Can horses eat bananas
Although many vegetables and fruits are not considered healthy food for the horse, it is possible to give the horse bananas from time to time as an reward.
Before feeding the horse a banana, you should cut it into small pieces, as giving it to the horse as a single unit is not safe, for example if you give the horse a whole apple, it may become stuck and cause him suffocation.
The fruits you can give your horse are apples, pears, and bananas (peel them first, don't give the horse the skin).
The vegetables you can give a horse beetroot, carrot, celery and turnip.
Do not feed horses onions, tomatoes, or rhubarb (a type of vegetable), and also avoid giving them sour fruits such as oranges and lemons.
Read : Can horse swim ?
Can horses eat bananas like a monkey ?
Certainly, your horse can eat bananas, but just be careful of large quantities, because too much sugar in the horse's body may lead to an increase in weight or an imbalance in the blood sugar balance, and also it can lead to hoof fever.
If you want to feed the horse a fruit that you do not know whether it is correct to give to the horse or it is prohibited, then you should consult a veterinarian and do not feed it to the horse until you are sure that it does not harm the horse.
How many bananas can a horse eat ?
Most equine experts advise feeding your horse two bananas a week in order to preserve its health, however it is best to consult his own doctor to ensure the safety of your horse from any digestive problems.
What can horses eat ?
Many fruits and vegetables are safe to feed a horse as long as you take the necessary precautions. However, there are some things that a horse's sensitive digestive system does not digest, so you should know.
Vegetables eat healthy horses :
Like people, horses may have different preferences when it comes to food, and most horses will enjoy some if not all of the following vegetables as beneficial remedies :
Turnip
Parsnip
Beets
Maize
Radish
Some horses will also enjoy things like
Celery
Lettuce
Green cabbage
Spinach
A few less popular acceptable options include
Peas
Option
Green Beans
Cauliflower
You may find that your horse doesn't really care to taste some of these options, but they are safe to feed him if he does.
Fruits that can be eaten for horses :
Much like vegetables, horses will have their own opinion about the fruits they enjoy, although many horses prefer fruits over vegetables.
The favorite fruits of most horses include :
Apples
Pears
Peaches
Watermelon
the banana
Cherry
Grapes
Cantaloupe
Apricot
Peaches
the strawberry
Mango
When feeding these distinctive fruits to your horse, be sure to remove the pits and seeds from these fruits before feeding them to avoid choking hazards.
Citrus fruits and other fruits rich in vitamin C like oranges, grapefruit, and tangerines are also safe for horses, and if your horse has a tropical flair, pineapple and coconut can be safely fed to horses as well.
Some notes on fruits :
Bananas can be fed with the peel provided you remove any wooden stems that may become a choking hazard.
Pineapple can be fed to horses but remove the seeds, skin and feed the pineapple in small pieces.
Oranges, grapefruit and other citrus fruits should be fed in small pieces with the peel removed.
Coconut meat can be fed in small pieces but horse skin should not be fed.
Cherries can be fed to horses but be sure to cut the cherries in half and remove the hole and stem.
Pumpkin and seeds can be fed to horses but without the outer shell.
Fruits are naturally high in sugar and calories, so horses prone to being overweight should limit them to small amounts of fruit.
Food is one of the most important things for horses in order to maintain the strength of their body and get enough energy to perform various tasks, and there are many types of food for horses, which makes horse owners (especially beginners) very confused due to their lack of knowledge of the type of food most suitable for their horses.
When we talk about food, you must know that there is no general or fixed rule for horses because every horse is different from the other, and the amount and type of food varies from one horse to another depending on its age, weight, health condition, type of breed and the amount of work it does daily, as well as the weather in the place Who lives in it.
One of the things that keep the horse healthy is determining the amount of food that the horse needs daily, and we can know this amount in a simple way.
Initially, you should measure the horse’s weight regularly (once every two weeks), because knowing the horse’s weight will make you easily determine how much food it needs per day.
A horse eats daily equivalent to 2.5 percent of its total weight, and therefore if a horse weighs 100 kg, it will need approximately 2.5 kg of food per day (of course there is no horse 100 kg, but it is just a hypothesis to simplify the matter).
You can determine the amount of daily eating by a simple equation, multiply the horse’s weight by 2.5 and then divide the result by 100, for example if your horse is 500 kg, it will need 12.5 kilograms per day (this includes everything that enters the horse’s stomach during the day of feed, grains and gifts And others ...).
What weight do you want for a horse? Do you want to keep it as it is now? Or do you want to gain weight because you feel that he is lean or he suffers from some disease? Or perhaps you want to reduce his weight because he has become excessively fat, which may cause him health problems, so you want to regulate his diet?
All these things differ from horse to horse, depending on the horse's health and physical condition, meaning that there is no fixed rule regarding food.
It is advisable to deal with the desired weight and not the current weight. Let's say, for example, that your horse is lean (300 kg) and your main goal is to increase its weight to 400 kg. Will you feed it 2.5% of its current weight? 2.5% of the desired weight?
It is correct to deal with the required weight, not the current one, and therefore this horse will give him 2.5% of the 400, not 2.5% of the 300 kg.
The same rule is used with the obese horse, meaning that it is provided with a daily amount of food based on the desired weight and not its actual weight, which makes it eat less food than its daily needs, and thus it will gradually reduce its weight.
If you stumble and feel that you cannot decide exactly how much food to give to your horse, you can seek help from a friend who is an expert in horses, or seek advice from your veterinarian.
What fruit can horses not eat ?
Do not feed the following fruits and vegetables to your horses
Since horses have more sensitive digestive systems than humans, some fruits and vegetables can be toxic to horses.
If you have a question or concern about feeding something to your horse, you should always consult your veterinarian first, and these foods include :
Persimmon
Onions
Potatoes
tomatoes
Avocado
Other gas-producing vegetables
There are many toxic plants that can be found in the pasture, if a horse eats one of these plants, its effect may be negligible or it may cause serious health problems that may be fatal! This effect depends on the type of plant that ate and the amount That he swallowed.
Fortunately, horses by their nature are averse to poisonous plants and do not eat them, and accordingly you have to wander around the pasture from time to time and if you see that horses avoid eating a certain plant in the pasture, you have to examine it to make sure that it is not toxic.
There are also some plants that can cause skin or hoof problems if a horse walks or wallows on them.
To avoid all of these things, you should get an expert to carefully inspect the pasture and remove any plants that might harm the horse.
Sometimes hay can cause the same problems that poisonous plants do, because as we mentioned, hay is nothing but plants that have been dried and stored, and therefore a plant that has been dried can be toxic.
Poison hay is more dangerous than poisonous plants! Because the horse is naturally alienated from the poisonous plant and does not eat it (as we mentioned earlier), while if this poisonous plant is dried and presented to the horse in the form of straw, the horse will not be able to know that it is poisonous, because it loses its distinctive smell and shape, and the horse will eat it without knowing its toxicity! Therefore, you should buy your hay from a trusted location.
You must make sure of the quality of the hay, and if you spot any mold or fungi on the hay, you should dispose of it and do not feed it to the horse. If the hay contains heavy dust, do not feed it to the horse because it causes respiratory problems for the horse, but if it contains simple dust then This condition will not cause a problem and you can present it to the horse. An exception is made for horses who are allergic to dirt, so you must soak it in water first before serving it to them.
Important safety notes
Any changes to your diet should be made gradually, problems should be discussed with your veterinarian, and it is important to understand that feeding horses frequently can lead to weight gain.
High sugar treatments can lead to unhealthy weight gain, and the fruits especially should be fed in small quantities only because of the potential for colic.
A sensitive horse's digestive system can malfunction with too much of a difference from their normal diet which can lead to colic.
You must be firm about everything that enters your horse's stomach and cannot be lax about it.
If you are going to travel to a place and you will take the horse with you, you have to make sure that the horse’s food is in the place you will travel to so that you can buy it, and if it is not there, you must take with you an amount of food sufficient for the horse until it returns to its original place again.
If you want to change a horse's diet, you should do so gradually and avoid doing so suddenly.
Likewise, if you buy a new horse and want to change the quality of its food that you are used to before buying it, you must buy a quantity of its old food, then gradually replace the old food with the new food, and you should notice your horse well during the change of food, and monitor any problems that may occur to the horse as a result of changing the food Such as colic, allergies and hoof fever.
Determining the best food for your horse is very important and should be taken very seriously, especially if the horse is weak.
Manifestations of horse weakness are multiple, such as if the horse is old and has problems with its teeth, or if the horse is very young, or if he is sick, or if there are problems with the horse's weight (increase or decrease), or if he has suffered before from Health problems and food-related illnesses such as hoof fever, colic, allergies or insulin resistance ... or other illnesses related to the quality of food.
You must determine the appropriate food for your horse by knowing the requirements that your horse needs as well as the purpose for which you will use the horse for it and always remember that in general natural food such as grass is the most healthy food for your horse, unless the horse has special requirements or special use that makes you have to change the type of food.
