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Put them in water for about 10 minutes before you feed them. Alfalfa 
cubes soak up water rapidly and when they are wet choaking shouldn't be 
a problem. I'd never feed them dry for the reasons you give.

Truman

Christina Schiro wrote:

> The first and only time I feed compressed alfalfa cubes to my horse a few
> years back, he choked on them. I just feed him a couple as a evening snack.
> Thank god I checked on him one last time before I left the barn for the
> evening. He started circling in his stall, breathing heavy, making strange
> groaning noises, and had green stuff coming out of his nostrils. I had the
> barn manager come out, who then called the vet. The vet arrived an hour
> later. In the interim, I kept the horse walking slowly up and down the aisle
> and trying to keep him calm, because I hope most of us know with horses,
> what tries to go down can NOT come back up as in humans (and most other
> animals?). The vet finally arrived, and hours later after sticking hose down
> into his nose and throat, filled it a little with water, the obstruction was
> broken up and cleared. The horse could only eat wetted down hay for the next
> week or two because his throat was all scratched up. So if your horse is a
> gulper and doesn't like to chew his food very well first, these hay cubes
> good be a problem because they are so compressed.
> Christina
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> [mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of Gabi (Ra'anana
> Farm)
> Sent: Friday, August 15, 2003 12:08 PM
> To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Subject: [RC] cube food
>
>
> Recently in israel they have started to sell cube food, compressed cubes of
> alfalfa that replace hey and grain alltogether.
> they suggest feeding 1,5% of the horse body weight per day per horse.
> It saves a lot on storage space and labor.
> I wonder how good it is for the horse, will they get bored without hey to
> nibble on? will they need more often teeth rasping? will they shit less?
> (that is good that means less labor and less wheelbarrows to push, but then
> again will the horse be with empty stumic, not enough roughage in the
> system?more colic?
> The cube food company claims it takes the horse 1,5 hour to finish his meal
> because the cubes are so compressed it takes them time to chew them up.
>
> I would like to hear from your experience.
>
> also, they sell it here for $17.80 per 55 pound bag(23 kilo), how much does
> it cost in the states?
>
> thanks already
>
> gabi(israel)
>
>
>
>
>
>  



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