Slow feeder box? And "free choice" feeding...

[Pocket_Pony]

Does anyone have one? Pros and cons, please?

My local Wilco store has this one:

https://www.farmstore.com/product/high-country-slow-feeder-saver/

I already have hay nets, but Mac being the piggy pig that he is eats through those fairly quickly. I thought I could either do the slow feeder so he’s at least eating “off the ground” or put the net in the slow feeder and that will slow him down. I could also put a couple out in the dry lot so that he and Pony can walk around and share them.

As it stands, I weigh my hay for every meal in the hay net and they only hold so much anyway. Mac is IR (just got blood tests back) and I’m wondering about filling a box up and letting him eat more free choice. When he was grazing, he seemed to self-regulate how much hay he’d eat when I’d bring him in overnight so that his hay net wouldn’t be empty in the morning. But of course I don’t want him to over-do it. I just worry about eating fast and then his belly being empty for hours and then eating fast and empty-belly again. I don’t know if that sets him up for spikes of highs/lows in blood sugar that contributes to any IR issue. I feed 4x day as it is, I can’t do any more than that. I already feed low-NSC hay.

[x-halt-salute]

A barn I farm-sit for uses those very slow feeder boxes for every horse (all in stall/runouts). My impression of them is mixed. They do slow some horses down, especially when they are freshly loaded with hay and packed very tightly. Many horses can eat faster as they get lower and looser, when the “slow feed” mechanism is basically the weight of the grate pinning the hay down and the unevenness of their own eating pattern.

As for downsides, they are relatively heavy to move when full, but not so heavy that mischievious horses can’t move them into awkward places or damage them. If the grates get bent they can be hard to slide into the slot, and if the top part of the plastic gets warped or broken the lip that keeps the grate in doesn’t do so. In other words, they are not good for very playful or destructive horses, or those that might step on/in them.

I have seen horses wear their incisors on the grates, and one horse at this barn did get the heel of his shoe hooked under the grate somehow once (maybe pawing at it?). No real injury, but he isn’t allowed to have a box after that incident.

As for the IR free feed question, some of the horses in this barn have mastered the metal grate and are not slowed down by it. Those horses get their boxes taken away for part of the time that they’re in their stall/runout, which defeats the purpose, IMO, and they still plow through enough hay to keep themselves pretty portly.

For my own IR horse I have had the best success with constant access to NibbleNets with the smaller sized holes, and I would never consider using a HCP box for her after seeing them in regular use with other horses. Another facility I used to work at built wooden slow feeder boxes and put sheets of NN-type webbing mesh on frames (similar in concept to the HCP boxes, but homemade). They were new and seemed very effective for keeping their Haffie from hoovering hay when I last visited there, but don’t know how well they’ve held up over time. I’m a big fan of the web nets vs. the small hole string nets – not sure if it’s the rigidity of them or the space between the holes that slows my horse down more, but there is an appreciable difference IME, and I haven’t yet found anything better.

[Jexa]

I built my own that can easily fit a full bale. Mine has a hinged lid with a frame that just fits inside the container. I used to have a net stretched over the frame that worked well for a couple years, but horse finally managed to tear enough holes in it that I switched it out with plastic lattice…that lasted approximately 2 weeks. I’m about to put a new net in and hope bigger holes mean he won’t tear the netting to pieces. I would NOT use a metal grate like in your link, they cause too much damage to teeth/gums.

Pros:
-fits a whole bale. If you want to feed free choice hay this makes it super easy. Takes 2 minutes to plop a new bale in, take the strings off, Set the frame on top of the bale, close the lid and voila. Free choice hay for days. Literally. This is also helpful if you need someone else to look after your horse for a few days. More convenient for them and less to worry about for you.
-depending on how much hay you want your horse to get, you can use a net with large openings (or none at all if they won’t fling their hay everywhere) or small if you want them to eat slowly
-since using this I have ZERO hay waste as long as the frame is working. The lattice experiment didn’t end well so I had hay all over the stall for a few days, but usually this contains everything better than any other system I’ve seen.
-keeps hay off the ground so they’re not ingesting various detritus off the ground/peeing on it and then refusing to eat it/it doesn’t get blown away
-natural grazing position, better for their neck/respiratory system than hay nets/tall feeders

Cons:
-replacing the net is kind of a pain, but I’ve been using this for maybe 3-4 years and have only recently needed to replace it, so it’s still a huge time saver over filling regular hay nets
-my horse likes to communicate his contempt of me with his poop. Human is too slow with breakfast? Poop in the water bucket. Be made to trot quietly past the horse eating hose (that’s been there forever)? Poop 5 times while getting untacked in the cross ties. Have to work harder for your hay because she replaced the net you’ve worked hard to destroy with a stiffer plastic lattice? You guessed it, poop in the hay feeder. If your horse isn’t a complete asshole like mine, this may not be a problem, but cleaning out a poopy water bucket is a cakewalk compared to sifting through an almost new bale of hay trying to find all the little poop bits. Pro tip: I don’t care how much the hay cost, just chuck it all. Don’t give your horse the satisfaction of seeing you struggle. Otherwise he’ll know it’s working and try again.
-depending on size/materials, very difficult to move and takes up a lot of space. This can be a good thing, since it means it’s not easily moved by horses, but something a 1200 lb animal can’t move is something a 120 lb person sure as hell can’t. I’m debating selling mine cheap when I move just so I don’t have to mess with it. I’m considering making a smaller one that can be easily moved with a hand cart and just build it with the ability to anchor it to the wall.

I can’t speak to the IR side of things, but even if you don’t want to feed truly free choice, these are a great way to feed hay. I’ve been a big fan of mine.

[Palm_Beach]

I think the holes look a bit big and he will still eat too much. How big are the holes in your slow feed net? They come as small as 1 inch. At times (like now) I feed in 1 inch nets. The nets are small, so one of my horses actually gets 2 nets in his stall. If they are in the dry lot, I’ll hand 3-4 nets around the fence.

[Pocket_Pony]

Hay nets are supposed to be 1", but they are more like 1.5", I think. I have used 2" nets and 1" nets. I’ve used the Freedom Feeder nets and they are always good in the beginning but then they seem to get stiff and shrink and it is easy for the horses to bite holes in them. The most recent ones I got were from SmartPak, I think, and are nylon and are more durable and hold their shape well.

I was mainly looking for a solution whereby he could put his head down to eat and also not shake the net so the hay goes flying all over the place (along with maybe getting a sore neck, I don’t know).

[shayaalliard]

I have that one. The top likes to come off the base. It is easy to fill, but did not slow my are enough. I paid 40.00 for it brand new after the local feed store wanted it gone- it had sat on the shelf for 3 years or so.

[Obsidian_Fire]

I have the Junior sized model of that slow feeder and it has nylon ‘grates’ rather than metal. A friend of mine has the large one with the metal grates and they were way too large to slow her pony down - she replaced it with one she built herself with smaller grates, and they still ate thru it too fast.

I like your idea of the slow feeder net inside the box - wonder if you could put the hay in the net and then put the grate over the top of that! Hah. Might really slow pony down. Altho I was feeding one horse with a slow net and she just ripped a hole in it. Kinda defeated the purpose.

On a side note, I have often wondered if IR-type horses would self regulate if allowed free choice access to feed. I’ve only ever seen them seriously regulated and that really must stink (for them).

[JB]

I would look more to hay pillows and other similar types of bags to hang (on solid posts, obviously), or even toss on the ground. Shoes could be a problem for having them on the ground, and you probably wouldn’t want to do that if it’s too wet, but on drier footing you could scatter several hay pillows.

The metal grate will indeed end up wearing on teeth, sooner or later, depending on how aggressive the horse is bearing down. I’ve seen the same thing happen with horses who are constantly eating out of hay nets too I have not yet heard of that with the hay pillow type things, possibly because I don’t know enough people using them, or because the wider nylon straps are not really an issue in that regard.

You can make a slow feeder box too, and use something like a hockey net stretched out on a frame that inserts like this one, and while that wouldn’t negate the tooth issue, will at least slow it down.

[Pocket_Pony]

Thanks for the feedback, everyone! I’ll pass on this box.

Regarding hat pillows…is that something specific? In the past I tied the hay net string such that I could toss the net on the ground and they’d eat it that way. Where we are now, though, is sandy so I worry about them ingesting sand if the net were on the ground.

[JB]

Yes, Hay Pillow is a brand, though there are probably other brands similar
https://www.thehaypillow.com/

[Jarpur]

I tried a Hay Pillow – my “pro” eater simply put a hoof (unshod) on a corner, pinned the pillow down, and ate through the net quickly destroying the net. Same thing with the replacement pillow (tried a different size of net in that one). Also, it’s a bit tough to fill and the zipper can be a pain.

I like the concept of feeding at ground-level, but this product just didn’t work out in my situation.

[demidq]

I bought a water trough, bored holes for drainage in the bottom and attached a carabiner to each end at the bottom. I got a bale sized slow feeder net, and clipped it into the trough so couldn’t be removed by horses. It lasted about 18 months (with a couple of minor net repairs), and replacing the net was no big deal.

[Pocket_Pony]

@demidq

I bought a water trough, bored holes for drainage in the bottom and attached a carabiner to each end at the bottom. I got a bale sized slow feeder net, and clipped it into the trough so couldn’t be removed by horses. It lasted about 18 months (with a couple of minor net repairs), and replacing the net was no big deal.

Sounds interesting. Since I’m not mechanically inclined, could you be more specific in how you set it up? How big of a trough? What were the drainage holes for? How did you attach carabiners and to what? How did you the the net?

[Fharoah]

When my horse had injured his ligament he had been on two stall Rest I was going to buy a slow feeder but the hospital that diagnosed him had recommended against one as they had experienced some horses to damage there teeth with them.

[demidq]

Hi Pocket Pony- not sure how big the rubbermaid type trough is, it’s at the barn, but just big enough to hold a 40 lb square bale easily.
I drilled about 6 1" holes in the bottom for drainage, then ran a piece of coated wire clothes line through the 2 holes nearest the ends into the trough and attached the carabiniers to the clothes line to clip to the net. I can’t remember the name of the company where I bought the net, but it was sized to hold a bale. Took me an hour to make. It would have been nice to find a leaky trough, I hated to put holes in a new one!

[grayarab]

[ATTACH=JSON]{“data-align”:“none”,“data-attachmentid”:“9771741”,“data-size”:“medium”}[/ATTACH] I would be very cautious about using slow feeders with metal grates,it will wear the enamel off the horse’s teeth over time. Even the slow feed hay nets can cause damage to teeth over time. I’d personally spread hay out so horse has to walk to eat,it’s more natural way for them to eat.

I spread my hay out for my horses and it last them all day.Here’s a photo of a horse’s teeth damaged from a metal grate slow feeder box. Got it off facebook saw this the other day it’s not my horse.

[Pocket_Pony]

Ewwwww on those teeth! I’ve decided against a feeder box based on everyone’s input.

I’ve spread out hay for the horses - I wish it lasted even half a day. I’ve also hung multiple hay nets. I’m trying to keep Mac on a diet so he doesn’t get too fat. I’ve considered just getting a round bale or even just putting out a whole bale to see if the constant availability of hay would deter him from bingeing. Our bales are probably 80 lb or so.

I do have an old cracked trough that I’ve been hanging onto for no reason. Maybe it is time to put it to another use!