George is not impressed with his unmolassed diet - help!

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Gorgeous George

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George is normally a dustbin where food is concerned but he is seriously unimpressed with his new unmolassed diet :( I had his hind shoes taken off last week and want to make sure his feet are as good as they can be, so he now has:

Unmollased hi-fi (instead of hi-fi lite)
Pro balance + (instead of Baileys lo-cal)
Micronised linseed

He used to wolf his feed down, but now he plays with it, pushes his bowl round the stable and sometimes it takes him 3hrs to finish it, if he does! I had some powdered rosehips so I've sprinkled those on the top and it does encourage him to start eating, but didn't really help that much.

Can anyone suggest anything that might get him more interested in his feed as I would at least like to know he's eaten the pro balance.

Thanks :)
 
I had trouble convincing my greedy pone that an unmollassed diet was better for him too. Are you giving him his feed dry? If so he may be objecting to the powder - it is much easier to mix powder into wet feeds. I use fast fibre and the way I got mine interested in it is firstly I mixed in some high fibre cubes with it and then once he was eating that I gradually increased the powder (in my case Forageplus and linseed) and also added some dry mint as he really likes that. Mine also has turmeric for his joints and that is something else which might tempt him.

Good luck - it's really a case of trial and error with what might tempt him but don't let him put you off (it's a bit like you stopping having sugar in your tea - horrible to start with but you soon adapt to it) :)
 
I took the shoes off my connie a few weeks ago (who thankfully has fab feet anyway) and must admit I haven't gone down the true "BF" style diet. I tried it with my last horse and he wouldn't eat it. Spent a fortune on Simple System feed, he'd just kick it over and walk away in disgust. The connie is eating Dengie Healthy Tummy (which he adores and suits him well as he grew this summer and still has a lot of filling out to do; it is alfalfa based and I know the BF people do say not to feed alfalfa) with micronised linseed and magox. He wolfs that down. He is fine over every surface bar the most stony, and he is getting better each time on that too. Feet are improving daily, he looks like he has never been shod already!

In all honesty I can't see how much difference there would be feeding Hifi Lite and the unmolassed version, as the hard feed doesn't actually make up a large part of a horse's daily intake.

Are you feeding the HiFi just to get the supplement into him? If so then I'd maybe switch it to Speedibeet as he might find it a bit more appetising. I also like D&H Safe & Sound.

ETA - my last horse didn't adapt to "no sugar in his tea". I tried for 9 months. Tried adding mint, apple juice, all sorts. Cutting out supplements, adding them back in slowly. He simply hated it unmolassed. the only way he would eat it was with liquid molasses poured on so I went back to a normal feed (Safe & Sound).
 
you need to build the pro hoof up teaspoon by teaspoon over a few weeks if you can, also a low sided bowl helps disperse the smell.

For me feeding a mug of 24 hour soaked speedi beet split between 2 feeds mixed in with a round scoop of chaff in each feed has been the answer although it's still difficult in the summer when he's not hungry.

Does he like mint? dried mint is very strong smelling so maybe sprinkling with that will help.
 
agree with chestnut cob, the chaff I feed is safe and sound.

If you join http://phoenixhorse.myfastforum.org/index.php and look in the diet section you will see lots of people are in the same boat and there's lots of suggestions in there.

It can be a nightmare until you find what works for you, feed companies are usually good as sending samples rather that wasting money on sacks of feed.

Fast fibre is a good feed but some horses wont eat it (mine wouldn't unfortunately)
 
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Spillers High Fibre cubes seem to fit well with the BF diet (no idea why!). If you soak a small handful and add to feed, they seem to make nasty minerals taste magically much nicer. You can wean horse off them as they get used to the taste of minerals, but my poor horse's dinner seems to contain so many darn minerals that I have to admit, he still gets the cubes!
 
Thanks for the responses/ideas everyone.

In answer to some of the questions he does have his feed wet and he was already having the pro balance in his hi-fi and ate that no problem, it is clearly the unmolassed hi fi that he is not happy with! I am going to get some mint today which he loves and see if that helps.
 
Patience! Took the suar addict I bought 2 months to finally give in and eat my sugar free diet. She literally only got a cupful each feed in that time so that she finished it - just plain unmolassed sugar beet. She licks the bowl clean now :) I see you're in Essex, I'd be happy to let you have a dry scoop worth of the unmolassed sugar beet to try if you wanted (PM me).
 
been there done that ;)

Mine was uber fussy when we changed his and started to add minerals (and still won't touch it if you put any salt in!- though is definitely keener with the oats he gets now too).

We did spend a while adding mint or cider vinegar to help ;). But actually he was better if he was allowed a few pony nuts in there too and they seemed not to cause any issue.

He also seems to prefer fast fibre over speedibeet (he'll have speedibeet for a bit then go off it)- but not quite as wet and sloppy as they suggest you make it ;)

Persist though, I don't think suggesting they aren't hungry enough really helps- horses aren't designed to do 'hungry' like we do and there would be no way I would be witholding forage to make him so :p.
 
My horse went off his low sugar feed and I was told to try a capful of ribena in it, which definitely helped (to start with, then he went off that too, he's a fussy git!)
I now splash in some no added sugar ribena from time to time and he eats it. I know it doesn't seem a lot but I think a capful is enough for them to get a sweet taste, but not so much that you are loading the sugar.
 
Mine seem to be eating their mix of Speedibeet and Lucie Fibre Cubes with minerals and a smidge of linseed. Though it's hard to tell, as they upend their buckets first, so it flies everywhere. Need to solve that!
 
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