Appetising feed?

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kchgax

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Hi all.

My mare is currently on the recommended amount of Fast Fibre a day, split between two feeds.

She looks great on it so I'm really reluctant to change - but recently she doesn't pay as much attention to it as she did (I don't think I would, either!) when we first started feeding it. I've been hunting around for some form of chaff/cube/mix that is low in sugar and starch but that will encourage her to eat her feed and make it a little more palatable.

Any ideas?
 
I think we need a bit more detail about your mare? Why is she on Fast Fibre for a start - is she a good-doer, a laminitic, have Cushings, EMS, ties up etc?
 
Good doer. She's not in a lot of work at the moment so it's looked after her condition overall quite well with the additional vits and mins. I have my young sports horse on it too (but he's not a fussy eater) - he's only in light work and it carries both of their supplements. :)
 
A couple of mine gradually went off FF having eaten it happily for a couple of years, I added some speedibeet which got them eating it but eventually I swapped over to grass nuts in preference to making up 2 different feeds and having to juggle the quantities to suit the picky ones, one has now gone off that so I am back to adding speedibeet, I think the more picky ones can get bored with something fairly bland especially if fed a fair amount in each feed, at this time of year they are getting fed up with forage and want the spring grass to come through.
 
I presume you've tried the obvious tactic of adding finely chopped carrots to the feed? Otherwise, as she not laminitic or otherwises special needs, you could look at adding one of the grass chaffs such as Readigrass, Graze-On etc. These obviously contain grass sugars, but in her case it doesn't sound crucial to keep her sugar intake down to an absolute minimum, and you should only be feeding a tiny bit just to improve the taste and texture of the Fast Fibre. They would probably be more appetising than your normal alfalfa/straw blends such as HiFi Lite. However, all horses are different, so worth seeing if you can borrow a bit from other horse owners before forking out for an entire bag, or ask manufacturers to send you small sample bags. But personally I think carrots would be the first step, as you only have to buy a few to start with!
 
I feed ff for mine with the graze on green chaff it's just chopped grass and the horses love it, both of mine keep weight well but they have no molasses and a low starch diet and don't really need fed for energy they have plenty so it suits them.
 
I'm adding mint and powdered fenugreek (ebay £6 a kilo). My fussy eater loves it. Vegetable madras, anyone :D ?


My two won't eat grass chaff and I've heard of others that won't either.
 
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Isn't a no-added sugar/high fibre diet the best one for all horses, not just ones with obvious metabolic issues?


TGM said:
I think we need a bit more detail about your mare? Why is she on Fast Fibre for a start - is she a good-doer, a laminitic, have Cushings, EMS, ties up etc?
Click to expand...
 
ycbm said:
Isn't a no-added sugar/high fibre diet the best one for all horses, not just ones with obvious metabolic issues?
Click to expand...

I agree. I always aim for low sugar/starch with all of mine, which is why I was a bit puzzled what I could add that was 'appetising' as nothing I feed really is! A friends suggestion was to add raw mollasses or a chop coated in it...!
 
Fast Fibre already has fenugreek and mint added to it.

I know a few people whose horses aren't that fussed this time of year as the grass starts to come through. Do you have supplements you need her to eat, if not if she's a good doer I wouldn't worry too much.

You could also look at the Agrobs range which is sugar free and something like the Aspero might help if your horse prefers the texture of a chaff to mush.
 
ycbm said:
Isn't a no-added sugar/high fibre diet the best one for all horses, not just ones with obvious metabolic issues?
Click to expand...

Generally yes, but if palatability is a problem you need to know how crucial it is to keep these levels to an absolute minimum! You are likely to take a different approach with a horse that has had recurrent laminitic attacks even on a restricted diet than you would with the OP's horse who sounds like they are just an uncomplicated good doer.
 
TGM said:
Generally yes, but if palatability is a problem you need to know how crucial it is to keep these levels to an absolute minimum! You are likely to take a different approach with a horse that has had recurrent laminitic attacks even on a restricted diet than you would with the OP's horse who sounds like they are just an uncomplicated good doer.
Click to expand...

^^ agree
Mine are usually on grass chaff (had to learn to eat it as they both prefer Alfa-A!) and balancer
I have a bag of Saracen Releve on the go which was handy for disguising antibiotics and bute in when little cob got kicked. It smells amazing, don't know who decided blackcurrant was a horse-friendly flavour but mine go mad for it.

She also finds it so tempting that she will happily clamber onto the lorry using that as bribery. It's got some molasses in but is low starch - I hardly feed any of it so it's really no worse than a few polos, in reality.
 
Is it some kind of epidemic?? My formerly greedy feeder has gone off his feed over the last few months (since I tried adding a mineral supplement which put both of them off) and both he and the TB (who always was picky) are now not keen on Forage and Fibre, tried their former ration of unmollassed beet pulp and grass pellets this morning and neither have eaten that. Where else to go now - greedy one has PPID so needs low sugar/starch, other one is a poor doer so can have anything but what will tempt him is the question? So, to sum up OP, I am no help at all lol!
 
Epidemic for certain.

My cushing horse had veteran and vitality through the winter, at a much lower quantities than stated for his size, thrived on it and loved the stuff, however it is a tad high in the sugar/starch levels so I mixed some fast fibre with it and gradually replaced the VV. Did not take long for him to turn his nose up at the FF. He does not like soaked grass nuts or speedibeet.

Thankfully he is shoving vast quantities of haylage in so is in reasonable condition but I do need to get a bute in and pro hoof. The only thing he will eat at the moment is warm bran with a handful of pony cubes and lots of diced carrot.

I was amazed when I popped into the local tack shop and they said they don't stock bran. What is the horse world coming to !
 
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