Horses are herbivores in terms of their feeding habits.Many people often wonder that are horses omnivores and do horses eat meat along with plants. But the truth is that the digestive system of a horse can not digest meat.Horses come in many different breeds. Horses and human beings have been uniquely connected for thousands of years. As domesticated animals, horses have been with humans as work partners, battle comrades, or simply as friends. Horses used to be considered draft animals in ancient days. A draft animal is a domestic animal used to carry and transport heavyweight. A horse used to be one of the chief modes of transportation before the invention of mechanical vehicles. They were also highly-priced animals when it came to military cavalries. Horses are also used in games and events such as polo and horse racing.Now the question that arises is, what do horses eat? Do horses eat meat or just grass? Are horses omnivores, herbivores, or carnivores? Whenever we hear the word horse, we always imagine majestic animals grazing in the grassy pastures meaning an herbivore. A horse’s digestive system is very different from what we imagine it to be. Hence it needs to be guided what horses eat. A horse’s digestive system is much more complex. One reason is that almost all of the major components of a horse’s diet include plant matter or plant-based fodder. Horses eat the majority plant-based products. Whether they’re domesticated or wild. This means that horses are naturally herbivores even when being wild; they consume plants, grass, and plant products.After reading all about if horses eat meat, do check horse facts and are hippos omnivores?Why are horses herbivores?Horses are inherently non-ruminating plant-eating herbivorous animals. Digestive systems of ruminant animals vastly differ from the digestive systems of non-ruminant animals.In their meal, some require a small amount of food to digest and survive whereas some in their meal require a higher amount of food to survive. Along with this, horses can’t simply eat just about anything that’s fed to them. In order to stay healthy, a horse needs a very specific diet based on its health on its lifestyle, and nutrition requirements. Do horses eat meat? Horses have extremely long and sensitive digestive systems. This is because, their peculiar digestive system is like a cross between a monogastric animal (such as humans), and ruminant animals (such as cows).A lot of people feed their horses as they eat themselves, about three times a day. This is not the correct feeding pattern for a horse. Feeding the horse, the food that a horse eats remains in a horse’s stomach only for 15 minutes. When the stomach is empty, the acid can attack the stomach lining and result in ulcers. This is why horses must keep on chewing healthy and consume lots of fiber to keep their extremely long and sensitive digestive tract working and they must eat little food, but do it often, almost all day long. Moreover, horses can only chew on one side of their mouth. But this isn’t all, horses don’t have sharp and pointy teeth.Their teeth are not suitable for tearing flesh and so they have difficulty tearing through and chewing meat. Consuming too much protein is bad for a horse’s kidneys and can lead to various health issues. This is why horses are herbivores (eating hay) and mainly feed on plant matter. This includes eating pasture grass, nuts, seeds, hay. Horses love to eat fruits and vegetables but they should be given in moderation as treats. Carrots and apples are some of the most common threats that horses love. A horse requires a minimum of 1% of his body weight daily of long-stemmed roughage (eating grass, eating hay, or eating hay replacers) for normal digestive tract activity.Do horses kill other animals?Are horses predators or prey? Animals that hunt and eat other animals are called predators while animals who get killed and eaten are called prey. Some animals can be both predators or prey, under different circumstances. So do horses kill other animals?Horses are usually not predators. When in a dangerous situation, they usually choose flight from the fight and fly option. Mountain lions, wolves, coyotes, and beers are some of the predatory animals that prey and feed on wild horses. Horses are herbivores, this means they don’t need to kill other animals for meat and other animal products to feed upon. Yes, it’s correct that horses aren’t meat eaters and no, they don’t feed on mice or chickens. Our regular horses are happy eating grass and grains, which is also best for their stomach. Although this is the scenario for normal horses. Every once in a while you might come across some article or video of a horse eating meat, but those are rare case scenarios and oppose a bit of a horse’s diet or natural food habits, which are of a herbivore.Even after horses being obviously herbivores, some scientists have put forth facts that suggest horses can eat meat and fish. Very few people know this but in Iceland, horses are routinely fed dried fish during colder months. Relating to the dried fish story, there’s even a book called ‘Deadly Equins’, which tells the story of two horses. One of the horses was allegedly fed meat and due to being fed meat, it was a progeny of meat-eating mares.It must be remembered that this information is not being shared to encourage people to feed meat to their horses. Horses aren’t meat-eating animals; hence they are herbivores. It is okay to let your horse feed on meat in small quantities once in a blue moon, but in large quantities, it can be problematic. We should keep their delicate digestive system in mind. Horses can’t vomit. Since these animals can’t vomit, the food that they’re not able to digest gets spoiled, molds, and builds toxins inside the horse.Now we must feel fortunate to be able to vomit. This can lead to severe colic and can be very deadly. Colic is abdominal pain. A horse never actively searches for meat to feed on, it’s always fed to it. This means that a horse will eat meat and fish, but that’s because it’s fed to it, not because the horse wants to eat it. In this case, you can call that horse an opportunistic carnivore.What food can horses not eat?Horses have very specific dietary and nutrition requirements and what horses eat is very guided. We have already discussed the food horses can eat. These include hay, grains, grass, hay, seeds, nuts, fruits, and vegetables. Horses love to eat apples, celery, carrots, and peanut butter.But these treats come with a condition (discussed later in the article). We also talked about the foods that must be avoided. Since a horse is not a meat-eating animal, that should be avoided. Your horse can fulfill its protein requirements from other sources. Here are some food items that your horse should not eat. These include avocado, bran, bread, broccoli, Brussel, sprouts, kale, cabbage, caffeine, cauliflower, chocolate, compost, dairy products, garlic, kale, lawn clippings, meat, onions, potatoes, rhubarb, stone fruits, tomatoes.Fruit and sugar cubes are food items often given to horses as treats. They’re okay in small quantities but should not be fed to the horse as its main source of nutrition. Fruits are extremely high in sugar and can lead to spiked insulin levels in a horse. These food items can also spoil your horse and they might refuse to eat their normal food which has important nutrients for the horse.Cruciferous vegetables: vegetables such as broccoli, Brussel sprouts, cauliflower, cabbage. These vegetables can cause bloating and make the horse feel uncomfortable. A horse might even get colic pain due to these.Chocolates: chocolates are extremely high in sugar, carbs, and milk solids. They can spike your horse’s insulin level and also lead to a sugar rush and then an inevitable sugar crash.Caffeine: caffeine is a legal stimulant and it can give a horse extra energy. The extra energy can lead to hyperactivity due to the caffeine rush and later also lead to a caffeine crash. Caffeine husk is proven toxic to horses and is thus inappropriate to be used as bedding and fodder. Caffeine and theobromine (found in chocolate) are banned in horse races for this very reason.Cattle feed: it’s perfectly okay for all these herbivores animals to graze together in open pasture. However, horses must not be fed grain-based chicken and cattle feed because it contains some additives, of which even a small quantity can be dangerous to a horse.Can horses eat chicken feed?A lot of farmers wonder if they can give their horses the same chicken feed that they use to feed their chickens? The answer is no. You cannot and should not give chicken feed to your horses.Chicken feed is a little too enriched with nutrients that are not suitable for horses. These ready-made chicken feeds also include medicated ingredients for chickens to develop disease resistance, immunity, lay better eggs. Even though the ready-made chicken feed is great for chickens, it’s dangerous for a horse to eat this feed, even if the side effects aren’t immediately visible. Chicken feed is also a bit too rich in nuts, seeds, and grains which contain a decent amount of fat. Too much of these can lead to fatty liver disease in your horse. Moreover, it contains some additives that are proven to be toxic for a horse and lead to untimely death.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for are horses omnivores then why not take a look at when do hummingbirds come out, or can guinea pigs eat bread.
Horses are herbivores in terms of their feeding habits.
