bedding (redirected from eating bedding)

bedding

materials used to provide comfort, conservation of body heat, protection of bony prominences and ease of cleaning. The materials vary widely, each having advantages. The need is for cost-effectiveness, softness with durability, freedom from dust or poisonous components, and springiness and avoidance of compaction. Things to avoid are palatability, e.g. salty sand, good oatstraw containing a lot of grain, shavings and sawdust from timber treated with wood preservatives or irritant resins, e.g. black walnut shavings. Some of the materials used are cereal straws, ferns or bracken harvested for the purpose, peat moss, sawdust and shavings, shredded paper, especially newsprint, sand, mats made from reconstituted rubber and indoor-outdoor carpet. The latter is a practicable solution for animals that have difficulty rising either because of infirmity or because of slipperiness of the flooring.

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bedding deprivation

stress factor in farm animals housed in winter, also late pregnant companion animals.

bedding down

for a horse means removal of any manure from the stall, teasing out and topping up the bedding with fresh straw where necessary, and filling the water pail and the hay rack.

eating bedding

results from boredom, perversion of appetite or hunger. The latter is important in horses immediately after a general anesthetic for which they have been prestarved. The animals are only part-conscious but are hungry. They may eat a lot of indigestible roughage and develop colic due to impaction of the colon. Eating of salty sand may cause sand colic.