Tempting the fussy feeder

DurbanSkies

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9 January 2017
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Hi all,
I’m really struggling with my fussy Tb and getting feed into him at the moment.
He used to have a great appetite but he’s had several bouts of colic, starvation periods and ulcers over the last 6 months which led to a long course of gastroguard and eventual keyhole colic surgery.
He dropped weight like mad after all of this and I’m trying to build it back on - he’ll happily munch on grass but we’re limited down south to how much there is. And he is very fussy with his hay and haylage so he gets two giant nets of each every night in the hopes he’ll eat it.
He used to be on ulcer kind cubes, alfalfa, copra, linseed and equi jewel. But my low-key retailer has stopped supplying equi jewel so debating swapping back over to omega rice. Over time he was leaving more and more of his feed until most of it was ending up on the floor. I’ve since switched the cubes for re leve mix as it’s meant to smell super nice - this worked for about a week where he was fighting to get his head in the bowl and licking it clean. But this week absolutely back to square one, kicking the bucket over and leaving a lot of it. Nothing has changed at all. I’m now considering putting him on a molassed chaff to see if I can get him eating more of his dinner again. As he’s a full of eventer I can’t have him dropping weight at all and in reality I need him to gain like mad ? if anyone has any suggestions I’d much appreciate it as I’m at my wits end
 

Griffin

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16 September 2012
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I follow Clare MacLeoad on FB who is a nutritionist and she did a really interesting post on how some products that have unlikely names can be really helpful (I can't seem to post s link to it but it was on the 21st January 2020).

If he likes grass, I would try him on some grass chaff to see if that encourages him to eat it. Something like Mollichaff ShowShine with a strong flavour may also work but I wouldn't feed a lot of that, whereas grass chaff you could feed a fair amount.

I guess your other option would be to add apple juice to see if that tempts him, that can work with horses or 'fussy feeder' herbs. Dried mint can really help too.

You are doing the right thing with the hay, just keep piling it into him!
 

RHM

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29 January 2019
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My mare is horrendously fussy, I feed for energy rather than weight gain. But, I have found Baileys ease and excel really palatable. Doesn’t look or smell that appealing to me but it ticks her boxes! It is quite high fat and low starch so suitable for a ulcer friendly diet.
 
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