feeding a poor doer?

[emmilou]

like the sound of the soaked linsead. will go and try and get some tomorrow. suppose about a cup would do him to start of with?
the rest i can slowly change untill he gets to a good point x

 

[ThomasTank]

the oats bran alfa a combination keeps them warm and full. it doesnt heat them contrary to popular belief.... its all these VERY EXPENSIVE floor sweepings they call mix that does... ooh i must calm myself as i used to feed them once but now a complete convert !!!

 

[madhector]

[ QUOTE ]
the oats bran alfa a combination keeps them warm and full. it doesnt heat them contrary to popular belief.... its all these VERY EXPENSIVE floor sweepings they call mix that does... ooh i must calm myself as i used to feed them once but now a complete convert !!!

[/ QUOTE ]
he he, i gave my tb mix once, he nearly jumped out of his skin

never fed it to him since

 

[ThomasTank]

yes i give mine a washing powder scoop daily at the mo but will reduce it soon as he is doing so well. am planning to reduce the thickness of the gloop.

 

[emmilou]

i have to admit, im not a fan of mix at all. it sent him mental! plus hims whole temprement changed.
i have deffinatly been converted tho! linsead all the way!
will have to let you know how it goes and send a pici x

 

[ThomasTank]

aaah theres always one!!

 

[ThomasTank]

love to send pics of mine but i have no idea how to . i can only just about type . lol

 

[emmilou]

well, very rarely post pics as im not that great at it either! will do my best tho. if not, ill send you a pm! nice and easy x

 

[ThomasTank]

that would be great. would love to know how you get on. should take roughly 3 weeks to show improvement.

 

[sleepingdragon10]

[ QUOTE ]
barley plus should be no dif from ordinary barley as far as heating goes

and you can buy linseed ready cooked save the trouble

[/ QUOTE ]

Barley Plus already contains Linseed!!

Have a look at this link

BarleyPlus

 

[lilym]

hi, i would get rid of the bran, and the barley, and use either the calm and condition, or a conditioning cube, at the manufacturer's recommended levels, with the speedibeet and swap the chaff for alfa a oil. split the daily amount into as many feeds as possible and feed hay/haylage ad-lib alongside this. you don't say what type or size or workload but you can adjust this diet to suit. the current diet doesn't sound alot and bran is next to useless for condition, although they love the taste! by cup i assume you mean a coffee cup?? if so what you are feeding simply isn't enough.

 

[TGM]

I agree with Lilym - cut out all the extras and just concentrate on one complete feed plus beet/AlfaA if necessary. The whole point of complete feeds like cubes or Calm & Condition is that they are meant to be a complete diet (alongside forage) so you don't need to buy different bags of stuff!

Why not contact Allen & Page, the makers of C&C, and give them size and workload of pony and get them to work out a suitable diet. Here is a link to their advice form:

http://www.allenandpage.com/advice.htm

You also need to check whether you pony is actually underweight and isn't just lacking muscle. If you can feel her ribs but can't actually see them then she is in the correct condition. If it is just that she doesn't have a round topline then you need to concentrate on getting her working correctly rather than giving her extra feed.

 

[JessPickle]

[ QUOTE ]
or flaked maize???

[/ QUOTE ]

soaked flaked maize is very good for bad doers

 

[MagicMelon]

How about adding oil to his diet? If he's a windsucker, I had one once and read that they shouldnt get cereals, so maybe cut out the barley? I think you need to ask yourself what he really needs - does he NEED the bran, yeah its great for fibre but then so are other things which probably have more nutritional value. What nuts are you feeding? Does he need those on top of the Calm and Condition? What chaff do you use? Maybe try putting him onto something conditioning like Alfa A Oil (if not on that).

If I were you, Id simplify the whole thing. I tend to feed a chaff, a cube and a beet/mash. So for conditioning Id go for something like chaff: Alfa A Oil, cube: calm & condition, beet: Dengie Alfa Beet. And obviously an all round vit & min supplement. I find oil is better than cereals for weight but it depends on his workload etc. as well.

 

[TGM]

[ QUOTE ]
So for conditioning Id go for something like chaff: Alfa A Oil, cube: calm & condition, beet: Dengie Alfa Beet. And obviously an all round vit & min supplement.

[/ QUOTE ] If she feeds the C&C to the manufacturer's recommended amount, she won't need a separate vit/min supplement, because it is included in the feed. If she feeds, say, HALF the rec amount, then she can feed half the dosage of vit/min sup to make up the shortfall.

 

[galaxy]

I agree with the last few posters that you reallt need to simplify the ponies diet and I would cut out the barley for definite and the bran if you feel it is doing no good. Adding barley to a pre-balanced feed like Calm and Condition is actually upsetting the nutritional value of the feeds. And also do you know that you are paying out for quite an expensive Conditioning feed (Calm and Condition) and the main reason for that is that is DOESN'T contain barley?!! So feeding that conbination really doesn't make sense.

I would definitely cutout the barley and if Calm and Condition alone is not enough try swopping to Dobson and Horrel Biuld up mix/cubes or the one that Baileys use. I know people using both to great effect. And actually I don't know a genuine poor-doer that has done well enough on Calm and Condition.

I would also swop the chaff to an Alfafa based one. If you find he's too heated on Alfa-A try the Dobson and Horrell own brand Alfafa. My friends horse has the same reaction to Alfa A and does much better on this.

Linseed is really good as someone else mentioned, I hace fed it before in the oil form which you can buy which is really easy to use. Also the Alfa-Beet as previously mentioned might be worth looking into, as it is great for poor doers.

 

[Scarlett1980]

Have you heard of WINERGY Equilibrium? I saw them at Burghley and YH live and my vet recomends their feed.

They are the first company to make scientifically proven feeds that have been proven to help horses that wind suck and those with ulcers put on condition.

You don't add anything to them at all, no chaff, no supplements. Its really easy to use and you know its going to work because they have spent fourteen years researching it!

I am so impressed by it and I know my vet is too. Their number is 01908 226 626 or you can download their literature from www.winergy.com

I'd be really wary of asking too many people for their advice as you end up even more confused, everybody will have a different opinion - I'd ask the experts if I were you.

Good luck x