Help getting pony to eat his feeds, please!

Ormsweird

Ormsweird

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I have a fat cob (currently slimming) who guzzles whatever food you put in front of him with his supplements which keep his feet in a good condition. They chipped a lot when he arrived and he's steadily improved upon it. He's not the problem!

I also want my fell whose recently arrived on the same stuff as well as some rigcalm, but he doesn't seem to get on with feeds. I am trying Safe and Sound with supplement in, no joy. Added mint, ate it for a day or two, now back to turning his nose up at it. He is a bit of a sugar fiend so they we tried sugar free apple squash, again a day or two, then stopped.

Any advice for getting it down him?! He's a very good doer, his feeds are minimal (half a handful twice a day) but it's still proving an issue. We have introduced everything slowly so it's not sudden flavour changes and I'm somewhat stumped.
 
Had you tried a liquid form of hoof supplement? and different make of rig supplement? We have one here who wont touch magic powder in the summer due to feed reduction so the owner has gone to the liquid form. Has the vet checked teeth etc???
 
Yeah, his teeth were done recently, and there are no liquid forms of pro hoof as far as I know. Will check about alternatives for rigcalm though.
 
I would stop both of the supplements and get him eating just one gradually before introducing the other again very gradually, he is not stupid and can taste whatever it is he dislikes despite you trying to cover it up but if you cut back the nasty stuff and do the increase very slowly he should get used to the taste over a period of time and become more accepting of it, pro hoof is not very palatable so he may never eat the full amount while there is grass about and he is not hungry, some never eat it.
Half a handful is never going to be enough really, try something you can soak such as grassnuts or speedibeet to help it go down more easily.
 
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Most of them find bran pretty irresistible, and yes, I know it contains starch but you only need a small amount (damped for supplements) and a small amount of 12% starch is a miniscule amount of the daily diet.
 
My mate is also a pain. She has tb daily essentials. Eats it fine then one day goes off it. Took her off it for a bit then slowly reintroduced it again for months later to go off it again! Havnt reintroduced it just yet. Their a pain specially when the feed has expensive supplements that are needed to make them better!
 
I have one that is really fussy with any sort of supplement so I only put a tiny bit in to start with and increase daily and it seems to work, mine are fed graze on chaff and unmolassed sugar beet so nothing sugary, you may have increase the feed slightly so the taste is disguised.
 
What about a tiny amount of micronised linseed, as already mentioned as part of an overall diet it would be a tiny amount, admittedly my boy loves his food but since having it he licks his bucket clean, never seen that before
 
It might be the pro-hoof. Nugs was on it for about 6 months with no issue then overnight stopped eating it. All I had done was put in half a teaspoon of vit E powder. Thought it was the vit E, so next day made it up without and he wouldn't touch it. Would eat the plain feed though from a clean bucket or hand, and would eat the feed with the vit E in on it's own. It was like the addition of the vit E changed the prohoof flavor and that's what he focused on.

Tried him again about 6 weeks ago and point blank refused.

Certainly try upping the amount to dilute the taste, maybe try forageplus instead? Some people have joy with peppermint essence added to the feed.
 
Have you tried mixing it into Speedibeet or soaked grass nuts? I find it easier to disguise supplements in soaked feeds than in chaff type feeds.
 
Dependant on the horse, and if they can eat it, and how much they need the supplement, cheap molassed mix tends to be irresistible to most horsrs
 
I took the pro-hoof out this morning, decreased the rigcalm and lo and behold he ate it. May try him on a little more palatable feed anyway as he didn't lick the bowl clean (I am too used to the greedy cob!) but that does seem to be the issue. To be honest his hooves are as my trimmer described 'hard as nails' anyway, but he's only just moved here so I am sort of expecting at the least event lines.


Thanks for the suggestions!
 
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