off his hard feed yet still eating hay

[gentlegiant]

My horse usually is very excited at feed time and eats quickly the moment he is in the stable. On Monday when brought in from the field he was not interested in his feed just his hay. He ate a small amount of hard feed but loads of hay (he normally eats large quanitites of hay after the feed though). This has happened tue and tonight. He has not got a temperature and doen't seem unhappy, he is drinking water, his poo is the same and he will happily eat carrotts and treats! The feed has not changed. I am going to call the vet out but was wondering if anyone had any ideas of what may be wrong. His paddock is covered in snow so he isn't able to graze when out - could this be a factor?

 

[Mrs_Wishkabibble]

Have you opened a new bag of feed maybe?
I fed mine Build Up Cubes and she had had them before but totally refused to eat the whole feed, I thought she was being picky and offered the cubes to my other 2 dustbins and they refused them too.
It turned out it was a certain batch of the cubes that had a strange smell to them and the manufacturers sent me a coupon for another bag which they now eat.
Just wondered if it may be that?

 

[ticobay831]

mmm my two have been leaving most of their brekie and the YO horse is being realy fussy with his feeds at the moment

guess theyre not really needing it.

 

[Theresa_F]

Does anyone feed similar to you and could you borrow a bit of their food to try him. If he then eats it, it could be that the feed you have has spoiled - maybe mice or rat got in, feed got damp and slightly mouldy due to the weather we are having but not enough to see that it has gone off?

Trying a new batch of feed would be my first thing to try if he is fine in all other respects and eating other stuff.