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

Drilled about 10 nickle sized holes in a gallon bleach bottle, but not the bottom 3". They were just random. I added pellets almost to the bottom holes, capped tightly and threw it into the paddock in the snow. Curiosity got the better of the horses and they checked it out. They could smell the pellets then began to bunt the bottle around. Each movement resulted in a tasty morsel. An hour later they were still at it until one tired of it. The other, at one point got so frustrated that he decided to murder the bottle, throwing it around and kicking and pawing at it. Altho the plastic dented, I was surprised at how well it held up. So now you know what to do with those bottles (well rinsed, of course) before they go to the landfull.

3  out of 3 found this valuable. Do you find this valuable? Do you?    

I have 4 hay nets spread out over our small paddock paradise and I was wondering how much hay to put out for two small horses? Do I go in a stuff the nets full so they can have hay whenever they want or do I ration their hay twice a day? Right now I put in a flake of hay in each net plus an extra one (half for each horse) on the ground once in the morning and once in the evening. It takes them about 3 hours to eat up all the hay in the nets. I have tried to keep them all full but they eat and eat and eat and eat and are eating much more than before. Here a bale of hay costs 8 euros (used to be 5 but now with the economic crisis in Greece things are much more expensive).

Thanks for any help. Just want to know if I should keep the nets filled or ration. I want what's best for them.

Vida

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

Show Last Reply

I'm wanting to purchase a couple of the slow feeder pillows. I live in British Columbia Canada and would like to know if there is a distributor here or a contact site for where I can buy one.
Thanks,
Love my minis

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

Show Last Reply

I just stumbled across these surfing the web. Have any of you seen or tried these? They look like an easy way to quick fill hay.The holes are bigger than the hay nets..so not sure how much they slow the horse down. They say that they help with wasted hay. Check it out at this link.....

http://www.healthezhayfeeder.com/

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

Show Last Reply

When I need to use a grazing muzzle to prevent Jewel from getting any grass at all, I will tape the grazing hole closed with duct tape. Actually, I have two muzzles for Jewel -- one that is taped closed and one that has the open grazing hole. I just make a big 'X' over the outside of the hole, bringing the duct tape almost to the edge of the rubber. Before putting the tape on, I use a small piece upside down to cover the sticky part of the tape that will be directly under the hole. I figure that helps keep gross stuff from sticking inside the muzzle...
But with a little luck we won't need it this year on the turnout track at all -- just for playtime in the center field. :-)
~JoAnn

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

Show Last Reply

<http://www.valleyvet.com/ct_detail.html?pgguid=9a7abd6a-efcb-4f3d-997a-371a046c91d5>
I thought it was worth a look, though -- what do you think?
~JoAnn

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

Show Last Reply

Check out my new slow hay feeding video: It also shows why I look forward to the ground freezing! (hint: mud) <http://paddockparadise.wetpaint.com/page/Slow+Feeders> Get some popcorn first -- it's a long one. <G>
-JoAnn

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

Show Last Reply