .
Chewing, you’ve done what you could. Keeping him with a companion, busy, and out of a stall, plus coating all wood surfaces with Chew Stop (or the like), free choice hay is another chew deterrent.
My mare will rip up wood if she is upset. My gelding will if there is no hay (even if he is NOT hungry)
Cribbing, a crib collar.
Other than that…there aint much to be done.
edit: I emphasized the cribbing/chewing since so many people thing it’s the same.
edit: Driver had a great remedy that I forgot about…wire.
We used to tack down a wire across the tops of the rails and also a mesh on the corners to deter chewing.
Hard to put those in the stall though since there could be a serious catastrophe.