I have a 21 year old horse that has started quidding his hay; we are working with his vet and dentist and may be pulling a problem tooth next week, but I’m concerned given the winter he may need to start eating on chopped hay and hay cubes. He currently gets the hay cubes at night while we are figuring out his problems, but I’m been searching for hay nets or feeders that would be good for chopped hay if we need to go that route. I’m concerned that a lot of hay nets it’ll just fall right out. Any ideas?
Portagrazer. Solid bottom and sides to prevent hay waste, but the feeder pan should still work for chopped hay. They’re pricey, but the investment is worth every penny. Mine is going on 5 years old and still looks like new. Both of my horses adapted to it easily.
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I haven’t tried it with chopped hay but it’s made for silage (which is chopped right?) and I love it for regular hay: https://www.smartpakequine.com/pt/shires-deluxe-haylage-net-21147#Reviews
Though I agree a feeder will be better than a net.
Portagrazer. Check with the company to figure out which pan would work best with chopped hay. I agree with @Amy3996, I have had mine for 7 years and they still look basically new. They are also by far the easiest hay feeders to load - much, much easier than dealing with hay nets.
might want to use a Hay Ball Feeder? we have two that use to fill with the finer hay that seems to always fall on the floor when willing haynets
Possibly a Hay Pillow would work?
I just used a Rubbermaid tub when I started feeding chopped hay to the ancient one.
The pony had helpfully cracked one so it no longer held water anyway…
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I’ll third Porta Grazer!
That being said, if you’re not trying to reduce consumption a simple trash can may work. I feed my retiree his hay in a large plastic trash can tethered to a corner in his stall. Smaller foot print than a water trough. Easy for him to eat his fill from. Contains most of the hay. The Porta grazer reduces mess and slows them down more of course.
If he is quidding his hay, a haynet or slow feeder might hurt his mouth and teeth to the point he just ignores it and/or gets upset and stresses himself out. Or it could make his teeth worse. If he is already having issues eating then I don’t think a net would be your best bet. Just my personal opinion though.
My thought process is if he is quidding, then it is going to take him even longer to eat soaked cubes or chopped hay than a normal horse anyways.
If you are wanting to soak the chopped hay to help with dust, buy a smaller sized muck tub, put the chopped hay in it and then enough water to just cover it, you can always either dump the water and fluff it around a little before serving it. Or leave the water in it as a type of hay flavored tea for him to slurp up and get more water in him especially thru the winter.
If you are worried about him dumping it, use caribiner clips attached to the muck tub handles, to clip them onto screw eyes in a corner of his stall. That’s what I did with a senior I had that ate hay I chopped myself for him.
