"Doctor, my horse keeps on chewing wood. Is he ill? Should I be worried?" You are not the only one to ask this question, but the study shows that tackling wood chewing is a common problem for horse owners worldwide.
Wood chewing is among the most everyday vices in horses living in confined environments or stall-fed for more extended periods. We have answered all your queries, like why does your horse chews wood? And the effective way to stop the horse from chewing wood in this article.
Wood Chewing in Horses - one of the Major Vices
Vices are unwelcoming behavioral changes animals show primarily due to their changed lifestyle, surrounding environment, and other external factors. Wood chewing is not the only one of its kind. Other horse vices include cribbing or air-sucking, weaving, headshaking, bucking, etc.
The developing habit of chewing wood from stables, fencing, or trees causes untreatable damage to the dental and digestive health of the horse. Although chewing wood alone is not a severe problem, the results can be dangerous and even fatal if a horse chews nails, staples, or any other harmful substance along with wood.
Continued wood chewing in horses may threaten to rupture the gastrointestinal wall, sometimes causing punctures accompanied by oral wounds.
Why do Horses Chew Wood?
Prevention is always better than cure. To prevent wood chewing in horses, we must understand why this vice is developing. You might be able to counter the problem even before it occurs after knowing the common significant reasons for this behavior, listed below:-
Out of Boredom
Wood chewing is not a commonly occurring vice in wild horses, and this is because there's no such thing as boredom in the wild. Horses are active animals or, accurately, very active animals. When not exhausted up to what their potential allows, lack physical exercise, or when kept in stalls or paddocks for a long time, these animals develop vices such as chewing wood.
Dietary Inadequacy
Wood chewing may be solely due to boredom or may have underlying causes such as dietary deficiencies. Studies depict that hay quality plays an essential role in developing this vice.
One must re-calculate the fiber content of the hay before giving it to the horse. If grass or pasture provided to animals fails to deliver adequate fiber, it may lead to wood chewing.
The dietary problems are not only limited to fiber deficiency but can also be due to a deficiency of vitamins. Lack of vitamins leads to pica in animals, a habit of eating non-edible stuff, such as wood.
Wrong Habit Development
A horse might develop behavioral changes under another horse's behavior. To simplify this, you may understand it as a 'domino effect'- If one horse starts chewing wood, the other follows. It's more of a psychological phenomenon propagating through a horse herd.
How to Stop Horses From Chewing Wood?
Identifying the cause of a problem is the most crucial point in any equation. Since we have already outlined the possible factors that lead to wood chewing in horses, we can now eliminate these factors and set free our horse from this terrible vice.
1. Keep the Horse Engaged and Active
Keeping a horse active is the key. As mentioned, horses are trapped in vices when bored, so they must be kept busy to avoid this. Set your horses free (in a limited area), and let them play with other horses and roam around. Include an active riding schedule so that the horse is exerted (till a healthy limit).
Horse-friendly toys are also available to keep them entertained. The key here is to let them be active and unrestricted.
2. Avoid Isolation of Horses
Horses, when kept in isolation, become very prone to vices. It's an understandable pattern of behavior in humans too. For example, if you isolate a child from the other friends he plays with daily, wouldn't he be bored? The same goes for horses. When separated from the herd, they start acting weird and fall into vices.
But isolation has to be practiced if the horse is unwell or, say, a potential threat for disease dissemination to his mates. In such cases, Horse owners should regularly visit their horses and nurture them with compassion and empathy.
Generally, horses are relaxed, happy, and cheerful enough not to get bored to start chewing wood.
3. Evaluation of Diet
'A healthy gut is a healthy mind.' Horse owners must provide their horses with a nutritious diet to keep the vices at bay. Remember, it's not the quantity that matters but the quality of diet.
The diet should contain a high amount of fiber so that horses don't go looking for them in the woods. Reducing grains and supplementing them with more roughage is helpful too.
Increasing intermittent feeding of roughage in the diet creates a mirage of natural grazing in animals and helps them reach satiety.
The diet must also contain mineral mixtures and salts to satisfy the need for vitamins and other macro and micro minerals.
4. Stick to the Schedule of Exercise and Feeding in Horses
As much as we desire to escape from our routine life, one cannot deny the importance of routine. It is essential to schedule daily practices suitably in horses too. Horses like to stick to a routine exercise and feeding schedule.
This means the horses should be supplied with food from time to time in a day rather than stocking their manger with ad-lib feed. This will keep the animal excited and awaited towards food, again a measure to eliminate boredom.
5. Behavioral Therapy for Horses
Sometimes, even after adopting these measures, the horse keeps on with his malpractices. The reason may be due to early adoption of such behavior or a psychological dysfunction formed in his brain. To resolve this issue, one can contact an animal behavioral specialist.
A behavioral specialist understands horses and influences them to change behavioral patterns.
The therapy can be complex if the majority of the population in a herd has developed this vice. In such cases, horses tend to gain the immorality of eating wood again under the influence of others.
The above-listed measures help stop wood chewing in horses, but one can also consider these points as preventive measures. It is far better to introduce an active daily routine in a healthy horse so that it does not develop any vices in the first place only.
The same goes for socialization. If the horse gets to play with the herd regularly, it will not be bored and hence will show an excellent behavioral pattern. Also, if horse owners are compassionate towards their horse from a young age, they start communicating with him and can manipulate his behavior in a better way.
Apart from this, applying nontoxic bitter sprays over wood is also recommended so that the animal avoids biting the wood around them.
FAQs
Q1. What causes wood chewing in horses?
Ans- Chewing wood is primarily out of boredom due to a lack of activity and socialization. But low fiber content of the feed can also serve as a source of spread of this vice.
Q2. Is it ok for horses to chew wood?
Ans- Wood chewing alone is not harmful to horses but can be fatal if they ingest nails or splinters while chewing wood. Wood chewing cause oral wounds and rupture the gastrointestinal lining, disturbing the gut's harmony.
Q3. How to permanently stop horses from chewing wood?
Ans- A range of horse-friendly toys are available in the market, eliminating horse boredom, but anti-chew strips (bitter taste) or bars also remain a good option. Introduce more fiber in the diet and introduce an active daily routine in a healthy horse's life.
Q4. How do I add fiber to my horse's diet?
Ans- Hay, an excellent source of fibers, can be added as cubes. Other fiber-rich roughages or fiber-rich byproducts can also achieve the same.
Conclusion
Chewing wood in horses is one of the significant vices. It can lead to severe problems and complications, such as rupture of the intestinal mucosa and oral cavity (mainly due to ingesting sharp objects such as nails, staples, and wood).
We have discussed the causes and the ways to stop wood chewing in horses. Every horse owner must focus on eliminating the root causes of boredom by socializing animals and introducing them to a more playful, healthy environment, simultaneously supplying them with fiber-rich food.
Last but not least, if vices like chewing wood are prevalent in your herd or if the matter is out of your hand, seeking help from a veterinarian is highly appreciated. They can identify the problem and act accordingly.