my nose-its arrived, now what fill it with for an IR horse?

[buck22]

My nose-its arrived yesterday, what fast shipping and processing, and how well made they are! larger than I imagined they'd be. http://www.nose-it.com/ thanks COTH!

probably a little stupid of me to buy a treat-based toy for IR horses :lol: but here I am.

So, today I put in a few handfuls of flax cookies to see how it worked.
http://www.omegafields.com/productDetail.asp_Q_catID_E_2_A_subCatID_E_1_A_pro ductID_E_2

My goodness the nose-it can hold a TON of treats! and its so stingy giving them out! :cool: very cool toy.

Can anyone suggest a good tasty treat, thats not expensive, comes in bulk, extremely low/no sugar, has some weight to it so it actually falls out, and is bigger than a gumball but smaller than a ritz cracker. :lol:

The flax cookies are good, but at $62 per 15#, pricey, and I don't want to feed more than a handful anyhow. Beet pulp pellets would be ideal I'd think, but I've never fed them as a treat (I'm not a big treat giver), are they safe to feed as a treat?

I thought about hay cubes, but the opening is really tight and has a lip around it, they'd probably never fall out and the horses would loose interest.

hay stretcher pellets?

[jn4jenny]

I thought about hay cubes, but the opening is really tight and has a lip around it, they'd probably never fall out and the horses would loose interest.

hay stretcher pellets?

Hay stretcher pellets would probably be purrrfect. I drilled a bigger hole in my Nose-It to accommodate hay cubes. Once you remove the lip on the inside, you do remove the treat's "stingy" aspect. That was not a big concern for me.

If you have questions, Joanie at Nose-It is very nice and helpful. Her email is on their web site. She had the excellent suggestion to put the horse's regular feed in the Nose-It and then put the Nose-It in a water trough or similar, then watch the horse go to town.

If there were a treat of the type you're describing, I think all of us would be feeding it by now. :lol: But here's a thread about sugar-free and low-sugar treats, none of which are any cheaper than the flax cookies:
http://www.chronofhorse.com/forum/showthread.php?t=208222

[buck22]

She had the excellent suggestion to put the horse's regular feed in the Nose-It and then put the Nose-It in a water trough or similar, then watch the horse go to town.
OMG thats got to be so amusing!!!!!!!!!!

thanks for all your suggestions!

eta: peanuts! brilliant!!! thanks for the helpful link jn4

Tums are basically sugar with a little calcium thrown in. Hay stretchers are not bad for your average horse, but have too high an NSC value for IR horses. Celery was also suggested to me, but my mare was more revolted by that than most dewormers I've given her!

Lately, I've been giving peanuts (with the shell on) - high fiber, very low NSC. The first one she spit out, but after that, she decided they're great!

Also recommended to me was the Ontario Dehydrated Balanced Timothy cubes - they are low NSC hay plus vitamins and minerals to balance THAT hay made into cubes. I don't know where to get them yet though...Looking into that...

Dengie WITHOUT molasses, alfalfa cubes or timothy cubes are a nice treat. They're all a little messy, but I don't mind.

Safergrass.org may have more suggestions. Good luck!
m

[mkevent]

Ok-I have to admit that I misread your post.

What I read- my nose(pause) it's arrived(pause)what to fill it with for an IR horse?

I was perplexed for awhile-not to mention how uncomfortable that would be. Haha.

How about sugar free mints?

[marta]

how stingy is this thing?
maybe i should get one for my mare. she's confined to a dry lot with occasional hour or so of grazing. although her hay is spread in 3-4 piles to encourage her to walk around, this would probably be an even better way to get some movement in.

[buck22]

mk, snort! I actually mis-read my own thread too. :)

marta, its quite stingy actually. I figured everytime the hole hits the ground a treat would dispense, but no, its actually quite the frustrating little toy, a treat has to jiggle out just so.

I had to break the flax cookies (slightly larger than an oreo cookie) in half, and still they didn't come out too easily.

[kookicat]

Sunflower seeds? You could mix them in with the peanuts.

[mroades]

Ok-I have to admit that I misread your post.

What I read- my nose(pause) it's arrived(pause)what to fill it with for an IR horse?

I was perplexed for awhile-not to mention how uncomfortable that would be. Haha.

How about sugar free mints?


Oh thank goodness I wasn't the only one that read it that way at first!!

I have a pssm horse...wonder what I could put in one for him???hmmmmm

[buck22]

Sunflower seeds? You could mix them in with the peanuts.
I thought about that, i do feed that as a treat while riding, but they're so small I'd hate for them to be picking up seeds in the sandy paddock.

[buck22]

What I read- my nose(pause) it's arrived(pause)what to fill it with for an IR horse?
aaaahh, I just had a uncontrollable giggle fit again, I'm tearing up laughing.

my nose. its arrived. what to fill it with?

ah ha HAAAAAAAAAAAA! I am belly laughing and wiping the tears from my cheeks!

my nose. its arrived....


and now for something, completely different.

[kookicat]

I thought about that, i do feed that as a treat while riding, but they're so small I'd hate for them to be picking up seeds in the sandy paddock.

Ah, yes. I can see how that would be a worry. :yes:

[mjmvet]

Oh, crap! Now I can't stop laughing either!! That's exactly what I read...How many peanuts CAN you fit in your nose?? =) =)

[buck22]

ah haaaaaaaaaaa!!

I was laughing all the way to get a cup of coffee, I spill the coffee because I'm doubled over laughing so hard, SO comes in puzzled, "just what is so funny?" and I manage to blubber through my hysterics 'peanuts!' 'how many peanuts can I fit in my nose!" I got a very strange look indeed

haaa!

thanks for the laugh. I will *never* be able to fill these toys without laughing again! :D

[mkevent]

Don't feel bad-I got into giggle fits trying to fall asleep last night thinking about this!

Neither of my daughters, however, found it funny. It must be my delivery...

[caradino]

Ok-I have to admit that I misread your post.

What I read- my nose(pause) it's arrived(pause)what to fill it with for an IR horse?



I DID THE EXACT SAME THING!!

i was so intrigued.. first of all, WHAT HAPPENED TO YOUR NOSE TO BEGIN WITH that you had to have a new one shipped, and secondly, WHY ARE YOU FEEDING YOUR HORSE OUT OF IT?! :lol: *dies of laughter*

[BEARCAT]

I feed Beet Pulp pellets as a treat for clicker training. They would probably be great for the nose-it.

[buck22]

had to have a new one shipped

had to have a new one shipped! ha HA! this is leg slappingly funny!

thanks bearcat, BP pellets were my first inclination, glad to know someone uses them as treat, was concerned about hard they are.