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 Veteran
Posts: 104
Location: Southern Michigan | I need help figuring out what to do for a feeding program my mare will actually like and want to eat, she’s the pickiest horse I’ve ever seen. She’s 12 years old now, sun frost bred, so she can be quite the handful. Her name is Queenie for a reason ? I want to feed her something that will give her plenty of nutrition that she needs to perform, yet not give her excess sugars/starch/etc. that will hype her up.
Before we’ve always just gave the horses oats with a little sweet feed. But now that I have a higher end horse, I realize how that won’t work for her. I switched to Tribute- Kalm n Easy last May, she has also been off for a year recovering from injury, so I haven’t had the opportunity to see if switching her to better food will have helped her performance. I have noticed an improvement in her hair coat though, and my farrier has seen a little improvement too.
She has never cared for the taste of the Tribute, so I always mix a hand full or so of sweet feed for her. That’s still not good enough for her, and to make matters worse, when she was on a lot of medication for her skull fracture last year, I had to add tons of sweet feed and apple sauce to get her to eat it. So I know she wants that mixture back. The other horses like the tribute but she just throws it all over the ground and refuses to eat very much. I hoped over time she’d get used to it, but I’ve gotten to the point I’m tired of eating ramen noodles and pb&j’s for her to get surf & turf every night and to throw it on the ground. I recently got some Morinda Care for a healthy and natural calming supplement & to see if that’d make the grain taste better. I can tell she likes it a tad more, but still having a hard time getting her to eat it. If I give her sweet feed she’d mow down on that. I know I’ve created a spoiled monster.
So my question is, is there anyone else who has had a horse not like tribute? Is there another type of tribute with a different taste or brand I could look into to see if she’d like that too, that’d work for a naturally quirky, hot headed diva? Also what is the difference between Morinda Care and Formula 1, it looks like they have similar Noni juice in it, and does it work well for you? It’s still fairly new to me. I want to get her on a liquid supplement for calming & joints since she does throw temper tantrums and throws her grain, thanks to our old rope horse teaching her that. I also give her Gelatin as a hoof supplement, has helped quite a bit. Money is tight so I want to make sure I get the most of it and get her food she’ll actually like & eat.
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Expert
Posts: 3514
  
| Does she have ulcers? I would try renew gold. It is low in starch. And then add maybe a lb of the triple crown sr. I feed this but add platinum CJ. I also give aloe Vera juice. | |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 509
| I have the most well known, picky eater. I did however do something different a week and a half ago that turned him into an eager eater. I got some "Jump Start' in a tube. Its a probiotic better known to people that raise goats and sheep. Sometimes the lambs and kids need a lil boost. It worked like a charm. My vet and I have tried so many things over the last 4 yrs "UGH" The tube is only about $8 - 4 doses then on the pro-bias everyday. His regular diet has always been A good quality feed,hay, aloe juice,-fat supplement-vitamins, minerals,and alfalfa cubes. He has become the eager eater | |
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | One thing that has worked in the past is to eliminate molassas, beet pulp (including non molassas beet pulp) and all joint supplemets. Feed alfalfa, flax, straight grain and a general supplement.
Something about those things irritates their guts. | |
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 Expert
Posts: 1218
Location: South MS | My performance horse gets 1/3 scp of rolled oats, 2/3 scp of soaked beet pulp, 1/2 cup of flax (Omega horseshine) and grass hay and alfalfa - I try to use bales but sometimes I have to soak the cubes due to availability
Mine stay on pasture alot, none of mine have turned this down - you may to add aloe vera juice to the feed to soothe digestional upset (or treat for ulcers) | |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 559
| You can try triple crown senior . I had an extremely picky eater .. But she loved the TC senior . For her to actually love a feed was very unusual .. Half the time she could of cared less if she got any or not .. But she sure liked that :) | |
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