Kallibear
Well-Known Member
Is it normal for a unhandled youngster to be disinterested in hard feed?!
Scruffy Roo is not really interested in his dinners.
He's not getting much but needs a little as he's a bit skinny, plus some supplements. He only gets 1/2 of a Stubb scoops in volume but will nibble for a couple of seconds then wanders off to his hay. He'll eat it out my hand but again he's not really interested and I rather feel he's only doing it to be polite 
He gets it left out for him but it's usually been knocked over and trampled in by the time i'm back.
He's been offered a hard mix (youngstock), sugar beet, alfabeet and Ready Mash, alone and mixed.
He does however love haylege and dives in the second it's down.
Maybe he just doesn't like whats been offered so far? Or is hardfeed something they need to aquire a taste for?
I've never had this problem before! I've had babies before but they were well socialised (if not handled) and scoffed anything they were offered! Roo's come from a farmer dealer type who runs his babies like cattle until they're older and quite possibly doesn't feed anything but hay.
Scruffy Roo is not really interested in his dinners.
He's not getting much but needs a little as he's a bit skinny, plus some supplements. He only gets 1/2 of a Stubb scoops in volume but will nibble for a couple of seconds then wanders off to his hay. He'll eat it out my hand but again he's not really interested and I rather feel he's only doing it to be polite He gets it left out for him but it's usually been knocked over and trampled in by the time i'm back. He's been offered a hard mix (youngstock), sugar beet, alfabeet and Ready Mash, alone and mixed.
He does however love haylege and dives in the second it's down.
Maybe he just doesn't like whats been offered so far? Or is hardfeed something they need to aquire a taste for?
I've never had this problem before! I've had babies before but they were well socialised (if not handled) and scoffed anything they were offered! Roo's come from a farmer dealer type who runs his babies like cattle until they're older and quite possibly doesn't feed anything but hay.
I've also found some youngsters seem to feel a bit threatened with their head buried in a bucket so I think a shallow container helps too. Is there another horse he can eat next to so he can copy? I'm sure though it's just time and getting him used to the idea, as long as he's getting haylage into him I wouldn't worry at all at the moment 
Instead of going and buying a couple of bags of food, I got him an (expensive!) bale of top quality haylege: it basically looks like long-strand readigrass! He is eating him way through it at a phenomenal rate!
Ungrateful toerag.