Put some bone meal in his feed, he needs that mineral...or sharpen his teeth and save your feed bill....

There was a post earlier that suggested horses might be ruminants, they most certainly are not.

This behavior of herbivores eating strange foods such as meat or bones is indicative of a missing nutrient or possibly he is satiated on the feed he has and is looking for variety. All foods have some toxins in them and the difference between a toxin and a nutrient can be as simple as the amount ingested. There is more and more evidence that animals have quite abit of nutritional wisdom and will try do get what they need. Of course there is also the possibility that this is explainable by something else that we are unaware of.

Interesting, Ralphie, but I have come to the conclusion he has a fur fetish. He had a dead squirrel over the weekend and made quite a toy of it. He would not let the chickens have it.

He did not eat it but crushed it many times with his teeth and licked the fur as well as tossed it around like a toy. This went on most of the day.

I remember reading that red deer on a little Island off Scotland were eating baby ground nesting birds out of their nests. Researchers proposed that the deer, living in an isolated and small territory were doing this to obtain minerals they weren't getting, or getting enough of from the pasture.

There was also a case in The Netherlands where Holstein cows were eating or trying to eat rabbits because of a lack of nutrients.

Also, while I certainly don't know why your horse is chewing animals for sure, (like you said he may just be using it as a toy) it wouldn't surprise me if he is not eating it because he doesn't know how to. And licking and chewing may provide some level of satisfaction for him.

Hello;
There is a difference between a horse eating and biting, as someone posted previously. Stallions in particular can be very agressive and bite viciously, but that has nothing to do with eating meat. As one of my friends pointed out, while showing me his well chewed corrals, horses that do this,obviously lack something, brains.
Grizz

I got a stalion that kills and eats any goats that get in to his pin.

Ray

While I've never had a carnivorous horse, I've seen numerous pigs that had an insatiable appetite for chickens. When one of the dumber clucks would stray into the pen, it was like a school of piranha feeding.

Hello again;
Gotta throw my two bits worth in here again, since I just had some practical experience with this line of inquiry the other day. First time ever and boy was I amazed. I was feeding one of our yearlings oats, when for some unknown reason, she suddenly reached over and bit me in the left tit. Happened so quickly, there was know way to avoid it. It was cold as hell and I was wearing a T shirt, long sleeved wool shirt, sweater and a ski Jacket. When I sripped down, I could see a red welt on my chest where she connected and man did it hurt!!!!
Grizz

pecking order vs you were not feeding fast enough!!
face of a left tit grab=
been there done that

I used to hunt in Alabama on a friends land where there were wild hogs. If we had a rabbit or squirrel that was too shot up to keep with we would find the hogs and throw it too them. They ate them everytime.
The thought of meat eating 300+lb hogs running around sure kept you awake during the deer season in your ground blind.

back in the 70's the jackrabbits in southern Utah used to be thick, We hunted them at night and would kill 50 or 60 a night. There was woman who raised domestic hogs, we would give them to her for hog feed, they loved them. Later I lived in Idaho and was raising some hogs. I used to go to the river and catch suckers then I'd take them home, run them through the commercial meat grinder and feed them to the hogs. They'd go crazy over them. Cheap hog feed.

A few years back, a big old gelding tore my right ear off.......never did find the ear!



At the time I thought it was just unhappy at getting spiked by the girl cleaning out his box. Now I know he was just seeking additional nutrients to balance his diet!!



Rgds Ian

For real, Ian? Yikes, that would hurt!

Ann - Absolutely for real! Had a surgeon rebuild it and now have sufficient to hang my sunglasses on once more



Strangely, it didnt hurt at all. Loads of blood and very noisy - really depressing realising that your ear is the thing making the tearing noise!



Now, if your "friends" are anything like mine, you will understand that the thing that hurt the most was the joshing that followed.......got called "18 months" for a while before I eventually asked what was meant.



The reply - "well, its one and a half ears ain't it?!"



Rgds Ian

Hello;
Well, one thing is for sure, if you want to get along with horses, you better have a sense of humor, among other things, or you'll probably trade them in for a motorcycle. My wife just fell off one of her young colts last Monday, breaking 6 ribs. Of course, being my wife, she wouldn't let me call the ambulance. She just crawled in the house and dosed herself up with A535. Then she sat down on the toilet and couldn't get up. That's when I called the ambulance and she spent 3 days in the hospital. Now I gotta do the chores too, before I go to work. She is not supposed to ride for 6 weeks, but of course I'll probably have to chain her to a tree to hold her to that.
Grizz

maybe reincarnated deer hunter ,who used beagles to hunt with.