Making food more palatable

[Eira]

What can I try to make feed more palatable, have already tried changing feeds/ flavoured chaff/ spearmint in feeds and fresh fruit and veg to try and mask the powder in it but she just won't touch it!

Sort of at the end of my tether now

 

[hudsonw]

When my fussy eater wouldn't touch his food due to having powdered penicillin in it i used the juice off someone else's sugarbeet.
Just skim off the juice from the soaking beet and add to your feed. Mix it in and give it a go?

Otherwise your could try Apple Cider Vinegar, a spoonful of honey/treacle or molasses.

Garlic can also hide the smell of powders.

 

[Eira]

Thanks for the reply
It may sound really silly but I don't think its the smell or taste of it, she just won't touch her feed just incase its got something in it (I know that sounds ridiculous but she's had to have bute/anti-biotics for long periods of time in the past) that she just won't eat. :/

 

[Wolfie]

Blend up some apples/carrots/other tasty things into a juicy pulp and mix it in to the feed. That usually tempts them!

 

[appylass]

Apple juice is great - it has to be juice, apples chopped up isn't the same. I have a mare who changes her mind about what she likes to eat on a (nearly) daily basis! She is 32 so can be forgiven Apple juice will always get her going again when she stops eating altogether. I also make her feeds really tiny when she stops eating too much seems to overface her and she will walk away. If I give her a tiny amount - literally a handful, she is looking for more. I wait and a couple of hours later giver her a little more, works every time.

 

[Eira]

Ok, will give apple juice a go tomorrow! She turned her nose up at cider vinegar and aloe juice so fingers crossed!

 

[Lolo]

We put apple squash/ apple juice (whichever is on offer!) in Reg's, and in his water at comps to encourage him to eat/ drink more.

 

[ClobellsandBaubles]

new an old pony that liked marmite if she had any powders in her feed

 

[sleepykitten]

I swear by garlic powder and a little vegetable oil. Failing that, you could always try mixing the bute powder in a little water and using a cleaned out wormer syringe, skooshing it down her mouth then you don't need to mix it in the feed at all. Have done that before.

 

[ladyearl]

Only thing that would make my mare take bute was tonnes of molasses in the feed.

 

[FanyDuChamp]

Apple juice is great - it has to be juice, apples chopped up isn't the same. .

2nd that, my lad can be incredibly fussy and the addiction of some apple juice will usually do the job. However, just like us, there are tastes they just don't like. Recently he refused to eat his antibiotics even with his apple juice and had to have them syringed in.

FDC

 

[ofcourseyoucan]

if she wont eat the bute get your vet to prescribe danilon, more palatable and less bitter. if she has just stopped eating full stop beg and borrow some scoops of feed to see what she fancies.