Feed help for horse leaving food..

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Lucinda_x

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Hello,

I've got a 15.1hh irish coloured and he's fed on Badminton horse feeds equipower basefeed, Alfa-A Lite, Oats and Glucosimine. He picks out the Alfa-a and oats but leaves about half of the basefeed. We've had him on this feed for a couple years now and never had a problem. Im definetly not over feeding so thats out of the question to why he's leaving it and we've tryed him on Fenugreek (I think thats how its spelt!) but so far no improvement. Any ideas on what we could give him to get him to eat the rest of the basefeed?
 
Is the basefeed pelleted? If so, have you tried soaking it first to a mash consistency and then mixing through the rest of the feed so it can't be separated out? Or adding some unmolassed beet to the whole ration as that can usually mask unfavourable tastes.
 
Ring badminton and see if they have changed the ingredients in the feed. Some horses are sensitive to change and he may not like something they have recently added!

sometimes they do just suddenly go off a certain feed for no aparent reason... perhaps he's bored of it... I get bored of my wheatabix sometimes and have to swap to redibreak... sure they get the same ;)
 
As a owner of a good doer I dont understand this one little bit but this is some of the things I would try.

I would maybe leave them with the feed over night?
Mix the basefeed in speedi beet??
Or take out the alfa a all together and just leave the base feed a few nights, surely the horse will learn that is all he will get or none at all??? Sorry for sounding harsh.
 
Jerry is a picky eater so i have to dice his carrots and mix them thoroughly through the feed. If he gets a little taste of carrot in every mouthful he eats the lot.
 
Lucinda_x said:
Hello,

I've got a 15.1hh irish coloured and he's fed on Badminton horse feeds equipower basefeed, Alfa-A Lite, Oats and Glucosimine. He picks out the Alfa-a and oats but leaves about half of the basefeed. We've had him on this feed for a couple years now and never had a problem. Im definetly not over feeding so thats out of the question to why he's leaving it and we've tryed him on Fenugreek (I think thats how its spelt!) but so far no improvement. Any ideas on what we could give him to get him to eat the rest of the basefeed?
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buy some mint and add that to the feed. Or mix applejuice in it. Sometimes having something sweet added works wonders. My horse has recently started leaving his feed as I've been giving him speedibeet. So I bought some powdered mint leaves from the feed merchant and he's loving his dinner now.:D
 
my mare periodically goes off feed - luckily i have enough horsey friends that I can palm off half bags of feed too - mixes are a big no no as she just picks

and she's recently stopped eating soaked feed and wont eat chaff either - so is back onto fibre nuts and conditioning cubes and is eating them - i tried to add chaff and she stopped again = she's v opinionated.

she does get adlib hay though so i'm not too worried - she'd hardly wasting away :o but i'd rater sawp her feed about so i know she's def getting a hard feed that she'll wolf down than faff about with trying different things to add etc

if he's really not eating it maybe its time for a change? is there something of similar mj/kg you can swap it for?
 
You could try mixing in grated carrots (bit of a faff though) or mine love marmite melted in hot water poured over their feeds. If he doesn't like soggy feed you can add a lot of flavour in a very small amount of boiling water.
 
I've been having that with mine recently, he has 16+ cool mix, mollichaff and codlivine. We found that by putting various different things in it to be found got him interested and wanting to eat in order to find the tasty things! Try mints, carrots, apple or just some treats sprinkled in. Also you could try apple juice. :) Hope he's sorted soon. :)
 
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