fussy eater! help!

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splashnutti1

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i have a 26 year old hackney x cob and he has suddenly become a really picky eater which is not helping keep his weight on!

he will eat something for so long then get fed up of it and refuse to eat it! He suffers with a cough so i have to feed him good quality haylage but he only picks at it so tried him with soaked hay, wouldnt entertain it, to the point he went all night without touching it! ( will eat it dry but makes him cough really bad!!)!

He was on alpah a oil and veteran mix with baileys number one but after 2 weeks refused to eat it so i had to change it, he is currently on chaff, old faithful mix and fast fibre and has a bucket of just grass at night, been on this 2 weeks, went this morning and he has only picked at feed and left grass!

His teeth etc are all fine is regularly seen by a good dentist! had a vet check not long ago, vet said he is fanatsic health for his age!

i dont like having to change his feed every 2-3 weeks it cant be good for him and its costly!

he is so frustrating!

I am worrying he will drop weight! help! lol ;)
 
I have a TB who is exactly the same and has been all her life. If she will eat a feed she eats it for about a week maximum and then refuses it no matter what I do, often I buy something and she won't even try it so I've wasted so much money over the years.

She will eat Winergy Equilibrium Condition though, it's the one thing I've found which she will finish off but only if fed in small quantities, if I overface her with a big feed she won't touch any of it.

I feed her about 3 quarters of a scoop ( which is about 700g ) with a balancer in it 2 or 3 times a day depending on her condition. When she goes off it which is normally once a month or so I give the balancer with a handful of chaff for a few days which she mainly refuses, and after a few days of that she accepts the Winergy again.

I've tried adding all sorts of beet & mashes to just about every mix on the market and at best this works for a few days at a time so I can sympathise.

I can't offer any advice I'm afraid but the Winergy may be worth a try.

Good luck!
 
I'm struggling with a fussy eater on box rest and keep having to give away bags of feed. He won't eat Alfalfa and gets bored with normal chaff. I have found MolliChaff ShowShine to be one he will keep eating. It's quite high in sugar but also high in oil and he loves the Cherry flavour, as I am giving lots of medication and supplements in his feed I needed something he would eat so the trade-off of high sugar against actually getting his medication in is something I am willing to risk.
 
Hi guys thanks for replies,

Glad im not on my own lol! Havent yet found anything my lad will keep eating! i feed him in small amounts twice a day so as not to overface him but he just flatly refuses to eat at times!

sonjafoers - ill definately try the winergy thanks :)

jenni999 - i to have to keep giving feed away, some bags i get away with using for my cob who isnt fussy but some arent suitable! its so annoying as costs a small fortune lol! xx
 
Hi,
one of my veterans is also very fussy and I have a similar issue re hay and haylage. I have had some success with Allen and Page veteran vitality which I rate for keeping weight on. He takes ages to eat it but it is all gone in the morning! I''m now in the third month of feeding this to him so it's looking good.I've also tried using a bit of blackcurrant cordial in his feed as well and this worked.
Micronised linseed has also greatly helped - good luck and I hope you find something that works. I know how frustrating this is!
 
If it's a sudden thing have you thought about getting her teeth checked, or changing to some kind of mushy food incase she has a stiff jaw?
 
I won a Winergy competition a while back and got a month's free feed. I started on the Medium but he wouldn't eat it so they sent me a month's worth of another one, I think Growth? I was having to feed five big scoops a day to ensure he got his vits/mins and I just couldn't get it down him as he would get bored after about 1 scoop.
 
Pigeon said:
If it's a sudden thing have you thought about getting her teeth checked, or changing to some kind of mushy food incase she has a stiff jaw?
Click to expand...
To further add to this - the Veteran Vitality from A&P is 'mushy' you soak the pellets in water for around 4 mins and pretty much make it to whatever consistency you think will work. As my old lad has dodgy teeth this helps him to eat (as does brushing his teeth but that's a different story!)
 
My mare is very fussy and the amount of food I thrown away since Ive had her is unbelievable. I try not to think about it! Lol! I found with her she finds big feeds very off putting. I was filling a big bowl with fast fibre and linseed and shed hardly touch it. Eventually after trying everything and being totally fed up of chucking food on the muck heap, she had a bout of colic so I started looking at other feeds as I wanting to introduce a pre an pro biotic into her diet. Anyway we found Thunerbrook base mix and weve not looked back. You don't need to feed hardly any and she just loves it. I haven't chucked any food away since she started it back in April. She comes running for it and shes never looked or felt better. Another thing you could o is try adding fenugreek to the feed. Its very palatable and increases the appetite and its fairly cheap so worth a try. I would just make sure theres not an underlying issue as well. I know ulcers cause them to be very fussy. Good luck!
 
My gelding can be fussy with his food.If he stops eating I leave feeds in seperate piles in his bucket to see what he's gone off. Leave that feed out for a few days and he usually starts eating it again! Except speedibeet won't eat it after 15 years of eating it. He likes fibrebeet for now though. Why is it the poor doers that are fussy?
 
Pigeon said:
If it's a sudden thing have you thought about getting her teeth checked, or changing to some kind of mushy food incase she has a stiff jaw?
Click to expand...

Has his teeth done regular and are all fine was only seen 3 months ago, plus had full vet check all good there to lol :) he is just fussy, has always been a bit this way but is getting worse in his grumpy old age bless him :)

Optimissteeq - thanks, i feed him the mushy fast fibre and his feed is always dampened as he prefers it wet, definately will try winergy, his teeth are really good for his age (not sure i would want to brush them hehe) .Its all so frustrating ;)

claribella - thanks ill try adding fenugreek

RamblingRosa - frustrating isnt it that its the fussy ones who are bad doers grrrr gotta love him lol :)
 
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Optimissteeq said:
Hi,
one of my veterans is also very fussy and I have a similar issue re hay and haylage. I have had some success with Allen and Page veteran vitality which I rate for keeping weight on. He takes ages to eat it but it is all gone in the morning! I''m now in the third month of feeding this to him so it's looking good.I've also tried using a bit of blackcurrant cordial in his feed as well and this worked.
Micronised linseed has also greatly helped - good luck and I hope you find something that works. I know how frustrating this is!
Click to expand...

ill look into veteran vitality, thanks :) x
 
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