Help! What to feed to gain weight?

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Ykerr

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I have recently gotten an 11 yr old tb mare who is significantly underweight, she wasnt on any hard feed when I got her but did have quite a lot of grass. There is not much grass left at the yard she is now at but have started her on 1 scoop alfa oil, 1 scoop top spec conditioning cubes, top spec leisure time balancer, half scoop grass nuts and 1 scoop speedi beet twice a day. She is rugged as needed and stabled at night and has been wormed and teeth done. It's only been two weeks but not seeing any difference in her yet, should I be? Is there anything else I could be adding to her feed like oil or pink powder?
She has hay ad lib at night but hardly touches it, thinking of changing to haylage or graze on?
Would much appreciate any comments or ideas.
 
blue grass pre 14, its a mix. i swear by it, it is amazing. but takes a few days to a week for horse to get on to it as strong flavoue buit once on it they love it. you will see a difference in no time its brilliant. start with 1 scoop and see how he/she goes. then once like it 2 scoops. thats the most i would give a day 2 or 2 1/2 scoops. it does the job. good luck
 
I have tried a few different feeds for my horse as he is quite stressy and a poor doer,like yours he hardly touched his haylage at night, he has now put weight on since i put him a calmer with probiotics in it, Alfalfa oil, calm and condition and topspec cool cubes.The big difference i found was feeding him 3 times a day instead of 2 and changing his haylage to damp good quality hay, he now eats a full net at night.

I also half fill a skip tub at night with the Alfa A oil and fibre mash, i didn't want to feed him
high starch conditioning feeds as he has had mild colic in the past. I also feed readygrass in his skip tub in Winter and that also helps!
 
When I bought a very poor horse a few years back who was also a stressy individual ( could worry weigt off & soon as you got some on) there was a product called Weight on. It did the job but I don't know if it is still available.
 
Firstly, I think it's important you find a forage she likes and will eat over night. This would make a big different in helping her gain condition. If she's not keen to eat the hay you are offering her at the moment, I would try getting a bale in from somewhere else and seeing if she'll eat that one. Maybe there's simply something about the batch of hay you're presently offering that she personally dislikes?!

If she genuinely can't be tempted with hay at night, maybe trying a bale of Horsehage would be the way to go. Offer her a small amount and see her reaction. Most horses like it, so hopefully yours would be the same, but I'd try one small bale of haylage before committing to a larger order! Just incase :rolleyes: If she likes haylage then you can work on slowly switching her over onto it, from hay.

In winter I offer my mare a large rubber trug of Readigrass (http://www.friendshipestates.co.uk/horse-feeds/readigrass.html) in addition to her hay ration over night in the stable, and with the DE of 12-13MJ/Kg it's decent conditioning product. Well worth trying if you can get it. It's worth noting that Graze On (http://www.northerncropdriers.co.uk/product/graze-on) is slightly lower in energy and is a rather shorter-cut of dried grass.
 
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I would switch her onto haylage to start with, I would also look into Readymash Extra from Rowan and Barbary. I use it on my skinny TB and it has worked wonders!
 
I agree with a switch to haylage or some kind of forage, it may also be worth putting some out in the field if the grass is poor. what kind of character is she?

With my TB he's on haylage 1.5 scoops alfa a oil, 1 scoop pink powder twice a day and has put weight on nicely over the last few weeks. If i need to top his weight up in the winter I use baileys outshine as it's non heating and has a lot of oil in it to add condition and weight.
 
I tried Spillers conditioning fibre with my TB who can run off quite easily and the difference after a week was dramatic. I sprinkle in some cool mix too. Haylage makes him daft, so I have to keep him on hay and he also gets Steady Up. if I say it myself, since feeding this, he looks fabulous! Trial & error sometimes, but don't make too much of a drastic change too quickly! Good luck with your TB.
 
You say she was still underweight on decent grass, in summer?
Even without hard feed she might have looked lean, but certainly should not look underweight.
I would ask the vet to come out, and check bloodwork and also check her for ulcers.
Pain is another reason a horse might drop weight.
 
First and foremost, weigh your horse to get an idea of what it is currently and then WEIGH THE FOOD YOU ARE GIVING. A scoopful tells you nothing. A scoop of bran weighs a fraction of the same scoop of grassnuts but it is still a scoop. You must know how much is actually going into your horse before you make any changes. Most horses need to consume 1.5 to 2% of their bodyweight every day in order to gain any weight. Discount the grazing, it sounds like it isn't up to much. There isn't any need generally to feed these fancy mixes for weight gain. If your horse weighs say 900lbs, then you need to get at least 9lbs of food in daily just to maintain their weight as it is now. My mare at 28 is dropping her teeth and isn't a particularly good doer. Until last week her grazing was poor so she had two feeds per day each of 2lbs of an ordinary veteran coarse mix, 2lbs of soaked hi fibre nuts, 4 handfuls of dry sugar beet soaked and tasty treats and a really good dollop of omega oils. If she comes in at night I double the hi fibre nuts, double the sugar beet and she has a mixture of chops (hay replacers) to fill one of those big rubber water containers. Full it weighs about 5 lbs. I still give her a small haynet if she is stabled as she enjoys bossing it about, rubbing her head on it and even if she quids the entire amount out, she has enjoyed chewing on it and it has kept her entertained. Now she is back on very good grazing, so I've halved the grassnuts and sugarbeet if she stays out overnight.

Oh yes, and have your horse's teeth checked asap if you haven't already.
 
Most horses would need to eat 2.5% of their bodyweight to maintain weight, more so for weight gain. This includes forage/grazing. I agree with others who have said try and find a forage she will eat, as this will really help put the weight on, Readigrass, or another dried grass product will also help. My youngster recently had a bout of grass sickness and 3 months ago looked like an RSPCA advert. To put weight on her, i mainly fed her Alfa-A oil, sugarbeet, a balancer, linseed, and initially she was on Bailey's No.1, now she is on Omega Rice. She is also on Winergy Equilibrium growth, which although a 'mix' is actually forage based.
Also agree with wieghing feed, at least initially, so you know how much you are feeding per scoop, and if you haven't already, maybe get a worm count done, as even though you have wormed her, they won't necessarily get rid of everything. Fingers crossed she starts to pick up soon :)
 
I would agree with everything on here.

First thing to do is book dentist/get worm count done. (You can get a count kit via post, so you dont have to pay a vet to come out.)

Secondly, you need to get her eating something - it doesnt matter what it is. If she is very fussy, you can ask different companies for samples to see what she will eat.

My ideal "fatten-up" diet is Topspec Balancer and Cool Condition cubes, and Baileys Outshine.
 
Allen And page do a very good product called weight gain it's good because you soak it had my boy on it last winter when he dropped weight. Also I switched him to the senior Dengie as it is finer than the other ones so a bit more palatable x
 
WOW, the starch content in the Allen and Page feed is high!!

The best thing you can do for weight gain is feed oil, as it's much denser in calories, but is slow release so won't excite or fizz up. Find a good quality low grain, high oil cube (I use Hickstead feeds, and know the Condition Cubes to be excellent) good quality forage and add corn oil in small quantities to make sure she'll eat it, and you can feed a good cup full a day.

You can use something like Alfa beet to add calories and fibre to her "bucket" feed, and as said, try haylage. Try to keep her feeds small, as otherwise she won't be able to digest them anyway! Ideally, you don't want to have a bucket of feed any bigger than 2kg at any one time, so 3 feeds a day will help considerably.
 
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