My friend devised a slow feeder using a metal oval-shape water trough. She put 4 eye bolts on the sides close to the bottom and cut a piece of lattice from Home Depot to fit the opening. Place hay in the bottom, lattice over the hay and chains connected to eye bolts hold lattice in place. Her herd of 5 each have one. Works for 2 of my 3. Donkeys are good with it, horse is too rough with it and lattice keeps breaking.
Most cheap lattice that I have seen and Home stores is held together with small staples. I would not want to have those poking around in my hay feeder.
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Just ordered the corner porta grazer! Can’t find anyone who has a bad thing to say about it! I’ll let you all know how it works out.
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No, there are NOT staples in the lattice.
I clip a full bale hay net to the bottom of a tarter hay basket. Can fit two full bales in a basket. I think it’s safe enough for a shod horse.
FYI: cheap wooden lattice is strips held together by little staples at the criss-cross points. White, plastic lattice is molded plastic, not overlapping criss-cross pieces.
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I’ve had one of these for over a year and have nothing but good things to say about it. I spent a few weeks researching the options and ended up with this one. The company was great to work with also, they took the time to email me and make sure I was getting the right size grate for my hay type. Horse eats every scrap of hay out of it no problem, but it does take him a while.
Update: I received the Porta Grazer today and my horse dove right in. She loves it. Will wait to see what tomorrow brings…
Glad to hear you like the Porta Grazer! If you ever need a less expensive backup, send me a message. My husband made me one out of wood and for the piece on the inside that drops down we used nylon webbing that we got from one of SmartPak’s slow feeder nets - never had any issues with it and my mare is a voracious eater LOL
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I also just got one of these. (Got it from a distributor and realized I got old model for same regular price … grr.) But after one day of ignoring it, she seems to be quite happy with it now! I liked how it’s not as deep as the portagrazer, or at least as best as I can tell from pictures on the internet. Very easy to fill too.
Porta Grazer day 2. Horse loves it. Which means I love it!
Savvy Feeder people–how much hay fits in there?
Right now our flakes are pretty fat (4-5 inches thick) and densely packed and I’m getting about 4 flakes in there but am not tightly packing it in as it’s still new to her and I don’t want to make it too challenging (yet). In terms of volume, it’s a little less than half of a rectangular bale.
I don’t have a way to weigh the flakes but the website says it can hold up to 18 lbs of grass hay.
Do a search for PortaGrazers on here before you purchase. There are some mixed reviews. I have one and it’s just ok, but I rarely use it. It’s a pain to fill and needs to be cleaned regularly but then takes awhile to dry. The nets are easier.
I missed pg 2 of the thread so I’m ETA that I hope it works for you!
I love my Smart Paks large hole hay feeder. it is very durable! I have 2. one for inside and one that says outside. The outside one is still going strong over a year later.
My hands really want to be relieved of the net and/or bag filling chore, plus I much prefer my horses to be eating hay in a more natural position, rather than from a hanging feeder.
We have a Tarter Equine Hay Basket for the paddock, with hockey netting added, which works great, but now I’m ready to invest in stall feeders. But, they have to be super easy/quick to fill, only need to hold a couple/three flakes of hay (I’m not looking for anything that can hold half a bale), and must slow down the hay consumption rate.
Seems as though the available products have somewhat mixed reviews and, at roughly $300 a pop, I need to be satisfied with my choice, whatever that may be. May have to come up with my own design, or adaptation of an existing product.
