Hay replacer

[rextherobber]

Help please - do you work out the 1.5-2 % of bodyweight as a dry weight or after soaking hay replacers? Also, I think I'm feeding at least that but am a bit concerned that there's nothing left in the morning, shouldn't it be like hay, you'd like them not to have run out? Horse in question has multiple missing teeth, can graze well if the grass is a suitable length but cannot eat hay. Eats Pure Veteran Mix with relish, refuses damped down Simple Systems Timothy Chop and Pure Grass (would it cause choke if fed dry?) Has multiple buckets, have tried soaked Simple Systems Haycare, Equibeet, Pure Meadow Mash, Blue bag grass pellets (soaked into a slop) and Fast Fibre, ( the beet is often chucked on the floor (hated Pink Mash as well) The stable is a sea of tub trugs, is there a better way of doing things? Horse is retired, 30+ years old, TB type, seems to hold weight well, but this is our first winter together - horse is a good few years older than the passport suggests (according to my vet) and not being able to eat hay was a surprise....

 

[PurBee]

Yes, bodyweight % worked out via dry food weight.

If he can eat grass - that’s @80% moisture. So if you can find any fine leaf chaff mixes and dampen that down to be like grass, then you’d mimic grass.
Maybe the foods being refused are too sloppy at 100% moisture?
Emerald Green Feeds do dried leaf grass in a bag, and if that was dampened to mimic fresh grass that may work well.

Emerald Green Feeds Grass-tastic 12.5kg - Emerald Green Feeds

Highly nutritious, palatable chop made from the best quality fescue grass. Grass-tastic is an excellent feed for helping to build condition as well as helping toward maintaining a healthy gut, improved coat shine and general well-being. Grass-tastic contains no other ingredients, just 100% grass.

emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk

 

[Highmileagecob]

My old boy is 30, has dental issues but can manage two nets of a very soft haylage made from meadow glass. He also has soaked sugar beet mixed with bran, Graze On and Mollichaff, enough to half fill two trugs at night, and one trug in the morning. I too despair about keeping him picking at food over night. He's like a Labrador when it comes to food, and will just stand and eat until it's gone.

 

[rextherobber]

Yes, bodyweight % worked out via dry food weight.

If he can eat grass - that’s @80% moisture. So if you can find any fine leaf chaff mixes and dampen that down to be like grass, then you’d mimic grass.
Maybe the foods being refused are too sloppy at 100% moisture?
Emerald Green Feeds do dried leaf grass in a bag, and if that was dampened to mimic fresh grass that may work well.

Emerald Green Feeds Grass-tastic 12.5kg - Emerald Green Feeds

Highly nutritious, palatable chop made from the best quality fescue grass. Grass-tastic is an excellent feed for helping to build condition as well as helping toward maintaining a healthy gut, improved coat shine and general well-being. Grass-tastic contains no other ingredients, just 100% grass.

emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk

Thank you, that's really helpful, and I'll see if I can track the Emerald Green down.

 

[rextherobber]

My old boy is 30, has dental issues but can manage two nets of a very soft haylage made from meadow glass. He also has soaked sugar beet mixed with bran, Graze On and Mollichaff, enough to half fill two trugs at night, and one trug in the morning. I too despair about keeping him picking at food over night. He's like a Labrador when it comes to food, and will just stand and eat until it's gone.

Thank you, that's helpful, I've just been reading about silvermoor Veteran haylage too...

 

[Highmileagecob]

Yep, Silvermoor veteran haylage was a lifesaver before his gums hardened enough to go back on a soft haylage, however it has proved to be a trigger for his faecal water, so has been withdrawn from his diet. Quite labour intensive looking after the oldies isn't it?

 

[sportsmansB]

I had a young mare who couldn't eat hay or haylage due to a malformation (she choked) and spent a long time working out how to keep her eating / occupied when she was in. TBH I kept her out as much as possible, even in the winter when grass was sparse at least she was moving and picking once she had finished the feeds. Have you the option of him living out but well wrapped up? Or even a larger barn/yard type situation with feeding stations spread out?
I put breeze blocks in the trugs so that she had to lick and snuffle around them to get to the bottom, that slowed her down, and multiple small trugs rather than one big one. I also gave her simple systems lucie brix dampened down in a trug and they seemed to last better than mash

 

[rextherobber]

I had a young mare who couldn't eat hay or haylage due to a malformation (she choked) and spent a long time working out how to keep her eating / occupied when she was in. TBH I kept her out as much as possible, even in the winter when grass was sparse at least she was moving and picking once she had finished the feeds. Have you the option of him living out but well wrapped up? Or even a larger barn/yard type situation with feeding stations spread out?

I put breeze blocks in the trugs so that she had to lick and snuffle around them to get to the bottom, that slowed her down, and multiple small trugs rather than one big one. I also gave her simple systems lucie brix dampened down in a trug and they seemed to last better than mash

Yes, lives out unless the weather is really vile ( last weekend for example). I'm going to have to separate them though, once the grass goes, or the hay replacers will be gobbled up by the hay eaters..
@Highmileagecob - yes, it's quite the learning curve!

 

[Traks]

Have you tried Thunderbrooks?

 

[rextherobber]

Have you tried Thunderbrooks?

I don't buy from them