Chewing wood

[juliansteve]

Cobweb and Zoey are chewing the fences. We've got as much as possible electric taped. They are both getting Top Spec Anti Lam - a tiny bit of Happy Hoof and salt. The grazing is very rough but there s plenty of it for the Summer- its what I'd call perfect safe grazing. Any ideas about the wood chewing appreciated - its a pain not knowing what it could be!

[zeldalithgow]

Leia chews the field shelter, seems to be mainly in the winter I've got it splothered in cribox and anti chew sprays, I wondered if it was a habit with her as she has been stabled a fair bit in her life or maybe stress as Prince and Daisy keep picking on her

[shaklana]

there are many possible reasons. this time of year they could be lacking coarse fibre, try feeding a little old hay and provide free-choice salt. hth

[lancslass]

zoey will be changing her teeth julia and we find the youngsters and daniel at 5 yrs who is just putting his corners up tend to chew on anything available to relieve the pain..........bit like childs teething ring. cobweb could possibly be jusy copying of zoey! once the offending teeth are through they stop.
zoey will be putting up her front permanents.......[zoey is 3??........sorry, forgotten julia]

[alisonduke]

Bill is doing the same (hence my vits and mins post) and with both the fields he has having xc jumps in them, he isn't short of wood to chew! He also has what I would call 'safe grazing' but plenty of it.
I am wondering if he needs a supplement.

[juliansteve]

Thanks everyone. Yes Zoey is changing her teeth - shes' 3 Karen. The fronts have come through but I think its the back ones that are causing her to chew. She prefers to chew her lead rope or something like a bucket thats a bit softer. I think Cobweb is the 'real' wood chewer! And Zoey has copied!
Alison I was worried aswell that they werent getting their vits and minerals so thats why they are on Top Spec anti lam feed balancer. I wonder if they'd be as well on the full amount of Spillers high fibre cubes? Opinions welcome.
Their grazing is about 3 acres in 3 different bits of rough moorland which is in my opinion perfect for them.

[shaklana]

My 3 have been really bad wood chewers all year round. It's definitely a copied behaviour. Arro was so bad he would run across the stable yard to grab a chunk of doorframe if not tied up. Treating the fencing worked for a while, but the treatment soon wears off.
They've been 99% improved since switching to Simple System feeds. Why? I can't tell you.
Possibilities: 1) increased range of fibre sources
2) cereal free diet
3) molasses & oil free diet except linseed
4) free access to quality salt/magnesium bucket
5) regular feeding of long fibre through summer
6) feeding Total Eclipse balancer
I love my new fence posts too much to start experimenting with which of these has worked! I always keep a net of hay hanging somewhere and they occasionally have a few mouthfulls, hopefully they'll continue to choose this over the woodwork.

[zeldalithgow]

Oh that's a point Alison, Leia def chews when the mineral block runs out

[greydales]

I think some of them just like the taste - they will often include bark as part of their diet if they have access to trees. Dan has never chewed, Pip did, Olivia and Saturn do, Dancer occasionally and not sure about Toby (don't think he does!).

We had some hawthorn branches taken down in their winter field and they all had chew marks on them!

Cribox definitely works for mine but it's quite messy and needs to be applied with gloves!

[harveydales]

Mine have stopped chewing since I've been giving them one of those huge rockies in the field and they certainly use it. Also I'm putting out hay twice a day for the long fibre. The cold wet spring stopped the normal growth spurt in the grass here which is a relief from the Lami point of view but I did worry they're not getting sufficient fibre. They all go for the hay before doing any grazing.

[hannahjsheldon]

I have just treated our gate with cribox tonight!! I noticed Rocky has been chewing!! WHat is the big Rock thing people are talking about?? Is it the big natural Rock lick??

[hannahjsheldon]

I have just treated our gate with cribox tonight!! I noticed Rocky has been chewing!! WHat is the big Rock thing people are talking about?? Is it the big natural Rock lick??

[zeldalithgow]

They are big Rockies mineral licks, just bigger versions of the small baby Rockies you get red, yellow and white ones

[DalesLady]

Aster does it sometimes - I had never thought of it being anything but mischief with her though - perhaps that is naive? She is such a monkey sometimes, I just think she does it because she can.

[juliansteve]

Thanks everybody. They dont get any cereals at all - so we'll try a big Rockies and watch out for Zoey teething. They've started on the shed in the field but I put some furniture polish on the bits they chewed and they dont like the smell of that! Cheaper than Cribox!