Monday, May 17, 2010

Horse eats tree bark?

my welsh cob x strips the bark from trees and eats it. he always has done, regardless of what i feed him on.


my other welsh x doesnt do it, he just nibbles the shoots off hawthorn and brambles.


has anyone else seen this behaviour and is there a reason? the horse is in excellent health and is not bored in the field. he is 10 years old, and his teeth are fine

Horse eats tree bark?
Mine do it all the time! Some horses prefer the taste of bark. I've had them break out in hives because of the acidity of the Oak Tree Bark! Still, they munch away. I don't believe, neither does my vet, that there is any dietary dificiency, just an aquired taste. You may want to put wire around the trunks to keep the horses from "skirting" (removing all of the bark around the tree), which will kill the tree.
Reply:Maybe he wants good ruffage.
Reply:i love horses and ride often but i have never heard of a horse eating bark


soz if this don't help but mabey you should check with da vet about it


and mabey the food ya give him ain't nice and he's really hungrey from dat
Reply:dont worry some horses do this
Reply:you do eat orange skin similar thing try him monkey nuts could be pregnant fanceing
Reply:HI - Horses need to graze 18hrs a day on fibre based feed to keep in optimum health - if you provide him with grass and hay ( unlimited ) PLUS his normal hard feed AND he is bark stripping its simply a bad habit and you can stop him by buying some STOP CHEW or FOOEY... they taste bad and will stop him doing this.... if you dont think he is gettiing enough fibre to chew for 18hrs a day add some in the form of more hay or haylage or you can add a few pounds of extra fibre to his feed - Dodson %26amp; Horrell ALFALFA is good with added mollases ...or if he is a little overweight try Spillers READIGRASS ... with no mollasses - goodluck
Reply:I no longer have horses on my property, but are you sure he's not cribbing? From what you describe, that could be what he's doing. There are a few habits that are referred to as cribbing. Here's a good paragraph I found that describes it well. It could be he's chewing the bark rather than just sucking air as is often thought of as cribbing. It's usually stall boards that are their targets, but I've seen it with trees as well. I'd check with your vet.





Cribbing is an obsessive-compulsive behavior. The cribber uses its upper teeth to grab a stationary object, such as a fence board, then arches its neck, pulls backwards while swallowing air and grunting. (A wood chewer, on the other hand, actually chews and destroys fence and stall boards.) Cribbing is not only rough on barns and fences, but it also may be detrimental to a horse's health. The horse wears down his teeth and swallows air which can lead to inappropriate digestion and colic. Some equine insurance companies won't provide insurance for cribbers.
Reply:some horses seem to like the taste of wood ...you can get stuff to paint on your trees fences what ever your horse has taken a munch on that taste really nasty which deters them
Reply:Sometimes it is caused by the horse lacking something in their diet and maybe only one horse out of a herd will go ahead and find it in the bark of a tree. If there are goats or llamas in with them, they nibble on the trees and sometimes it gets the horses to doing it, and causes them to just acquire the habit because they smell the new wood (much like they will chew new, untreated wood in their stall)...I would say, most likely that something got the horse started and now it is just a habit...and yes, it will open up the tree so that certain parasites can kill it and you will begin losing trees. I would find everywhere the trees have been chewed and paint it with creosote, we did it in our new stalls all of the time and waiting for it to dry, then put horses right in the stalls...they don't like the taste and won't chew it. You just want to paint where the tree is chewed to seal it. It stops the horse, plus protects the tree from the parasites...some people use tar, but thats awful to work with. There is also a thick white treatment, (I can't remember what it is,) that can be purchased at some nurserys or farm supply stores that serve the same purpose.
Reply:Sometimes horses will display unusual traits, cribbing, eating shavings, biting or nipping at passersby, etc...





Try lunging the horse before you turn the horse out. Also, you might want to change his stall/paddock. You need to break the horse of that habit as a piece of the bark can easily become lodged in his digestive/breathing tract as tree bark, although organic, is difficult for horse to break down once eaten.





I would do two things to try to solve the problem, which needs to be solved. First, check with more than one equine vet within your community and ask if any other horse has the same problem and how to treat the matter. Second, I would try the ole hit and miss theory.





Change something: feed (you might want to add salt to his diet-feed bucket) and make certain the water buckets are full, change stalls, lunge the horse more often (or for a longer period of time), ride the horse more often and for a longer period of time, see how the horse reacts when you are there in front of him (might be in need of seeing more of you), etc...





There are no quick fix solutions to behavioral problems. You might also want to write to the Thoroughbred Times, or check out the Web site (thoroughbredtimes.com). There is an excellent column where many questions are posed and answered by qualifying vets and people in the field of equine sciences. Highly recommend the magazine.
Reply:hi i have two mares and from what you have described he sounds like he is board.. one of my mares has always done this.. if you put some mustard on the tree or he wont like the taste(it should stop him) if not do what i do.. give him a foot ball it will keep him busy...
Reply:Some horses just like the taste
Reply:I have 11 horses and i have had them for years and years!





A couple of mine, if they find a tree that has sweet green bark underneath they will bite it and strip it off. They like the sweetness of them, it cant do them any harm just keeps there teeth smooth. If you want to get him to stop, invest in a salt lick (can be bought from any equestrian shop) or a 'lickit' theyre sweet little tubs of horse treats, take them about 1-2 weeks to get through a large one.





Hope i helped, have fun with your welsh :) PS. I have 3 welsh ponys and 2 welsh foals :)
Reply:Perfectly normal. Especially in Spring and Fall as the sap begins to run. The tree sap that is in the bark is full of calories and sugar so horses like to eat it. In fact, Native Americans used to feed Cottonwood bark to their horses when grass was hard to find, or just to fatten up their herds.





You just need to be cautious as to what trees they are eating. The trees can be poisonous and it will more than likely kill the tree.





Best of Luck!
Reply:Most of the time when horses eat tree bark it is an effort to get more roughage in their diet. Try a feed that has the roughage in it, like Purina Horse Chow 100 or 200. Also adding beet pulp, in small amounts can help remedy this. If you don't want to take that route buy some good quality grass hay for him to have free access to during the day.
Reply:My pony will do it in the winter,





When I researched it I found that this was common among some horses in the winter as the bark stores nutrients. Aside from it killing the tree eventually, I didn't read anything about it hurting the horse (I'm assuming you wouldn't want them eating tree bark from a tree with poisonous leaves though).





If he has a salt lick and plenty of roughage he might just be a greedy fatty like mine and it's a matter of protecting the trees. I am going to wrap mine this year and not leave fattykins unsupervised near the trees, LOL.


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