Horse toys don’t have to be complicated or expensive to be fun and beneficial for your horse! For an ultra-easy, budget friendly horse enrichment activity, make a food puzzle using an egg carton. The egg carton horse toy is fast, simple, but really entertaining for your horse. Here’s how to make this ultra-easy enrichment for horses.
What Is the Egg Carton Horse Toy?
The egg carton horse toy uses a paper egg carton and some treats to make a fun but challenging food puzzle for your horse.
This is a cute and simple variation on the classic and easy forage box enrichment toy for horses, but a little smaller. The pockets hold different treats and create a little challenge for your horse as they try to pull out the goodies.
Why Is the Egg Carton Horse Toy Good for Horses?
This equine enrichment item is a puzzle feeder with lots of great perks.
It takes a little effort for your horse to get the treats out of the pockets of the egg carton. The textured surface requires your horse to use dexterity and brainpower to snag the goodies.
The fine motor control needed to eat all the treats also keeps your horse occupied, extending the time they’ll play with this toy. That’s great for horses who need easy enrichment – like if your horse is still learning – but also need lots of entertainment.
Egg cartons are soft and don’t have any hard or sharp edges. While you should always observe your horse to make sure they’re using their toys safely, egg carton toys for horses are usually very safe.
And lastly, this enrichment is free to make since you’ll use a repurposed egg carton – and it’s VERY easy and fast to put together. Quick, easy enrichment is a win for you – and if toys are more convenient to provide, your horse will get enrichment more often. That’s a real win for your horse’s welfare!
What Behaviors Does the Egg Carton Toy for Horses Encourage?
Remember, enrichment for horses is all about encouraging natural behaviors. This egg carton toy is a food puzzle, and promotes problem solving and feeding.
When you give your horse an egg carton treat toy, they’ll get a chance to use these behaviors:
- Sniffing
- Whisker work and feeling with lips
- Nibbling and “detail biting” with incisors in the crevices
- Manipulating objects using the mouth or hooves
- Problem solving and cognition
Lots of Variety
The egg carton toy is surprisingly versatile. Using different treats or arrangements of food in the carton creates endless variety, so your horse will never get bored with this enrichment.
You can also adjust the challenge level of the puzzle to fit your horse’s needs. Large chunks of food are easy to remove and eat and are a good option for horses just learning to use enrichment. Smaller pieces, or pelleted feed, are much more challenging.
You can even give your horse a closed egg carton as an extra brain teaser. They’ll have to figure out how to nudge it open to access the goodies.
How to Make a DIY Egg Carton Toy for Horses
For this toy, you just need an egg carton and horse approved food items.
The egg carton should be cardboard, not Styrofoam or plastic. Foam egg cartons pose a risk if they are chewed or ingested, and plastic containers can have sharp edges.
Load your egg carton however you like. If your horse is new to egg carton toys, it’s a good idea to start with an easy option. Try putting hay in the egg pockets and placing treats on top, where they’re easier to reach.
When your horse is a pro at this, increase the difficulty with smaller chunks of food, bits of grain, or hiding the tastiest tidbits beneath some chaff.
You can offer this enrichment in the pasture or the stall, but if offered in the pasture it works best to place the carton on an enrichment mat or a patch of very short grass so that small bits of food don’t get lost if the horse turns the whole carton over.
You can offer an egg carton as enrichment quite often without the horse becoming bored, up to a few times per week. It’s such a simple and inexpensive enrichment that it’s worth using frequently!
To keep things fresh, increase the variety in the offering by using only one kind of food item per carton (plus or minus hay), by changing up whether you offer the carton open or closed, and giving the egg carton on top of or within another item, like a forage box.
Safety Notes
Egg carton enrichment is extremely safe. Monitor the horse the first few times you offer this enrichment to ensure that they don’t attempt to eat the cardboard carton.
It’s best not to reuse the cartons too much because they do get soggy and soft when wet, including from the moisture in fruits and veggies or dewy grass. But egg cartons are easy to find, so just make a new one whenever yours gets a little trampled.
Repurpose your own egg cartons, buy from your local feed store, or get a stack from Amazon.
Related Enrichment
The egg carton horse toy is a food puzzle for your horse. Here’s inspiration for similar toys or enrichment concepts:
Cardboard Shipping Tray Horse Toy
DIY Snuffle Box for a softer, more plush puzzle feeder
Ultra easy, free Cereal Box Feeder Toy