This message is from: "ruth bushnell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> I did a quick search and came up with a few sites that address cribbing. Two of the main reasons listed were pellets and sweet grains, confinement boredom, also mineral deficiencies, and even the condition Pica. Reference excerpts here below. Ruthie, nw mt US
"Occasionally old horses cannot chew their feed well due to problems of the mouth, such as excessively worn or missing teeth. These animals may require ground food or a complete pelleted feed. Complete pelleted rations for normal healthy horses can be fed, but horses often become severe wood chewers, cribbers, or weavers as a result. The reason is simple. They can eat the pellets very quickly and are bored for something to do. Pellets also do not have enough bulk to keep a horse feeling full, so they feel constantly hungry." http://ohioline.osu.edu/b762/b762_3.html "There are several oral stereotypies in captive horses; wood chewing and cribbing are the most common. Diet can modify them. Wood chewing decreases when hay rather than pellets is fed (Willard et al., 1977). Cribbing occurs most frequently subsequent to eating grain - the sweeter the feed the more the horse cribs. Increasing the amount of hay or decreasing or eliminating sweet feed will reduce cribbing (Kusunose, 1992; Gillham et al., 1994). Providing ad libitum access to hay is the best way to avoid the development of cribbing and wood chewing in stalled horses " http://www.awionline.org/pubs/cq02/Cq-horse.html Pica in horses: http://www.usask.ca/wcvm/herdmed/applied-ethology/behaviourproblems/pica.html The FjordHorse List archives can be found at: http://tinyurl.com/rcepw
