Feed for condition without growth spurt for weanling?

Kallibear

Kallibear

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Small fry (6month old highland) could do with a little more condition. He's gone from slightly tubby to a little skinny over a couple of weeks and I don't want him looseing anymore. He lives out unrugged (looks like a cushingoid yak!) with adlib haylege but it bloody cold, he's only little so can't eat huge amounts, he's been recently gelded and he's growing like a weed, hence weight loss. He's got a rug but just ends up too hot, itchy and grumpy so it much happier naked unless it's really wet. He's currently just getting a little speedibeet for his supplement.

I'll go have a look see what they've got at feedshop tomorrow but suggestions please on best thing to feed to give condition without causing a growth spurt? It needs to be in fairly small quantities as he'll be taken out field to eat whilst we stand with him (no stable) and he takes forever to eat, plus he gets bored eating after a while and starts to kick it about.

Thanks in advance! In return you can have a cute picture if you like.
 
Ditto the Suregrow. Excellent stuff, specially formulated for growing youngsters; small pellets and you'd only feed something like a mugful, nothing else needed, not even chaff or any other supplement either so will be quite quick to eat.
 
I feed my weanlings Spillers Gro n Win which is a feed balancer for youngstock and the one which is a tad skinny has some Spillers Stud and Youngstock mix, approx 1/3 the recommended amount on the bag as he has a lot of native breed in him and 2/3 the recommended amount of balancer to make up the difference. the nutritionalist at spillers is very helpful. the balancers, be they D&H orSpillers or whoever are designed to give then adequate amounts of essential amino acids ie the ones they need and cannot make themselves in addition to vit and min and thus ensure an even growth rate without deficiency in any particular nutrient. these feed companies make balancers especially for youngstock and they are the ones to use. the balancers are low calorie and low starch. the mixes add more calories and that is why my skightly skinny weanling has that,to give him more calories for weight gain. he doesnt need "stuffing" however and is not a TB so i find that he doesnt need all the amount it says on the bag to achieve this end. whatever brand of feed you go with please keep to it that is spillers balancer with spillers mix, D&H wih D&H mix etc as they are designed to compliment each other and mixing brands could cause an imbalance. as stated their nuritionalists are very knowlegeable and helpful and i would advise ringing them. also do have a worm count done, it could be that the weanling needs worming even if done fairly recently.

let us know how you get on.
 
I personally would just add some alfa-a lite or molasses free to his speedi-beet and supplement with a dolop of oil and or some high fibre cubes. The trouble with suregrow and grow & win is the high protein content which, if he is growing like a weed, will only be exagerated by the protein rather than filling him out...

The thing is not to panic... he may look poor coming out of winter but he will pick up in the spring.
 
My youngster (who is 3yo now) used to drop weight every time she was just about to shoot upwards at a great rate of knots. The first real time she did it I was nearly having kittens as she was looking awful - but now we have got used to it.

Now I just keep hoping that she isn't grow upwards too much more. I was hoping for something around 15hh ish - and she is a substantial 16hh already!

I have kept her on alfa oil & speedi beet since she was a tacker - and she has always done well on it (between her growth spurts!) I now have my "still-a-bit-of-a-pointy-bum" arab coolstance copra - and he has put on a good amount of condition since being on that.
 
You could try putting a rug on to prevent him using up further calories in keeping himself warm, also I used Saracen Equijewel to add to the base ration just when his ribs were showing a bit, Only gave 1/2 a coffee cup a day so bag lasted ages. It's an oil based pellet, so no starch/cereal reactions or growth spurts.
 
plenty of long stem fibre ... like alpha a and sugar beet, and plenty of hay/haylage and good water. some hdf cubes if worried. he will go lanky every time he goes upwards!
 
Thanks :D

I ended up buying Suregrow as that was all they really had :o . He'll only be getting a little as the high protien does worry me. And he'll get a splash of oil in it too.

BUT it's still taking him forever to eat! He got one small mug today and it took him well over half an hour to eat :rolleyes: He's useless at eating, really he is (which is prob why he can't make the most of adlib haylege) and spends ages carefuly chewing each mouthful. I'd forgotten how little their mouths are at that age :o Pip's finished his dinner (twice the amount) in a quarter of the time. I'll just have to be patient :o
 
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