Fussy eater!!

I

icklemadame

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I used to have a typical fat fluffy greedy pony, who ate whatever you put in front of her, usually at high speed. We started having some problems last winter getting her to eat enough, nothing drastic she was just a bit fussier and wouldn't always finish her meals (we were trying to feed her little and often to combat this) or her haynet, but it was a constant worry as she loses a lot of weight when she is hunting, so needs to eat eat eat!! This year however its even worse - she rarely finishes her haylage (we've tried hay and haylage to see if she prefers one or the other) and won't basically eat anything at 'mealtime' except saracen veteran mix (she's not a veteran, we just tried this as its what we have most of!!) I went out and bought her alfa a oil, saracen show improver mix and sugar beet, (what I was planning on feeding her, and what she had last year minus the show improver mix, last year she was on competition mix) but she won't touch any of it, or at least very rarely does... Do I just accept that all she now likes is veteran mix?! That she's just become picky in her old age? I will have her teeth checked again, I had them looked at in September and they were fine but I'm aware this is something I have to rule out... any suggestions? I'm just worried that just plain veteran mix isn't enough for a fizzy 11 yr old mare who's hunting 1/2 times a week...
 
p.s also a little tight on funds to just keep going out and buying sacks of feed that she doesn't even try...
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awful thing for a mother to say I know... but it is unfortunately the truth!!
 
My boy (cobby) didn't eat up so alen and page suggested I put some apple juice on and that worked a treat for me stur it in good luck.
 
Oh I like the apple juice idea!! She's always fine during the summer, but I think it gets to winter and she spends six months permanently on edge thinking that everytime I appear she just may be going hunting (there are times when all I'm doing is grooming her and she starts shaking like a leaf) so she completely loses her appetite!! damn silly mare!!
 
I'm having similar issues at the moment with my veteran. He's started leaving his feed in favour of his haylage. It's almost as if he cant be bothered to eat it all. Teeth are fine and he's well and not losing condition. I reduced the amount of chaff to just a handful so that I could be sure that he at least ate the Top spec and a bit of mix without losing interest. He loves polos so I have started to add a bit of dried mint to his feeds to stimulate some interest which seems to work (I think its good for digestion anyway). I usually chop up carrots and mix them in his feed but he was picking them out and leaving part of his feed so I only give him those when he eats the rest. I don't think he has a problem as such he's just old and becoming fussy in his old age.
 
If she likes the veteran mix - go with it! It is probably high in protein which is fine if she is working hard. Blue chip is good if she needs conditioner and my fussy eater likes it.
 
Yes mine was out 24/7 all summer and when he came in was always anciouse thinking he was out hunting hunt twice a week any way like I said apple juice settled him down but even now if I even just hack we still have sloppy poo's !! he loves his hinting !!
 
Agree with Boss, just pack her full of the Veteran Mix if she likes it! I'd keep her on that or if you really don't want to - like others say add stuff to it like Apple Juice. I have a picky eater (although not as bad as yours!), with him I usually just add a little handful or something different to his regular feed. So he gets his usual cubes and sugar beet but then one day Ill add a little of whatever mix I have or chaff etc. Seems to keep his interest and he's been eating all his feeds for a while now! During his picky stages Ive added herbal mixes (whatever I had), Guiness (!) and mixed polo mints through it - all worked pretty well for a while, but had to rotate it!
 
Verteran mix is not that dissimilar to competition mix anyway, so she should be fine on it. I had a fussy eater for years and it's just trial and error. He was a bit nutty and would get distracted from his feed easily as well. I would add stuff (apples, carrots, mints etc) to tempt him back to his feeds half way through. Hay wise the only way to get him to eat was to mix horsehage and hay togther.
 
I found my fussy eater prefers nuts. With mixes, he picks out the stuff he likes and leaves the rest.
He also prefers his feed mixed up with water so the nuts go quite soft. He does have his teeth done every six months)

He gets D&H country cubes mixed with speedibeet, readigrass and water to mix.

Since changing him on to nuts, I can get loads into him, he loves them.
 
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