Banging my head gently against the wall...

PapaverFollis

PapaverFollis

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Beast.

Oh Beast. Why must you do this to me?

Perfectly acceptable lovely grass pellets that she was happily troffling down a week ago. Now no longer acceptable and must be picked at with a slightly grumpy look on one's face. Ffs.

Speedibeet is a no. Fast fibre on it's own is a no. Lovely Meadow Magic grass pellets looking to be a no now... nothing has changed. She's just gone off it. Obviously there's a bit of grass now but given that they're all still losing a bit of weight and eating hay with enthusiasm... and I'm feeding the hard feed at the end of a daytime shut off the grass... I don't think it's that she's stuffed full of grass.

It's just so bloody frustrating. I don't know what to do with her. She has a big pile of supplement powders she has to eat so she needs something. I've tried all kinds of things added into feeds when she's gone off them and nothing much changes.

I've shut her in a small pen with just what is left of her feed and a bucket of water for her to consider the error of her ways for a bit...

Grrrrrrr.
 
I’ve got one of those. In her defence she does have PPID and is on Prascend so that may have an effect. She needs to have her Prascend and also Danilon for arthritis however every month or so the feed I thought was the answer so that she eats everything up is suddenly no longer acceptable. I have ended up with at least three partly used bags of feed.
 
She's nibbled all the tiny shoots of grass in the pen, had a drink of her water and is now dozing next to her last little bit of feed looking very pleased with herself.

I've been trying to avoid Re-leve because it's high energy and she's such a good doer... plus it is still slightly too high in sugar and starch... but on balance it's more important to get the supplements down and she gets such tiny feeds anyway I'm probably going to have to give in and go there!
 
My head hurt reading this just remembering the struggle. I remember when I finally managed to get my mare to eat an ulcer friendly diet and key flow changed the size of the pink mash pellets and she flat out refused to go near them (they'd been soaked obviously! the only thing visibly different was it was marginally pinker). I emailed them to ask if the recipe had changed and no it hadn't. Drove me absolutely up the wall as she was always thin and it had taken her an age to like it in the first place. very glad I no longer own her...
 
PapaverFollis said:
She's nibbled all the tiny shoots of grass in the pen, had a drink of her water and is now dozing next to her last little bit of feed looking very pleased with herself.

I've been trying to avoid Re-leve because it's high energy and she's such a good doer... plus it is still slightly too high in sugar and starch... but on balance it's more important to get the supplements down and she gets such tiny feeds anyway I'm probably going to have to give in and go there!
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It really plumps up though and I used to get him to eat nasty stuff in just 100grams soaked.
 
ycbm said:
It really plumps up though and I used to get him to eat nasty stuff in just 100grams soaked.
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Yes. And they do all seem to love it. I used to sell it to so many people who said it was the only thing their fussy horse had ever eaten with enthusiasm!

Hopefully my feed man is up soon... I can see this being a frustrating interlude until he is. The local feed store does not stock Saracens.
 
Am having really good success with Topspec high fibre mash. Each horse gets a quarter of a scoop a day split between two feeds, it’s a tiny tiny amount but goes much bigger when you soak it so carries the supplements!
 
Keyflow Pink Mash
Copra/coolstance
Allen and Page Soothe & Gain (small amount just for supps)
Spillers speedy fibre mash

Dont know if they'd be any more appetising?

If you need to get supps in would a small amount of a "bad" food work? Something like mollichop apple chaff?
 
She is resistant to the charms of mint, ribena, grated carrots and apples added to a feed she's decided against it's all just a big nope... I think I'm going to have to go for a small amount of naughty junk food. I very much doubt I'd be able to get Agrobs or similar. Getting the Meadow Magic was like getting blood out of a stone...

Re-leve I can possibly get. Topspec and Allen and Page I can probably get. Mollichaff is a probable too.

Even penned in with nothing to do but finish the bucket for about 45 mins... she still didn't finish it. Little Dragon got some extra snacks! It was only a mouthful or two left but still.... so annoying. Especially when she's like a Hoover the rest of the time!
 
The cheapest, nastiest, highly mollassed, sugar beet was the only thing mine would eat with her hoof supplement which rather missed the point of a 'hoof friendly' diet.

Agrobs, Pink Mash, Re-leve, Top Spec stuff, Speedibeet, Fast Fibre, grass nuts etc were all rejected. For a fatass she's very fussy :rolleyes:.
 
PapaverFollis said:
She is resistant to the charms of mint, ribena, grated carrots and apples added to a feed she's decided against it's all just a big nope... I think I'm going to have to go for a small amount of naughty junk food. I very much doubt I'd be able to get Agrobs or similar. Getting the Meadow Magic was like getting blood out of a stone...

Re-leve I can possibly get. Topspec and Allen and Page I can probably get. Mollichaff is a probable too.

Even penned in with nothing to do but finish the bucket for about 45 mins... she still didn't finish it. Little Dragon got some extra snacks! It was only a mouthful or two left but still.... so annoying. Especially when she's like a Hoover the rest of the time!
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Check with Red Rufus, they're the UK distributor. Hope you can find something she approves of.
 
I just remembered what I did when the beast wasn't eating his food with supplements; I cut back on the supplements and reintroduced them at smaller amounts so he got used to the taste. He ate his food fine then. Although, I made sure not to give him his hay until he's finished them.
 
mule said:
I just remembered what I did when the beast wasn't eating his food with supplements; I cut back on the supplements and reintroduced them at smaller amounts so he got used to the taste. He ate his food fine then. Although, I made sure not to give him his hay until he's finished them.
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I thought this as has recently started new minerals... but I introduced them slowly already and she's been happily eating them for over 2 weeks!
 
Have you tried just giving her the supplements mixed with water in an oral syringe? Give her a couple of treats afterwards, then feed as normal?

And mine hate Speedibeet but like Kwikbeet. No clue what's different there.
 
I know your pain. Blue used to very reluctantly eat Dengie Healthy Hooves (just to get the supplements in her) but quit as soon as she moved onto the summer grass. (Of course, this was just after I'd bought four bags of the stuff to get us through lockdown.) She's also turned her nose up at Pink Mash and both sugar-filled and sugar-free Speedibeet, none of which even had supplements in. Squash isn't enough to tempt her, mint and carrots do nothing.

I'm hoping that now she's penned into a strip of poor grazing, the hard feed might be more tempting than the thoroughly soaked hay, but I suspect I'm being optimistic.

She appears to have missed the section of the Cob Manual about eating anything and everything.
 
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