safe treats?

[Minouri]

If this topic has been done before just direct me that way. But I'm looking to learn more about which treats are beneficial and which treats are bad for horses. I read a lot of lists for horses eating vegetables then I found this list ...

Some things are not good for treats:

Lawn, hedge or garden clippings.
Cabbage, including broccoli, cauliflower etc….
Potatoes
Tomatoes
Acorns
Chocolate, if you are competing can cause a positive drug test.


Just curious if anyone knows why some of the above things are bad for them. Tomatoes? broccoli....it was on a good list on another site. Cauliflower? Is it the gas factor? Potatoes?

My neighbor likes to give my horses a slice of bread as a treat now and then and I didn't know if that was good or bad. Scooter won't eat it but our Appy runs over for the bread.

My other neighbor has started giving us corn for the horses and they seem to love to eat it raw on the cob. We pull back the husk but Snowy eats the whole thing.......Scooter just eats the corn and leaves the husk.

Someone told me that you should never let a horse eat apple seeds. Toxic?

Honey supposedly helps a constipated horse but should only be given in moderation.

Anyone know any good sites regarding treats? If I come across any good ones I'll share them here.

[Pasogirlz]

Why are acorns bad? Our horses eat them all the time.

[Minouri]

http://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search?encquery=351e069ba1c19e6c91189237dd10745c&invocationType=keyword_rollover&ie=UTF-8

Don't know if this is true or not but I looked it up.

[Pasogirlz]

Thanks. I did not know that. But our horses are exposed all the time. Our farm is built w/an oak hammock surrounding it. :shock: So far we've been really lucky I guess.

[Minouri]

Oak? Yipes, wait I'm reading more about it and the ones they say are bad are the Oak ones. hang on I'll post as I find it.

[Minouri]

http://www.newrider.com/Library/Misc_Tips/poisonous_plants2.html

OAK TREES - Quercus - Both the leaves and acorns of the tree are poisonous. Some horses/ponies may develop an appetite for acorns with serious consequences, however the comsuption of small amounts is probably harmless; but to be safe fence off any oak trees during the autumn.

[Minouri]

http://www.manesandtailsorganization.org/toxic.html

[Pasogirlz]

There are several different oak species...and those did not look like what we have here (Live Oak, and Scrub Oak).

[Minouri]

Whew! I'm glad! I was surprised to read about the Oaks. I had heard about the red maple leaves but not anything about oak trees. I'm glad you don't have that type. :)

[DSDECKERT]

My guys love acorns too - I try to pick them up to limit their intake, but it's impossible.

I've also heard apples can cause gas, and should be given in moderation.

My horses love the Manna Pro Horse treats, Purina Nicker-makers and carrots. But Bianca's very favorite thing in the whole world is grass. She was at a barn with no grass for so long, she'd rather have that than treats any day.

[Pasomom]

Nope, thank goodness we don't have those kind of oaks! We'd have to send our horses off to be boarded during acron season! LOL The deer around here eat them in abundance also. Our deer also eat apple seeds and never seem to have a problem, of course, they are cud chewers and my not be suseptible to the same things as horses.

The grass clippings are not good because of the sand sucked up with the mower. Not only do they digest the sand, but it is also bad on their teeth to be eating sand all the time....wears their teeth down.

[Abejita]

apple seeds have cyanide in them But unless you are feeding them bushels of apples those few seeds are probably not going to hurt them

Tomatoes are actually in the nightshade family Dont know if they are bad for horses but people used to think they were posionous for humans..

grass clippings are bad because they are cut so small it immediately begins to heat up,ferment ..also leads to molds.It is kinda like feeding silage

[CarolU]

Well, grass clippings also ball up and cause choke. I would say that a small amount of grass clippings spread over the ground so the horse has to nibble only small amounts up would be safe...just check to make sure the mower is clean and there's no oil on the grass.

Apples and carrots both make good treats. Do not feed sugar cubes, they're nasty on the teeth. And large hay cubes can cause choke, but the smaller ones make nice treats.

My favorite treats (and my horses' favorites) are Nickersnacks. They're small hard baked cookies of grains and molasses. They don't desentigrate in your pocket. One is a small bite for a hrose, so you can carry many in your pocket at once - and best of all - they are totally addicting. Mine will do just about anything for a cookie. The word "cookie" can get nine sets of ears forward at once. ;-)

[PasoVicki]

Probably not a concern for people in most parts of the country -- but I was told that avocados (both the leaves and the "fruits") are toxic to horses.

[JennLM]

All the farriers out here use the IFA Healthy Horse Treat Apple flavor and they all go insane over them, even if they don't like normal carrots, apples etc for treats. It's a huge bag for like 8 bucks. Last us forever.

[Terry Wallace]

My Sultan loves apples...he will follow you for an apple..if he sees you have an apple he gets very delighted! Got to hold it for him though, or he will bite it in half, half will fall on the ground and get dirty...so I hold them..

If your horse doesn't seem to like apples...be sure to cut them up in small wedges so they can "try" a small piece first..... I have also made a hollow in a wedge of apple, stuffed grain into the hollow, and then they will try it more easily...

[Bonnie M]

I don't think I would let the horses eat acorns.

A friend of mine's gelding ate a lot of acorns and it really upset his digestive system. Not sure what exactly it did to him, but now he has to be fed a good quality hay, no coastal for him, he can't digest it well.

I actually buy alfalfa cubes and feed those as treats. Horses love em.

[motorgypsy]

It's the tannins in the acorns that is the problem and we do have two who are acorn fanatics. We try to keep them to a minimum. They are low in toxicity. Seems that I read the tannins stress the kidneys but I'll check on that. Tea has tannins in it and pregnant women aren't supposed to drink it because it interferes with calcium absorbtion.

We feed the large hay cubes to eveyone with no problems and have for about six years. If they are starving I supposed they might bolt them down so we do feed grain first and then the cubes if they are new to cubes.

[pnalley]

I have an App gelding that LOVES acorns. However they cause his jaws to swell. The swelling looks similar to the big jaw on some breeds of stock horses. My vet said just remove him from the acorn area and sure enough his swelling went down in a few hours.

Any pitted fruit is considered toxic to horses. Peach, apricot etc. Some horse like watermelon. Also and ornamental plants are considerd suspect. Four o'clocks are extremly toxic

I buy Apple Treats by Manna Pro, all my horse quickly became addicted and are horrible about begging. None are mouthy, but they will stand and look at you with those liquid eye's and you just know they want, need and desire an apple treat. :-?

[motorgypsy]

Paula are you sure he's not packing them in he's eating so many??? Like a hamster?? We board with a horse who will do that and she looks really peculiar and if you stick your finger where the puffy place is you can rake out the food packed in there. Someone says horses do it if they have hooks on their teeth but I think some just do it anyway.

[pnalley]

No, he's not storing them in his cheeks. His whole jaw bone swells. Like I said, it looks like the old time quarter horse head with the big jaw.

When his big sister was a baby she would store grain in her cheeks. So I am familiar with that oddity.

[motorgypsy]

The hamster syndrome! ;-) ;-) ;-)

That is weird. Both our stallion and one mare totally love acorns and will gobble them by the hundreds so we get out and rake them up so they don't overdose on them. They say the white oak acorns don't have as much of the tannins and I think that's what they were eating.

[Heidi]

Tomatoes are actually in the nightshade family Dont know if they are bad for horses but people used to think they were posionous for humans...
I don't know if they (tomatoes) are bad for horses or not, but I do know WHY people used to think they were poisonous... During the time era of the Middle Ages, people ate their foods on pewter plates or trenchers and the acids of the tomato would release the lead (?) in the pewter and give them lead poisoning, leading the people to believe it was the tomato that killed the person(s).
Heidi