7 month old foal doesn't know what hard feed is, tips to get him eatting

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thatsmygirl

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He eats his hay fine but would love him to have 2 meals a day off stud nuts but he really don't know what it is. Iv soaked it, added chaff, put it on top off his hay but he's not interested, will it just come with time
 
Foals learn by watching and copying another horse (usually their dam), but failing this, take a small amount of feed, i have found coarse mix the best, and put it into the side of his mouth.
He will mouth at it and spit it out, but should eventually get the tast for it. It may take some time (days) but he should soon get the hange of it.
 
Yes, I had one brought from auction like this. Can't remember how it fixed though. You defo need really palatable stuff. Try Baileys stud balancer with sugar beet from your hand (then straight into bowl). Do not fall into the trap of hand feeding though, produces really bargy youngsters (and I should know cos I've done it!)
 
Thanks guys, what I done tonight was turn him out in the school with a pony for company, I took a bowl off food in to them and he watched the other pony eating and stuck his head in the bowl a couple off times so I'm gona carry on with this and hopefully he will learn from the other pony.
 
scarymare said:
Yes, I had one brought from auction like this. Can't remember how it fixed though. You defo need really palatable stuff. Try Baileys stud balancer with sugar beet from your hand (then straight into bowl). Do not fall into the trap of hand feeding though, produces really bargy youngsters (and I should know cos I've done it!)
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The trick is to have the food in a bucket, and take it out as you can then offer the bucket, to the foal as he gets the hang of it.
I have also had a few from the sales, and this has worked well for me!
 
the foals i've been involved with have picked it up quite quickly by watching their mum's feed from a bucket - we always had extra buckets with a tiny bit of stud mix in for them to experiment with while mum was eating, they soon caught on. So your idea of feeding with the pony seems extremely sensible.
 
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