Feeding 1.5% of body weight...

metalmare

metalmare

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My pony weighs 400kg, so he should, in theory, get 6kg of roughage per day.

How on earth do you calculate how much grass he's getting though when he lives out 24/7? Very little at the moment as he's on a bare keep paddock, but then when the grass starts growing, he eats it at the rate it grows, so although it may not look like he's on much I think he gets his fair share of the green stuff!!

Even on 4kg on hay he is doing well (currently a 3, borderline 3 1/2 condition score). So now I am soaking his 4kg of hay (dry weight) to keep the roughage going in but try to reduce calories.

If he got 6kg of roughage per day I'm sure he would pop!

Help! Am I doing right? He also gets around 1/2kg of hi-fi lite and his GP supplement and biotin. That's it.
 
If he is in good to very good body condition then he is obviously getting enough calories, if not too many. Feeding 1.5% forage is supposed to be for gradual weight loss, maintanance should be 2%, so I wonder if you have properly calculated your weights? And remember that should be 1.5% of his target or ideal weight, not what he weighs now.
 
It gets even more difficult when you realise that % figure is dry matter, and grass and haylage etc have a fair bit of moisture in them. ;) That is when feeding becomes and art, rather than a science and you need to keep an eye on body condition, not too fat or not losing weight.
 
I weigh him using a weigh tape and he has always, over almost a year now, weighed in at between 390 - 402 kilos, so he never fluctuates much - I don't let him, I keep him at around a 3 by assessing daily and making alterations as they're needed.

I know weigh tapes are infamously inaccurate, but 400 kilos sounds right for a 14hh pony at around a 3 on a condition score, doesn't it? 1 percent of 400 is 4, another half a percent is 2 = 6kg. Then I've weighed his hay using digital scales, so that should be right.

Perhaps what he is getting is just too good? The hay comes from a good source; too good for him perhaps? That's why I soaked it over the summer last year and I'm going back to soaking it now.

I'm not sure what else I can try?

I've always fed according to how he looks and feels, but when I worked out what I was feeding him I then realised I was well under 1.5% and started worrying about ulcers / colic / hunger. So I thought I needed to feed more but somehow reduce calories.

Gastric band???
 
I have read that re the moisture in grass you can as a rule of thumb work on the basis of about 20% being dry matter. Then all you have to do is work out how much they are eating in the first place!!

In the dead of winter I reckon on about 1kg of dry matter rising to about 2kg now and about 4kg in the peak growing season, assuming the grass is shortish but not completely bare. If bare it might not get above 2kg. All guesswork, but using that basis my Haffie lost weight steadily and gradually (she needed to) during last winter and spring.

You could cut the hay and make up the difference with a low cal chaff, or chopped oat straw (straight or chopped from a bag). Altho unsoaked it is a big higher sugar than soaked hay, its less than unsoaked hay but more importantly gives a lot more chew for the pony and takes longer to eat, so they can have more of it for the same calories/weight.
 
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A guess is better than nothing!

That's not far from what I'm working on: 4kg hay, 1/2kg chaff and (perhaps optimistically) 1.5kg of grass.

This pony is lazy as well as greedy and will stuff himself with hay rather than work for his grass if it's hard work.
 
Do you have any pics so we can have a look at his weight? I have a 14.2 mare (Heinz variety cobby type!) & she currently weighs almost 400kg on my D&H weightape, however, I reckon she is verging on a 4.5 condition score!!! :-( I'm working hard to get the weight off before spring grass starts...! :-(
 
I tend to guess the amount of grass eaten will be as much as my greedy 550 kg dobbin can stuff into his fat little face! If his grazing is unrestricted he gains weight exponentially. 5 days on unrestricted spring grass last year gave him lami. I have a theory in which I worked out how much grass he was eating.

In winter I feed him 1.5% in dry hay and fast fibre which is the same calories as hay. He gets extra roughage as he eats his barley straw bed so I make sure he access to plenty of water. This winter he has lost weight on this method. Once he was down to weight I increased his hay to 2% and he's actually gained a bit, but still scoring nicely at 2.5.

I keep the weight off him by putting him in a greenguard muzzle. I leave it on 24 hours a day and he just to say maintains weight - give him a bucket feed too and he will gain weight unless he's worked hard. So I estimate that with a greenguard ON my horse must be getting his 2% which is 11 kg in 24 hours, as he maintains his weight. Given that vets say a greenguard limits grazing by 50% - without his greenguard my horse must be eating 22kg of grass in 24 hours.

So there's a rough guesstimate for you! A 550 kg chunky 15.1 native horse eats 22 kg of grass per 24 hours.
 
This picture is a couple of months old, I don't have a current one, however he hasn't really fluctuated from this. If anything he's a little less cresty.
picture.php
 
noblesteed said:
I tend to guess the amount of grass eaten will be as much as my greedy 550 kg dobbin can stuff into his fat little face! If his grazing is unrestricted he gains weight exponentially. 5 days on unrestricted spring grass last year gave him lami. I have a theory in which I worked out how much grass he was eating.

In winter I feed him 1.5% in dry hay and fast fibre which is the same calories as hay. He gets extra roughage as he eats his barley straw bed so I make sure he access to plenty of water. This winter he has lost weight on this method. Once he was down to weight I increased his hay to 2% and he's actually gained a bit, but still scoring nicely at 2.5.

I keep the weight off him by putting him in a greenguard muzzle. I leave it on 24 hours a day and he just to say maintains weight - give him a bucket feed too and he will gain weight unless he's worked hard. So I estimate that with a greenguard ON my horse must be getting his 2% which is 11 kg in 24 hours, as he maintains his weight. Given that vets say a greenguard limits grazing by 50% - without his greenguard my horse must be eating 22kg of grass in 24 hours.

So there's a rough guesstimate for you! A 550 kg chunky 15.1 native horse eats 22 kg of grass per 24 hours.
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That's a good guide, thank you. He's on a very bare paddock at the moment, but it still gives an idea.
 
Hutchlou said:
Do you have any pics so we can have a look at his weight? I have a 14.2 mare (Heinz variety cobby type!) & she currently weighs almost 400kg on my D&H weightape, however, I reckon she is verging on a 4.5 condition score!!! :-( I'm working hard to get the weight off before spring grass starts...! :-(
Click to expand...

I go on whether I can feel the ribs. how much crest he's carrying, whether he has fat pads on his shoulders and whether his croup area is flat and I can feel the point of the hip easily.

At the moment I can just feel his ribs, there's no crest, his croup is level and he's carrying no fat on his shoulders. If anything I'd like him slightly ribby though coming onto the spring grass.
 
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