Can horses eat cucumber?
As a horse owner, you might be confused about choosing the right food to feed your loving horse. Other than hay and apples, horses love to eat vegetable treats. But, can horses eat cucumber?
The shortest answer is yes.
Horses can eat cucumbers, and they love to eat cucumbers. Cucumber is a green-colored, fresh, and crunchy vegetable that you can feed your horse. Your horse will enjoy it because cucumber is a tasty refresh treat for anyone.
More than that, cucumber can add a high nutritional value to the diet of your horse.
But it is essential to know the amount and how often you should feed cucumber for your ponies. Without any doubt, cucumbers are safe for horses. But in large amounts, cucumber can cause adverse health outcomes as well.
Let’s look at the nutritional values, positive and negative health outcomes of cucumber in detail.
Can horses eat cucumber peels?
Many horses love to eat cucumbers with their peels. But some refuse to eat the peel of the cucumber. It all depends on the preference of your horse. So how can you know that your horse favors eating with the peels or not? You can identify this quickly by feeding them two small pieces of cucumber separately with and without the peels. Either way is safe for your loving horses. So there is no reason to worry. Horses can eat cucumber peels.
Unpeeled cucumber consists of many nutritional values. Cucumber peel supply vitamins A, K, C, D, potassium, and calcium to the bodies of the horses.
These vitamins are vital for the strength of the bones of horses.
Can horses eat cucumber skin?
Yes, horses can eat cucumber skin. Cucumber skin is very rich in dietary fiber. Because of that, when horses eat cucumber skin, it supports their digestive system to digest the food. In 1999, Vimala and four other researchers found that cucumber is a vegetable consisting of various vitamins and antioxidants. If you wish to do further readings on this, you can refer here!
When explaining about cucumber skin, you can feed it to your horses without any worries. Some horses eat anything that you put in front of them.
But some horses are picky about eating. Is your adorable horse somewhat picky about eating new things?
Do not worry!
Still, you can try to feed cucumbers to your horse. Start by giving a small piece of cucumber.
Before feeding cucumber to your horse, it is necessary to make sure that it is safe to eat. If you buy cucumber from a store, you can wash it thoroughly to make sure it is free from pesticides, chemicals. Then you can cut cucumber skin into small pieces before feeding to horses. Small cubes of cucumber will make it easy to swallow without being stuck in your horse’s throat.
Do horses eat cucumber?
Yes, many horses would love to eat cucumber.
But as the horse owner, you should have a basic understanding of the nutritional value of the food you feed. Have you ever wondered why horses love to eat cucumbers?
Cucumber is a crunchy vegetable consisting of about 95% water. This water amount is one of the main reasons why horses like to eat cucumbers. When they eat cucumber, they become more and more hydrated because it consists of water.
Your horse might even like to have cucumber as a treat or a snack. As cucumber consists of low fat and low calories, you don’t have to worry about gaining weight. Therefore, you can add cucumber as a tasty treat to your horse’s meal without any issues.
In 2014, Redgate and other colleagues researched to explore the dietary preferences of horses. According to the research results, they were able to present many significant findings. Researchers found that horses have the sensory ability to associate the nutrient content in their food. You will find the following link helpful if you like to do further readings about this research.
Can horses eat fresh cucumber?
Of course, they can. Furthermore, horses will prefer fresh cucumber over other diets you feed them. In the simplest terms, oxidation in the digestion process is how we receive energy from what we eat. Oxidation reaction encourages the breakdown of hydrocarbon molecules into different molecules. As cucumbers are high in antioxidants, cucumbers can have anti-inflammatory effects on horses. Accordingly, when your horse eats cucumber, it will help your horse recover soon after exercising and hard work.
Even though your horse loves to eat cucumber, it is always better to start with small amounts. If you have never fed cucumber to your horse, start it slowly to avoid any negative consequences. You can try a couple of fresh cucumber pieces first. Indeed, most horses do not have any issues with cucumbers.
But if you ever notice any signs of distress from horses within 24 hours, immediately stop giving cucumber to your horses. These signs of distress could be due to digestive issues such as colic. Therefore, it is advisable not to feed them more than two cucumbers per week on the safer side. Rather than that, cucumbers should be fed as an extra treat to your horses. Cucumbers are not good to use as a replacement for the main meals of your horses.
Are cucumbers poisonous to horses?
Many vegetable treats can be safe food for healthy horses. However, as a horse owner, you might wonder whether cucumbers are poisonous to your horses in any way. It is safe to feed cucumber for most horses as it is a vegetable rich in vitamins and much other nutrition. Feeding cucumbers in small amounts occasionally is not poisonous to your horse in any way. But if you feed cucumbers regularly in large amounts, it will overwhelm your horse’s digestive system. Therefore, before feeding cucumbers, you should have an idea about your horse’s health. Because if fed in large amounts, cucumber also can lead to many health issues later.
Further explaining, some horses naturally have higher potassium levels in their bloodstream. This condition is also known as Hyperkalemic Periodic Paralysis (HYPP). Cucumber is a vegetable rich in high potassium levels. Accordingly, if you feed cucumber to horses with HYPP, it can even lead to paralysis and muscle tremors. Because of these side effects, cucumber is not the best additional treat for horses with HYPP.
In 1994, the researcher Naylor reviewed a research paper to present HYPP condition symptoms among horses. If you are further interested, you can learn more about this HYPP condition.
Other than that, cucumbers can cause some health issues related to the digestive system of horses. Cucumbers contain cucurbitacin. Cucurbitacin is the higher level of bitter-tasting nutrition present in cucumber. When fed to horses, it can stimulate gas production and sometimes irritate the stomach. This reason is why you should closely monitor your horses when feeding cucumbers to them. Some horses are oversensitive to cucurbitacin. Therefore, cucumbers can cause health issues like colic.
Are you worried about how to identify any signs of colic in your horses? It is not very difficult. You can quickly identify these signs by closely observing your horse’s daily routine. If your horse shows behavioral changes after feeding cucumber for the first time, do not continue feeding cucumber to them.
Some behavioral signs would be sleepiness, unusually lying on the floor, or rolling side to side. More than these, you can notice excessive sweating, changes in gut noises, or some failure attempts to urinate. These red signs also might indicate colic in your horse.
Therefore, it is essential to remember that cucumbers are not poisonous in small amounts like two cucumbers per week. But if you feed cucumber in large amounts, it will cause severe health issues. Although your horse has some health conditions like HYPP, it is advisable not to feed cucumbers to them.
Can horses eat vegetable peelings?
Horses can eat vegetable peelings. But likewise mentioned before, feeding vegetable peelings in small quantities is not unhealthy for horses. But if you choose to feed vegetable peelings daily, it can cause issues related to the digestive system.
Horses will love to eat carrot peelings and potato peelings. But do not forget vegetable peelings are wrong to feed as the main diet. Vegetable peelings should always be an extra food to your horse’s diet. Even though your horses love to eat vegetable peelings, all vegetable peelings are not suitable or healthy.
Further explaining, brassica family vegetables are not an advisable treat to feed your lovely horses. Avoid feeding vegetable peelings of brassica family vegetables such as cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc.; These vegetables can be toxic and harmful to your lovely horses.
Rather than that, nightshade family vegetables can also be present as unhealthy for horses. Potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers are some of these you should avoid feeding your horses. Your horses might indeed love to eat many foods that we consume in our day-to-day lives. But as the horse owner, it is your responsibility to make sure your horse’s diet is healthy and nutritious.
