Lets start of by saying I'm not the horsey type person in the family. that would be my wife. I'm general labor, farm hand, and builder of horse stuff (as directed by wife). We have a new farm and 3 big boys and a pony. We did a lot of research on slow feeders and then I built two boxes and used some fencing grate and bunji cords to secure the grates. needless to say, the horses figured out how to defeat the cords and remove the grate. Poor design on my part. THen, we got into winter and I setup 4 seperate outdoor stall areas so that we could give them seperation in feeding, since NO one wants to have anyone eating out of their food. They would share at the boxes, but not in the stalls. We bought some heavy duty slow feeder bags with 1.75x1.75 openings and I can cram 10-12lbs of grass hay in them. The problem is that it does not seem to really slow them down. Some feedings thay will stay on the bags and will empty that bag in about 4 hours. Some feedings ( we feed twice a aday, about 12 hours apart). there will still be hay in a few of the bags. BUT, it was my understanding that these slow feeders we suppose to allow these horses to nibble all day, and that a bag of hay should last for alot longer than what I am seeing. They rip at these bags and pull out large chunks of hay and not sjust a ffew strands. I've tried fluffing out the flakes as well as just shoving compacted flakes in. Nothing seems to change. Am I missing something? Is this normal behavior on these bags? We have been using these bags for almost 3 months now. Good bags. Tough webbing, no twine or rope. Horses have nto been able to chew or damage them. Only downside is when they get wet and freeze, they are tough to work with.

 out of  found this valuable. Do you find this valuable?    

Show Last Reply

I learned about the Natural Feeder here and after MUCH research and comparison, bought 2 from a local distributor this past summer. They seem to be a safe and effective solution overall... I needed large capacity as the 2 horses using it should eat about 3/4 bale per day per a nutritionist. The horses caught on very quickly and like the feeders(although even with the small grates, they need to be filled 2-3 times daily each which is disappointing... they are eating about 2 bales daily)BUT, they have undergone several redesigns lately, and worse, a change in ownership, and the new owner is extremely unethical. There was a divorce so of course there is animosity that shouldn't affect me. My particular feeders came with thinner, weaker, brittle grates which started breaking almost immediately. The previous owner promised they would be replaced just before the change and the new owner gave me false promises and strung me along for MONTHS. He does not answer my contacts now; I warned him that if there was no resolution that I would spread this warning far and wide. He was verbally abusive to someone who advocated for me and some distributors are no longer dealing with him. Plus, instead of 3 grates, you get only 2 now for the same price. The older style of grates were much different(I saw in person)and the really bad ones were only sold for a short time-he acknowledges that there were failures in the redesign, and these issues were fixed. Feel free to contact me for more-after spending almost $900 I expected better. I have 6 grates that aren't long for the world, and the small ones are unusable with breaks almost every place possible(I can show photos). The horses are very gentle with the feeders, never frustrated. It's a shame that this person did not care about customer service, or I'd have a much better report-they are really a great idea, and the outer part seems durable, anyway. An ethical company would have recalled these grates.

5  out of 5 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

Show Last Reply