My horse eats poop! Any idea why?

[Gypzywingz]

My horse and her pasture mates have been eatting their own poop. Does anyone have any idea why? Actually, she is being feed hay 3 times a day, which I don't think she really needs that much since she isn't being worked so I am not so sure why they are doing this.

[arnie11797]

usally foals do it to get good bactria out of there mothers poo but no idea sorry :) Hope you find out though love abbi&barney xxx

[frenchtrotter]

mine does the same. ive been told its coz he lacks minerals, so ive put a mineral block up in the stable and he has seemed to stop

[kayjayhorses]

Really not a good idea that your horses are doing this, worm larvae could be in the dung and obvisouly you don't want your horses digesting it.

I would say they are lacking minerals/vitamins/nutrition, are you feeding them anything else other than hay? as this time of year grass has no nutritious value.

Something added to their feed or water maybe a possibility.

[notpoodle]

i was told that one of the school horses at the yard was doing this. turned out he was lacking something (sorry, dont remember what, but i am sure if you google the subject, something will come up!0 in his diet and was trying to compensate for this by snacking on poo :)

julia
x

[eventerbabe]

lacking in selenium (i think!). i put my horse onto selenevite when he started that habit and he soon stopped

[Gypzywingz]

Thanks, they were getting sweet feed once a day but she hasn't feed them that for a few days. They did have a salt block out there before but I haven't really noticed. My boyfriends Mom keeps her with their horses until our pasture is done which should be in the next week or two but I will definatly look into the lack of minerals in their diet.

[MoeWalker]

My horse did this and l was told he had a deficiancy. Put him on equivite and he's been fine since.

[galadriel]

You've already had some good suggestions about possible mineral deficiencies, so I won't add to that :)

I did want to mention that it is a very good idea to keep hay in front of a horse. Horses need to be constantly nibbling on something or other, due to the way their digestive system works. They're very different from people and other predator types; we have a "switch" that turns our digestive system on when we eat.

Horses don't have one; their digestive systems are constantly running. If they don't have anything to eat, they can get a buildup of too much stomach acid (and other related complications), which can be very unpleasant and even physically damaging to the horse. Horses also have an emotional expectation of SOMEthing to do, which is usually just constantly nibbling; without something to nibble on, they can get anxious or upset, or develop vices like weaving or cribbing.

So keeping hay in front of them all of the time is very good for their health. It doesn't have to be hay with a lot of protein or nutrition--and by this time of year, if it was cut early last year, it may not have much in it anyway. So the mineral supplementation can be very helpful too.

[Jessey]

As I understand it this can be mineral/vitamin deficiencies or a lack of fibre in the diet so adlib hay and a mineral block in the pasture would be best bet. The reason the eat their own poo is because a horse only uses about 1/3 of the nutrients etc that you put in, so poo still has 2/3 of the goodness that you original feed had.

J

[casey]

Definately agree with the lack of fibre suggested by Jessey. Grass at this time is very poor, and lacks the essential nutrients. :)