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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 460
 
| Hi everyone! So I'm so happy, I bought my new filly yesterday!! However... She is about 200 pounds under weight. She's only a year and a half old, and is pretty neglected. She's never been handled either. But, she's completely sound! And looking past her weight, all the rain rot and her feet... She looks like she will be a beautiful horse! So, she's never been fed anything except a flake of alfalfa a day! So here's my big issue... She won't even try any grain! I'd really like to get some good grain and supplements in her, but she will only eat the alfalfa. How do you get a youngster to try grain that's never had it?? Thanks so much!! |
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Expert
Posts: 1207
| Not sure where you are located, but you might try the Omnis cubes as they have oats and flax in them to see if you can get her started. |
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Expert
Posts: 1314
Location: North Central Iowa Land of white frozen grass | Start out with a sweet feed. Just a little everyday on top of her hay. Then slowly switch her over to oats and a little sweet feed on top of her hay. I would also run a good worming program thru her also. I am not a fan of sweet feed but it will help to get her to eat grain in the beginning. You might also try mixing some grain with beet shreds soaked in warm water to get grain into her. |
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 Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | Just give her some time-she sounds pretty stressed out-maybe start a round of ulcer treatment. Youngsters that have never had grain need some "help" learning to eat it-we usually feed them across a gate from a big horse-gives them the idea-or a little in your hand until they lick around it. If they didn't learn from their mother-they need to learn somewhere. For now I would offer some good grass hay and continue with the alfalfa and then slowly see if you can convince her to eat the concentrate. I would also recommend a "growth" or Junior feed-I like Woody's futurity blend-gives them the added protein those young bodies need. |
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 Too Skinny
Posts: 8009
Location: LA Lower Alabama | I would just increase her hay to a normal amount and worry about the feed later. Quality forage is way more important in her diet right now.
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 460
| Thank you all for the quick responses! I love how everyone has a different opinion, lots of things to still try then =] I am glad that she's still getting lots of good quality hay at least for now! So I'm not super worried yet, but I would really like her to start eating some lmf development, a little rice bran and forco. Hopefully when her stomach starts to stretch out, she will be a little more hungry and more apt to try something new. I really like the idea of maybe putting her out with my gelding and a couple buckets of grain, maybe if she watches him gobble it up, she will be willing to try some. I also really like to idea of putting in on her hay too, so she has to eat a little bit of it. I think having her around my gelding is already bringing her out of her shell =] She has been a little hard to catch, and last night when I turned them out together was a big improvement. My gelding is very in your pocket and loves attention. So after a while of me rubbing on him, she started to get jealous and marched her way over to get rubs also ;p |
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  Whack and Roll
Posts: 6342
Location: NE Texas | cowgalsissy - 2017-03-14 9:29 AM I would just increase her hay to a normal amount and worry about the feed later. Quality forage is way more important in her diet right now.
Agree wholeheartedly with this. Top quality forage should be the staple of any equine diet. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 383
| Mix alfalfa pellets and renew gold or if u don't have renew gold near you max-e-glo and alfalfa pellets - there's no junk no fillers and it's so good for their belly - sweet feed and pretty much all complete feeds have so much stuff in them that causes problems later down the road- - also California trace minerals to mix in with your feed and she will look great pic up weight and I haven't seen a horse yet not like it- dr depaulo from horse hair analysis has some really good articles on his web sight explaining what is actually good - there is so much information out there it's hard and overwhelming but I made the switch about 8 months ago - because I was tired of batteling ulcers and inflammation - I have seen amazing improvements since the switch- also I will say the Stanley alfalfa pellets seem to be the best there's no dust or any trash in them |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Herbie - 2017-03-14 12:45 PM cowgalsissy - 2017-03-14 9:29 AM I would just increase her hay to a normal amount and worry about the feed later. Quality forage is way more important in her diet right now.
Agree wholeheartedly with this. Top quality forage should be the staple of any equine diet.
This |
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 Namesless in BHW
Posts: 10368
Location: At the race track with Ah Dee Ohs | Herbie - 2017-03-14 12:45 PM cowgalsissy - 2017-03-14 9:29 AM I would just increase her hay to a normal amount and worry about the feed later. Quality forage is way more important in her diet right now.
Agree wholeheartedly with this. Top quality forage should be the staple of any equine diet.
^^^THIS |
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Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Too add another thought the forage first feed program, your new filly refusing grain tells you she prefers forage because that is the way they were designed to eat. You can feed a ration balancer that has all the nutrition -vitamins /minerals and forage for the calories. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 410
Location: Comanche, TX | You could try to feed Primeglo. It has an alfalfa meal base so it may be an easy transition since she is already on the alfalfa hay and has a concentrated formula so she would only need to eat 3 lbs/day to get all the nutritents out of it. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 460
| FABULOUS UPDATE!!! My new filly cleaned up all of her grain last night!! The trick worked of feeding her grain along with my gelding! She got jealous, and tried a few bites. She ate is really slow and only took about 3 mouth fulls...but I gave her a scoop in her grain bucket with her dinner...and Voila! Gone this morning =] YAY!!! So excited to get some forco and rice bran in her <3 Thank you guys so much for the help! |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas |  |
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Experienced Mouse Trapper
Posts: 3106
Location: North Dakota | Yay! She's learning to be big horse! |
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 Warmblood with Wings
Posts: 27846
Location: Florida.. | If she goes back off it have her teeth looked at .. |
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 A Somebody to Everybody
Posts: 41354
Location: Under The Big Sky Of Texas | I would not be adding any supplements to her feed untill her system gets used to feed, plenty of good hay is way more important right now and a little feed at a time. Baby steps with feed. |
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