hay replacers

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horsegirl

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My TB is refusing to eat his hay. he might nibble a bit but the rest is left. Until recently he was eating 4 slices from a large rectangular bale a night and usually had none left. I am going to get the dentist out to check his teeth as they are due to be done anyway but he has dropped a lot of weight in the last week. What can I give him instead of hay that is not going to send him round the bend?
 
Can he not have hayladge? If not then maybe try him with a slice of horsehage and bucket of readygrass? Its just more expensive to feed this way tho. Its been a while since ive had a fussy eater so not sure what other hay replacements there are out there, maybe worth ringing up a nutritionist and see what they suggest
 
Horsehage tends to send him a bit nuts but I could get a bale and see if he'll eat it. I'm not bothered about the cost really, I'll feed him as much as he needs.
 
Is it the same batch of hay, could there be a chance that the particular bale you are using doesn't taste very good, sometimes perfectly nice looking hay can give off sour taste, some horses will refuse to eat it, could you try some other hay from else where?

Perhaps mix some haylage in with the hay, half and half, so he's not getting too much haylage that could send him loopy but at the same time may make his hay more desirable?

Redigrass can with some horses send them a bit crackers so if your feeding it in bulk amounts it might be worth adding a calmer, fast fibre and speadibeat can also be mixed with the above or a chopped straw type chop (no molasses, low sugar) or one that Dengie does, even the Dengie Hifi Lite (althogh it's light, if you feed it in bulk with redigrass it will form an excellent hay replacer and is great mixed with the redigrass.

Also adding cider vinegar to the bucket feed can also increase appitite.
 
yes it's the same bale, one of the rectangular bales equal to 8 or so small bales. The last one he wouln't eat it to start with so ate all his straw instead but once we were about halfway through he started eating it again but this bale just leaves it all. I give him fresh everyday. I am going to get some little bales from elsewhere and mix them together see if that helps but I'd like to give him some thing else as well as he has lost a lot of weight. Has anyone tried the dengie senior chaff (or something similar) grass/dried grass sends him a bit silly too.

He has alfa a/mollichalf calmer and alfa pellets currently
 
I use the hifi senior in my boys feed he loves it its nice and soft, also barley rings are good for putting weight on. Its a worry when they start to loose weight especially at this time of year with winter comming hope you get something sorted soon
 
Ok I have bought a bale or horsehage to mix with the hay and a bag of hifi lite (they didn't have senior) just so he can have a big bucket to nibble on through the night. I am ordering more hay from a different supplier so I hope he might eat that!

thanks all
 
horsegirl said:
Horsehage tends to send him a bit nuts but I could get a bale and see if he'll eat it. I'm not bothered about the cost really, I'll feed him as much as he needs.
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Try the blue horsehage, which is higher fibre and lower protein. I have my TB on it, and he loves it, and is in super condition, and it doesn't seem to fizz him up.
 
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