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 Expert
Posts: 5293
  
| I recently got my horses new feeders, the Avocado Bin type. I really really like them!! Way less waste and they are big and wide enough my allergy mare has not coughed once after putting her head down in them to eat. Lots of breathing room! I am feeding alfalfa and always put some grass hay in there for them to munch on. They love timothy but at over 30.00 a bale I switched to TEFF, which last year they loved, this year, not so much. Timothy CUBES are a lot more economical and I was thinking I could throw a bucket full of them into the feeders to pick and munch on all day. Just not sure if they need to be soaked or not????? Thanks! |
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 Expert
Posts: 1520
 
Location: Illinois | I always soak hay cubes and pellets, I've seen several choke on dry cubes & one of mine did on dry pellets. For me not worth the risk. I always add water in advance. I start soaking the pm in the morning when I feed, am starts soaking at pm feed. Then you're never sitting waiting on them to be soaked enough. Just my preference though, I know many people who feed dry. For me no one is there most of the day to check so if they choked it wouldn't be noticed until a feed time & by then it would be way too late. |
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Veteran
Posts: 155
| I feed cubes and don't soak unless they are NOT easily broken when I try to break them. I start any newbies out slowly with just a few cubes at a time and build gradually. I've only had one get sore in their tmj. I've fed cubes for 20+ years and never have had any choke. |
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Expert
Posts: 5293
| Perfect thanks! I guess I will soak should I decide to go that route with them. THis year I can't seem to source a good alfalfa/grass mix hay then I wouldn't need to worry about it. LOL typically mine do Not Like anything wet forage wise so Maybe I will just get 1 bag and experiment with it. |
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Expert
Posts: 1520
Location: Illinois | The cubes we get around here you can drive over and they don't break most of the time, I've actually tried it. That's why I'll never feed them dry. They're just the Standlee brand too, takes several hours for them to even soak to the center. The pellets aren't really any softer to chew either. |
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 Ms Bling Bling Sleeze Kitty
Posts: 20917
Location: LouLouVille, OK | JLazyT_perf_horses - 2018-04-18 10:51 AM I always soak hay cubes and pellets, I've seen several choke on dry cubes & one of mine did on dry pellets. For me not worth the risk. I always add water in advance. I start soaking the pm in the morning when I feed, am starts soaking at pm feed. Then you're never sitting waiting on them to be soaked enough. Just my preference though, I know many people who feed dry. For me no one is there most of the day to check so if they choked it wouldn't be noticed until a feed time & by then it would be way too late.
Im with her... I spray mine down good and they don't take long to soak it up.. they are pretty soft though, so I don't soak all the way through, but they are just even softer... my old gelding choked on cubes and his gets soaked more |
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 Cute Little Imp
Posts: 2747
Location: N Texas | JLazyT_perf_horses - 2018-04-18 1:37 PM
The cubes we get around here you can drive over and they don't break most of the time, I've actually tried it. That's why I'll never feed them dry. They're just the Standlee brand too, takes several hours for them to even soak to the center. The pellets aren't really any softer to chew either.
The Standlee brand used to be really soft and easy to break apart. I loved them because they would soften so fast in the water. Now they're hard as a rock, so I just get regular cubes at my local feed store. I haven't tried Standlee in a long time I was hoping they would be softer again, but I guess not :( |
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 Expert
Posts: 1631
Location: Somewhere around here | From my past experience, if I use hot or warmer water it takes less time to get them soaked |
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