Under feeding.

There's nothing passive about me - I'm very direct :P Some people who get defensive find that hard to deal with. I don't lie though, or offer advice in areas where I have no experience.
 
Glad that the rescue centre officer came out and reassured you about their weight. A good rescue charity will always advise and assist those who foster or adopt their animals. I'm fostering a rising 2yo pony filly from the RSPCA, and I keep them in the loop re how she's doing. I'd be on the phone straight away if I was anxious about something.

What type of horse is your youngster? Mine's a Welsh cob cross type to make 12.2hh to 13hh. I'm still strip grazing my foggage, so she doesn't get hayed in the field and she gets a tiny hard feed twice daily with her vits and minerals mixed in.

Suregrow has a very good reputation as a good and economical feed for growing youngsters, the mare and foal feed seemed like an odd choice.

I asked earlier re the worming status of your rescues. I'd advise keeping well on top with regular worm counts, my filly has recently thrown up an unexpectedly high count despite being wormed several times since coming into RSPCA care. I'm currently following a worm resistance testing programme for her under the guidance of Westgate labs to get her sorted.

Good luck.
 
EQUIDAE said:
It's for pregnant and lactating mares.

I'll leave you to it. Obviously my experience isn't the sort of experience you want so I won't waste my time any further. Good luck
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It's not that people don't want your experience but sometimes the way you put yourself across can be quite off-putting.

OP youngsters are the funniest things, you can look at them one week and they look hugely fat, the next week they've shot up and look like a hat rack :) I've always given my youngsters a youngstock balancer - but at nowhere near the recommended amounts on the bag. The dodson & Horrell one that's been mentioned is a good one as is Grow & Win (can't remember who makes that one) mine have been given a mugfull per day and they are quite a decent size due to their breed.

For your forage going forward then for youngsters especially its better for them to have too much than not enough. You are going to move them now to another field with more grass but still keep an eye on them - once they've eaten it off they'll need supplementing with hay/haylege again.

Just a thought but are you able to put a hay feeder in the field - you could get the smaller ones which will take small bales of hay or the ring type ones that will take a full bale of haylege - that way you can fill them up and it should last a few days (especially if you put in a full round bale in one of the ring feeders).
 
Some more great advice. Thank u. I think I've been a bit of a twit. This Dodson and horrel feed I've given him is mare and young stock. NOT mare and foal DUH. I spoke with them again today and hey reassured me for the time being he is absolutely fine on that and alfalfa A twice a day and hay ad lib. If I think he's going the other way and putting on too much too quick then I can swap him over to suregrow. Funny thing is. I put three large haynets in their shelter last night and came to feed them this morning and they had only eaten one !!! I'm thinking because they have to adjust to the hard feed too. But I'm happy now that if I was starving them I wouldn't have full haynets in the morning. Today I put them in my other field for about 5 hours. They could haroon around without fear of slipping and had a good munch on the long grass.
 
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Yes he'll be fine on the mare and youngstock balancer :)

I'd always rather see a bit of hay left in the mornings then at least I know they aren't hungry (if there is a lot left then for me it's generally an indicator that something isn't right or the quality isn't good) but that's much harder to judge when they are living out with a field shelter. It's another reason that, when mine are in, they are on straw beds and I make sure there is always plenty of clean - that way if they are really hungry they can munch on the straw at least.

It did come in really handy on Boxing Day when we woke up to floods and couldn't get to the horses until almost lunchtime - they had no clean bedding left by the time we got there but at least they hadn't gone hungry :)
 
it sounds like you are doing your best for them, the charity has been out and checked on them. Its hard sometimes to come on here because people can come accross badly. Ive had my horse 7 years and this has been a hard winter to work out the feed. Mines an older horse , he allways has ad lib haylage but ive constantly been tweeking his feed, one minute he is loosing , then getting porky. i know people say that the companies are just selling feed , but I rang allen and Page and took their advice, and the horse has never looked better. If only I was as careful about my own diet!
 
Groom Mum said:
Had the welfare/rescue inspector out today. I called them about my concerns. He came took one look at my baby and laughed at me and told me I spoiled him. He measured him and said he's no where near thin. I just thought he looked thin. But he said some drop more weight than others and because they came to me fat I've noticed it more on him. I gave them 3 full to bulging haynets today each weighing 3kg I was prepared to give them same for tonight but they hadn't eaten all of today's quota. So I put one more full net up. Gave them their second feed and they seemed happy. So now I can sleep tonight knowing I haven't starved them.
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what size nets are you using? as i use small haynet and mine full are 7 kg, so cant see yours are 3kg each
 
Yes mine are large and I can't pack much more hay in them and I get to 3.5kg. So I put three in the shelter in the day and if they eat them another three at night. But past couple of days since I started them on the hard feed as well they have left a whole Haynet every night. But I'm still going to put three in there.
 
In the interests of science I weighed my hay this evening. The hay is dry and I always put it in without fluffing it up so horse gets square nets. The net isn't enormous but it weighed 8kg. It will be almost empty tomorrow morning.
 
I have squashed as much as I can in my nets. I can't get more than maybe 4.5kg in it. But like I said I put three nets in and they only eat two.
 
9tails said:
In the interests of science I weighed my hay this evening. The hay is dry and I always put it in without fluffing it up so horse gets square nets. The net isn't enormous but it weighed 8kg. It will be almost empty tomorrow morning.
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I did a little experiment due to someone I know feeding by the wheelbarrow which piqued my curiosity. I weighed fluffed and packed nets of various sizes and also compared to what would fit in a wheelbarrow.

http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?717809-Weighing-hay&highlight=Weigh
 
OP's nets must be really small or those beautifully spherical nets you see people fluffing up. My horse is adept at removing tightly packed hay and if she doesn't eat it I know the hay is crap.
 
Do you ram the slices in as they come off or do you shake it out before stuffing the net? This can make quite a difference.
 
FrankieCob said:
What does it matter? If shes putting 3 in and they are only eating 2 then clearly shes feeeding more than enough :)
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If she does not know how much they weigh and they are eating less than they need to maintain bodyweight there is a problem. Could be dental, could be rubbish hay, could be a bale a dog as cocked its leg on.
Everyone needs to know how much weight they are feeding, you can not go by volume of any feed.
 
I have done both. I've fluffed it and I've packed it in in slices. I weigh every single net as I'm paranoid now about giving them enough. It always weighs between 3 -3.5 kgs. No more no less. They get three and I also weigh another 3 kg I throw on their shelter floor. But like I said there's usually one net almost full every morning. They have been going out in my saved field a couple of times this week. Having a grass munch for around 4-5 hours. They are loving that. Somewhere to roll and not get a nostril full of sludge.
 
Today I'm super excited. ( little things please little minds). Some builders are coming to gutter my stables as that's causing most of the water directly around the doors and shelter entrance. They are also going to dig a trench ( which will be fenced off, before I get jumped on ) to drain away the sludgy water that's stagnant there and won't move. I'm praying this will help me move around easier and not go flat on my face trying to get the wheelbarrow through. !!
 
OP that really doesn't sound heavy for packed nets unless they are small. Have you tried using different scales? It might be you got a lot of grief over the 2kg (admit I was a bit ��) just because your scales are dodgy.
 
Well now I'm second guessing myself. I thought they were the large haynets. Maybe they arnt. I will check later again. They ate ALL the hay last night. Just a tiny bit left in. One. It's nicer hay. Fuss pots. I can always weigh up in a net 3.5 kg and put that on floor. Then three more Hung up too.
 
GM - the reason your horses may not be eating all the hay is because you are putting it all in the shelter. Horses don't choose to stand in a shelter all the time (mine only use their shelter in the worst of the summer to escape flies). Most people feeding hay in the field will feed in a ring feeder or in piles if the ground is dry enough. Just trying to think outside the box as to why they aren't eating it. How big are they? Are they - if they a diddies it might be that you are giving plenty.

ETA - horses LOVE dirty ditches! Mine adore getting to their armpits in the deepest dirtiest mess! Expect for my mare - she doesn't do mud or puddles...
 
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Groom Mum said:
It's what I wanted to say magnetic sparrow. I wasn't going to come back after some of last nights feedback I found it insulting and demeaning. It can make people lose confidence in their capabilities. I love coming here and asking advice because there are many people a lot more experienced than me. But it's not nice when certain people overbear to the point of bullying. Subject of my feed I'm feeding mare and foal so guess it's for older ponies too. Seeing as it says mare on it.
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There is a very useful "ignore" facility on this forum. One of the more useful features, I thinkit is under Forum Actions. You can still see that the offender has posted and open the post if you want. :)
 
Groom Mum said:
Well now I'm second guessing myself. I thought they were the large haynets. Maybe they arnt. I will check later again. They ate ALL the hay last night. Just a tiny bit left in. One. It's nicer hay. Fuss pots. I can always weigh up in a net 3.5 kg and put that on floor. Then three more Hung up too.
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Well done. It's good to hear that they are eating more. Part of why they might not have eaten it all initially, is that ponies who have been on a restricted diet don't always gorge themselves when given more feed. Between the hard feed and extra forage, yours have a lot to adjust to and I'd give that a little time before worrying about hay quality and whatnot.

What weight/ size are they currently? The weight of your hay only really matters in relation to the size of the ponies.
 
Thanks dry rot. It's ok. I think I was feeling a bit hormonal and overwhelmed the other day. Having said that people should choose their words more carefully sometimes I feel. I put their hay in the shelter mostly because of how muddy it is. I also hang it from some large blackberry bushes in my field. It keeps it off the mud a bit. But mine spend hours in the shelter. They were quite feral and never really had any shelter in their young lives. I think they just love being inside out of the wind and not up to their knees in sludge.
 
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