Hay mixed with shavings - safe or not?

Roxy's Mum

Roxy's Mum

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Jul 21, 2009
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When Roxy is stabled I put most of her hay on the floor, just to the side of the stable door on the rubber matting. Only thing with this is she ends up mixing a lot of it with shavings as she moves about.

I tie up two haynets as well, one above the hay on the floor and another outside the stable to keep her amused if she needs it. She often has plenty left over in both nets & some on the floor (some of which is wasteage from the net above it).

My question being, should I chuck out all the hay on the floor when I muck out? There's nothing wrong with it in that it's not wet or she has trampled poo in it but it is quite mixed up with shavings and I'm guessing this could be not good if ingested?

Also, where our hay is stored there are the inevitable rats that climb up & around the hay and leave little rat poos. I'm now also concerned this is not good enough to give as feed :help:
 
Not sure about the shavings but couldn't you invest in a hay bar as it does stop this problem.

I get rats dropping in my hay in the store room and it hasn't caused a problem to date. I know the horses shake it out but could it be leaving disease behind in the hay I'm not sure, but as said, everything OK up to till now, although I think we have flushed the little buggers out now LOL.
 
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Not too sure about shaving tbh, but was watching one of my boys eating hay the other day, he had a huge mouthful, I noticed a small feather amongst what was hanging out of his mouth, he expertly ate all the hay whilst letting the feather drop to the floor.
Clever boy.:biggrin:

Wouldn't be happy with the rat situation.
 
learningcurve said:
Wouldn't be happy with the rat situation.
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No... but what can you do? I know YO has put poison down before but unfortunately a liveries dog ate some & died so not sure he has it down anymore. YO is not usually one to invest in anything and I'm guessing that humane traps will cost him something significant. It might be a case of shaking the hay to make sure there's none in there as they tend to just 'sit' on the top anyway :poop:

I also don't know if they're rats or mice! They're not massive so may be mice, but either way is six of one half a dozen of the other - all much of muchness.

Hay bar sounds like a good investment!
 
Rats are slightly more dangerous due to leptospirosis and in the past I've had to throw feed and hay out when we had an outbreak of rats.
Dogs can catch it so assume horses may too.
I used to wear gloves handling it till we got the shed sealed off etc.
 
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A couple of mine are on shavings and when they mix their hay (they have it in wall mangers) into their shavings we just sweep it against the wall and leave it. Obviously if it's more shavings than hay then we sweep it back into the bed.

Our boys pick through it expertly. They use their top lips to sort it all out and the next day the shavings go back in their bed. They are very efficient. I have never worried about it.
 
Befnee's Hero said:
A couple of mine are on shavings and when they mix their hay (they have it in wall mangers) into their shavings we just sweep it against the wall and leave it. Obviously if it's more shavings than hay then we sweep it back into the bed.

Our boys pick through it expertly. They use their top lips to sort it all out and the next day the shavings go back in their bed. They are very efficient. I have never worried about it.
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Ditto!

I will often leave bits of hay in his sawdust as he just seems to pick it all out.

Quite clever really :giggle:
 
Yes, horses are absolutely brilliant at filtering out stuff with their lips. Just watch a horse grazing - they can pick out individual blades of grass! I used to look after a horse who could eat all his feed and somehow still live the tiny granules of his supplement in the bottom of the bucket. They can be extremely fussy when they want to be and picking hay out of the shavings is not difficult at all :)

We feed hay off the floor whenever possible. It is far more natural for horses to eat off the ground than from a haynet or hay bar. I also think it's better for their neck muscles to be eating from ground level.
 
hay bar is ground feeding, this is what mine have - they are pricey to buy but they do work well unless you have a horse that likes to empty the hay from their hay bar before eating it then you just have the same problem!!!

yeah I've seen mine seperate hay from shavings easily although if she has lots of hay in her haynets then maybe she wont need to muzzle through the hay on the floor if she doesn't want to.

I HATE rats, cats are the best answer - we have 4 and (touches wood) I've never had a vermin problem!
 
kayjayhorses said:
if she has lots of hay in her haynets then maybe she wont need to muzzle through the hay on the floor if she doesn't want to.
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I only really put the nets up to keep her occupied if she wants to continue 'snacking' if/when all her hay on the floor has gone - the bulk of her hay & what she usually goes for first is on the floor. I'd rather she ate from the floor too - and from you have all said I shall stop worrying about the shavings! Ta everyone! :biggrin:
 
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