Feeding oldie

[Peregrine Falcon]

The old girl that I help look after has started to drop weight and she obviously needs more. She's 35, her teeth aren't too bad, a few missing but she manages to eat soft foods ok. We've noticed that she doesn't graze much now but if she has too much "hard" feed she is clearly uncomfortable and colicky. We've split the feeds up throughout the day so she now gets 4 half buckets of soaked fibre nuggets, soaked barley rings, beet and micronised linseed.

We stopped feeding chaff and mix as she just wasn't able to chew properly. I'm getting concerned that going into the winter (if she was mine) I'd want more condition on her. What foods have people fed with success to oldies? I did think of perhaps adding Baileys Cooked Meal into the feeds as well.

 

[TGM]

Soaked grass nuts.

 

[JillA]

Unmollassed beet pulp, soya hulls (Ready Fibre Mash), micronized linseed - and has she been tested for Cushings?

 

[be positive]

Soaked grass nuts.

This would be my first choice as the base for her diet, a direct grass replacement rather than giving more cereals.

 

[Peregrine Falcon]

Yep, we don't really want more grain but she gets a lot of soaked stuff already and too much seems to sit heavy in her stomach causing issues. Need something light really as fibre replacement as she's not really grazing much, we've tried different fields with varying lengths of grass to see if that will encourage her.

 

[JillA]

The soya hulls (Ready Fibre Mash) soak but if you don't drown it with water it is soft and light. Then you can add other dry stuff so long as it is fine textured, like soya meal if she needs more protein and linseed for condition. And bran, which they love, and which mixes in to supply more protein, carbs and palatability (and it's cheap!!)

 

[Fiona]

Our pony is fed fast fibre and high fibre cubes in a mash with a handful of chaff as she can't chew hay.

Before the winter I need to find a fibre/hay replacement though..

Who makes the ready fibre mash jilla?

Fiona

 

[JillA]

Who makes the ready fibre mash jilla?

Rowen Barbary
http://www.rowenbarbary.co.uk/product/soft-n-soak-readyfibre-mash/

That one is low in sugars but they do others, check out the ingredients of the ones designed to be soaked. Their sister company Target sells the straights, and I buy the soya hulls on their own but delivery might make it prohibitive (I live close enough to go in person)

 

[Fiona]

Thanks jillA.

I don't think that brand has made it to NI yet

Am looking at simple systems blue grass pellets as an option at the moment. ..

Fiona