Use of Small Mesh Hay Nets?

[Roxane Martin]

I have been wanting to move toward slow feeding so that hay can be present more often and encourage more natural continuous eating of hay. I cannot use round bales and don't like the mess I see of them anyway. I am in NE Penn and have timothy and orchard grass hay. I have been looking at small mesh hay nets--suggestion is to start with 2 inch openings and then maybe move to smaller if need be. Of course, most of the comments are with full-sized horses, so I'm unsure regarding that size with minis.

Have any of you tried them and what was your process to move toward that system of feeding? What size holes did you use?

Our herd ranges from 33 to 37 inches, 3 geldings and 2 mares, ages from 9-12 years.

Thanks for your observations and suggestions.

 

[Marty]

I saw them in use at someone's farm and they loved them and said they were wonderful and very pleased. But what I saw was an accident looking for a place to happen. I wouldn't have them on my place for nothing. Just my humble opinion.

 

[Leeana]

Hello - Yes I just bought four recently from Megan (Mydaddsjag) here on the forum.

I think the holes are about 2" and I really like them. They are the Tough-1 brand slow feed hay nets. I am not really showing a lot in the upcoming fiture, and well, it is fall/winter now, so I like for them to be able to "graze" as I think a full tummy is a happy and healthy tummy. What i've been doing is I only use them in the afternoon. I just throw hay into them in the morning, as I know personally in the morning I am hungry and want something to eat THEN, so am sure they are the same way. Then after they eat that, I will hang up the slow feed hay nets a couple hours later and they do work and last. Then I normally just have to toss just a little bit of hay in at night for them to eat. But the slow feed hay nets do the trick and give them something to do. The first day, I think the ponies used them more or less as "floss" though...didn't get the concept of SLOW (LOL) but now they all seem to get the concept.

I am a major anti hay net person - but these are safe and most my ponies are 36-46" and I don't worry at all about them getting their feet in them. I would almost say it was impossible. Perhaps a foal if they thought the net was a "toy", could get their feet tangled up in it, but I feel very safe with these nets in the barn and as soon as I have extra time to try and find them on the internet, I plan to order about four more. I put one between each stall so 2 can share and it seems to work well.

I do take the nets down at night when they are empty, maybe around 9-10'ish or so. I would like to keep them full 24/7 and eventually maybe my work/sleep schedule will allow me to do that and I will just move to keeping them full 24/7.

 

[Matt73]

Why would you want to use them? The only time I use hay nets is when I'm transporting big horses and they are very high up by their head. If you're feeding grass/timothy hay, why can't you just put one flake/horse spread out around the paddock/field? The nice thing about feeding that type of hay is that you can just throw it at them

My adults get 4 big flakes/day each and are never hungry

 

[Leeana]

I think she is asking about the "slow feed" hay nets. Not the regular hay nets.

 

[Marsha Cassada]

I just ordered one from the Cinch Chix.

My dil uses one for her lipizan and she loves it. She says her horse chooses it over a pile of hay. Have not received mine yet, but I'm anxious to give it a try.

 

[mydaddysjag]

The slow feed hay nets really slow the horses down and make their hay last them much, much longer. Horses are designed to eat small amounts often through the day, and it helps reduce behavior issues, as well as digestive issues such as ulcers, and also reduces waste. I know I can toss my horses hay on their stall mats and they will have it GONE in 30 minutes. I put the same amount of hay in busy snacker hay feeders and it lasts them 4-6 hours. The "easy" answer a lot of people have is to just feed them more hay, multiple times a day, but honestly, my horses are both pigs and would be grossly obese if I did that. This way they are still getting the correct amount of hay for their size and weight, but it lasts them longer. They generally eat their breakfast around 9 and that hay lasts them until between 1 and 3, then around 6 I do just throw a handful of hay to each horse scattered in the pasture, and then they come in to eat again 830 or 9, and have another hay bag with their grain then. Its much healthier for them to eat like this than gorging every 12 hours. There ARE slow feed hay nets that are safe, the tough-1's I sold Leeana have very small holes, I wouldn't be worried to use them with any adult mini. I bought them to use with my own guys, not knowing that my husband had ordered me the busy snackers for my birthday. I kept the busy snackers because they are super simple to fill, and are easier to attach. I have a heavy duty eye bolt into my stall walls, and attach the busy snackers with a double end snap.

 

[JMS Miniatures]

The only thing I have against these type of hay nets is this, ok maybe several reasons. One is they naturally eat with their head down. So if you have it against a fence or wall they aren't eating naturally and heard it could cause some health issues, another is they are grazers and look for food, this way they aren't moving around, also the safety issue as Marty said.

The plus side is that it does slow them down and saves your hay. But I just prefer to scatter the hay on the ground.

 

[shorthorsemom]

I bought one after the feed store showed me they had just gotten the hay bags in with the smaller holes...I thought it looked cool.... I filled it with hay and put it in my regular metal hay feeder to slow them down. My feeder has uprights where you put the hay, is custom made and very safe with a trough underneath to catch the fines, but they can still eat pretty fast out of it. so I tried adding the hay bag to slow them down even more..., I took the rope and wove it over and over through the holes practically stitching it in place in my rack and attached it very securely to my hay feeder with three double ended snaps. It wouldn't budge.it looked safe and really slowed them down. I watched them eat for quite some time just to be sure it would work.. .. I thought of every safety aspect...or so I thought I did...

I left for the day... came home, it was out on the ground and one of my boys was standing on it, pawing at it and could have easily wound the rope around his legs....The snaps were all still on it... Houdini horses had removed it from my rack.. It looked like an accident waiting to happen ...

I would like to check out a busy snacker... On the small holed slow feeder hay bag, nope... never again. I got lucky. I know it too.

For now... my custom made feeder is good enough.

I need to do some more research before I try something else.

 

[Sandy B]

I have been using a couple different type of slow feeder hay bags. I have nothing but success! I use them in my stall hay racks and in pasture feeders. we have also used them in ground tubs secured by dee clips. I use them on both our quarter horses and our miniatures. I have not had one issue with horses getting caught up in them. We do tie them to the feeders though. The netting diameter is very small, maybe 1.5" t0 2" max. I really like the Kensington Slow Feeders and they come in two sizes. You can get just the plain all netting slow feeders too that are cheaper. They are great for horses that pork their feed and horses that are cooped up in their stalls. The hay waste is zilch too. I have been using slow feeders for about a year now and absolutely love them.

 

[Kim~Crayonboxminiatures]

Before I sold my stallion I used the Freedom Feeder hay net, I tied it either to the fence low enough that it was almost touching the ground and he could eat with his head lowered, or I tied it to the fence inside a big tub so he could eat off the ground level. I love it and hope to get the larger size for my mares this year. The holes are so small there is no way they can get caught up in it, and I tied it tight to the fence so he couldn't get it loose. It was pefect, he was an easy keeper so I wanted his hay to last longer, it took him a few hours to finish his hay instead of 45 mins, and when he got used to it he would "graze" the bag. After he was using it for awhile I had to use a third clip in the middle, because he learned to work the flap at the top and get his nose in it.

 

[shelterwood]

I use the busy snacker and love it. My mares are total pigs, and would have their hay gone in under an hour and then be looking for more. I do agree that horses should eat as naturally as possible, with heads down, and moving about. I tried scattering hay across my pasture, but there is just so much waste and mess in my wet, windy, snowy climate. I hang the bag low enough that they do have to lower their heads a bit, and since busy snacker is way too small to get a foot in it etc I don't worry. It's hanging in their run-in, against a wall, clipped with a clip to an eye bolt. I have found that they will leisurely eat then go out and wander the pasture, then come back and eat some more. So in that way it is way more "natural" than allowing them to gorge on a pile of hay, in my opinion. Here is the link to the size I chose for my two 40" mares to share. I can put 3-4 small flakes of hay in it easily (key word!), and as a bonus, if you have a hanging scale to weigh your feed it clips right on. If it is really cold, I will give them a flake of hay in their "normal" hay rack so they can get some quick calories first.

http://www.busyhorse.com/busygrandeslow.html

 

[targetsmom]

Didn't have to read all responses so maybe this was covered, but there is a HUGE safety difference between mesh hay nets and those designed for slow feeding. The former (mesh that expands) are a real hazard for feet getting caught, but the slow feeders have stiff "holes" that do not expand and contract and are too small for mini feet. Slow feeders are an excellent way to deal with/and or try to prevent ulcers.. LOVE them. I recommend the Busy Snacker, which I used to hang low enough that Max could eat in a natural position.

 

[shorthorsemom]

The busy snacker is what I want to try. debating on what size. Two minis, don't like to share, so I am thinking I need two.

t

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I have been using the small hole haynets for...donkey's years!

I tie them at both ends- where the hay goes in I put one strand of baler twine and tie that to the fence then I tie another strand to the bottom of the net and tie it along the fence. I can get nearly a bale in each of mine and when I am feeding hay I will put two or three out at a time.

I have never had a foot caught or any trouble at all. I do make sure the nets are never empty as horses pawing at the net might well get themselves into mischief and the nets are as high as I can get them without the risk of hay falling into eyes.

I have tried many ways of feeding, including custom made mangers, which were great while they lasted but that was only one winter of small backsides rubbing on them- and they are very well made, too!

I will not put hay on the ground, especially for the boys, as they make such a mess with it. Once winter sets in you get a bit of mud, no matter how careful you are, and hay stirred into mud is just awful!

I can see no reason why they should be a hazard if they are correctly set up.

Having said all that the slow feed boxes, that pull the grid down as the horse eats, and Marty's idea for a big bale are also brilliant ideas.

 

[Kendra]

We've started using EcoNets hay nets for big round bales, and we've really been impressed with them! With the EcoNets, they eat ALL of the bale, they can't stick their heads in to get poked in the eye or breath in dust. It really is amazing - in the mare pasture we still have an old round bale feeder (have more EcoNets ordered!) and there are piles of wasted hay around the bale. In the gelding pasture, where they've been using the EcoNet, when the bale is gone, it's gone, you can't even really tell where it was sitting. As the bale gets smaller they paw at it, and climb on it, and move it around, and they can't get their feet caught. We also have an EcoNet for small squares.

 

[Carolyn R]

I highly reccomend the busy snackers. I have used 3 different sizes. If you are looking for serving sized bags for two minis I would suggest the busy snacker size. It fits about 1/2 of a flake from a 45-60lb bale. When they are clipped in place, if you use a clip that has a swivel on it, the bag can turn in circles if they play with it when it is hanging. Each of my stalls had them. The only down side to having the smallest size it they don't hold much if you want to leave for the afternoon. I would suggest emailing busyhorse.com and asking if they are running any specials. They usually offer "buy three get one free" if you inquire. This way if you get 4, you can scatter them around if you will be away for an afternoon.

When I had more minis, I also used a 4'X 8' hay feeder. It breaks down into 4 panels, the bottom half is solid to prevent spillage, the top half is slanted bars to discourage them from shoving the others away from "their "space, it would hold up to a huge 700-800lb bale of hay. I also made a 4'x 8' grid to fit ontop of the hay, to slow down their eating and to prevent them from sorting through it. This was great when we went on vacation, yes they would eat more hay than needed, but it made things so easy for my father to place a 60lb bale under the grid and refill it as needed. I switched over to all busy snackers now, I just don't need the large panel hay feeder for the few I have.

 

[Margo_C-T]

I have three Busy Snacker slow-feed hay bags, and I love them! I understand concerns about flexible hay 'bags', but have no concerns about the Busy Snackers!

However, the downside is, they are not going to hold up much more than a year or so; the flat nylon is fraying severely in the area where the horses 'work at' the most while eating. I routinely 'burn' the frayed edges, which had helped(nylon will 'melt', sort of 'sealing' the frayed edges), but still, they are gradually 'wearing away' and will eventually break down.EDITED TO CLARIFY: It really is ONLY the one Busy Snacker that I use for my larger, more aggressive eater, B-sized gelding, that is fraying/frazzling on the bottom 6" or so. He really 'gets into' eating his hay, and while not seeming frustrated, he is very assertive in pulling the hay from the net. The other two nets, one of which I am not even using at this time, and the other, which is in twice-daily use for a 30" mare, so is never filled as full, have held up much better, and 'should' last a good bit longer.

Even so, because of this factor, I am working on making 'slow feeders' out of my 'regular' feeders! I began with my 8' long metal feeder, which is the only one which serves multiple horses(just 2 now.) It has a V-shaped hay rack above 'troughs' below, a standard design. For each side of the V, I cut two rectangles of 2" X 4" lightweight welded wire, as long as the length of the feeder. One piece was ONE 4" space shorter than the other. Then I laid each shorter piece on top of a longer piece, offsetting it so that 2"X 2" openings were produced. I used a very fine galv. wire to tie the two layers together at intervals. Laid each 'set' of layers on one side of the V,making sure the wire 'ties' were pointed toward the INSIDE of the V, so noses wouldn't be scratched, then used small cable ties to fasten them to the 'bars' of the V, again making sure the projecting ends were pointed INWARD. This made a very efficient 'slow feeder'! The cable ties occasionally break, but are easily replaced.

I am currently working on using the same priciple to turn my 'hang on the fence' plastic barrel feeders into slow feeders. Mine are made from 30 gal. plastic barrels: I created them myself, about 18-20 years ago, and they have held up very well; now I hope to make them even more useful! It is proving a bit more of a challenge to 'fit' two overlapping layers of the 2" x 4" wire into the hay rack section of the feeders, as the hay rack 'tapers down' in shape, but I am taking my time to get it right! Hopefully, the feeders done this way will last and last, and I can save the Busy Snackers for use when traveling, etc...as I really don't want to have to buy replacements every year or so.

Margo

 

[happy appy]

Margo I would love pictures of the feeders that you have made!

 

[Sandy B]

Here is a link to the Kensington Slow feeder. It is a bit pricy, but has very small webbing. This is considered a "4 flake", to me it is a large 2 flake size for full sized horses. They also make a smaller "2 flake"

http://kensingtonproducts.com/horse-tack/feed-bags/slow-feed-hay-bag-4-flake/