Weight of hard feed per meal

GrassChop

GrassChop

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I'm failing at Google research on this one at the moment.

How much feed can a 400kg pony safely consume per meal? And does this weight include if the feed is soaked or is it dry weight? As soaked feed can be really heavy!

Thanks!
 
Squeak

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Feeding Answers: General

www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk

HOW MUCH CAN A HORSE SAFELY EAT IN ONE FEED? ↓​

The horse’s stomach is more rigid than ours so can’t stretch to accommodate a large meal. It is roughly the size of a rugby ball and, as a guide, we recommend that you do not exceed a total of 1.5 – 1.8kg or 3½ - 4lb (1 - 2 Stubbs scoops) per feed for a horse and 1.3 – 1.5kg or 3 – 3½ lb (1 - 1.5 Stubbs scoops) for a pony (including additional chaff or sugar beet, if fed). For optimum digestion, keep meal sizes small. This is based on a guideline of a maximum of 0.5kg of feed, per 100kg of bodyweight, per meal.
 
GrassChop

GrassChop

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Squeak said:

Feeding Answers: General

www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk www.baileyshorsefeeds.co.uk

HOW MUCH CAN A HORSE SAFELY EAT IN ONE FEED? ↓​

The horse’s stomach is more rigid than ours so can’t stretch to accommodate a large meal. It is roughly the size of a rugby ball and, as a guide, we recommend that you do not exceed a total of 1.5 – 1.8kg or 3½ - 4lb (1 - 2 Stubbs scoops) per feed for a horse and 1.3 – 1.5kg or 3 – 3½ lb (1 - 1.5 Stubbs scoops) for a pony (including additional chaff or sugar beet, if fed). For optimum digestion, keep meal sizes small. This is based on a guideline of a maximum of 0.5kg of feed, per 100kg of bodyweight, per meal.
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Thank you.
I'm still stuck though as only 500g of Veteran Vitality when soaked weighs quite a lot. Not sure how much but it feels like a good couple of kg.
 
Lady Jane

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GrassChop said:
Thank you.
I'm still stuck though as only 500g of Veteran Vitality when soaked weighs quite a lot. Not sure how much but it feels like a good couple of kg.
Click to expand...
Does you 500kg soaked fit in a rugby ball? If so its fine. Rugby ball is the common description and it the volume of the feed not the weight. I have searched endlessly for the volume of a rugby ball and can't find it anywhere. Does anyone know?
 
Squeak

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GrassChop said:
Thank you.
I'm still stuck though as only 500g of Veteran Vitality when soaked weighs quite a lot. Not sure how much but it feels like a good couple of kg.
Click to expand...

You might be better to go for volume for a soaked feed? And you might need to do one or two as a trial run to see how much dry makes up a scoop or two

Eta VV is recommended to be made with twice as much water as feed so I'd probably start at 1/2 scoop VV to 1 scoop water if you want max 2 scoops of feed.
 
GrassChop

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Squeak said:
You might be better to go for volume for a soaked feed? And you might need to do one or two as a trial run to see how much dry makes up a scoop or two

Eta VV is recommended to be made with twice as much water as feed so I'd probably start at 1/2 scoop VV to 1 scoop water if you want max 2 scoops of feed.
Click to expand...
I'll try this when I do feeds later. At a guess, I think 2 cups (roughly 500g dry weight of VV) fills possibly a whole or a bit more than a whole stubbs scoop. It takes 1.5 stubbs scoops of water.

So if a rugby ball is 4.5 litres then just over 2 stubbs scoops (2L scoops) of soaked feed is the limit for one meal? I don't want to completely max it out, it's only because I feel how heavy 2 cups of VV is so I worry!
 
Squeak

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GrassChop said:
I'll try this when I do feeds later. At a guess, I think 2 cups (roughly 500g dry weight of VV) fills possibly a whole or a bit more than a whole stubbs scoop. It takes 1.5 stubbs scoops of water.

So if a rugby ball is 4.5 litres then just over 2 stubbs scoops (2L scoops) of soaked feed is the limit for one meal? I don't want to completely max it out, it's only because I feel how heavy 2 cups of VV is so I worry!
Click to expand...

Id probably go with Baileys advice and not go over 1.5 scoops for a pony in one feed, from what I quoted from them above, 2 scoops would be for a horse rather than pony. If you think he needs more you could always try splitting it in to more feeds?
 
GrassChop

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Squeak said:
Id probably go with Baileys advice and not go over 1.5 scoops for a pony in one feed, from what I quoted from them above, 2 scoops would be for a horse rather than pony. If you think he needs more you could always try splitting it in to more feeds?
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Yes, that probably sounds like the best way. It just gets confusing as there is a lot that says to work it out by dry weight but if that's the case, it says 2kg of VV per meal is fine but that would be a massive amount once soaked! I feel it's a lot pre-soaked as well though to be honest.
 
GrassChop

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I've measured it and 500g of VV with a tiny handful of chaff fills 1 and a quarter stubbs scoops when soaked with 1 and a quarter stubbs scoops of water.
 
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I struggle with this hugely.

Mine have adlib haylage 24/7 - truly adlib so they never run out, but they are TB's who do a reasonable amount of work, and need lots of extra caloies to keep weight on. I prefer forage based straights, in an ideal world, but soaked grass nuts. UMSB, etc soon becomes a lot of volume. I do try to increase the oil content, with Vit E, to get the calories, and feed oats as well, but even with 4 feeds a day, they get more than a rugby balls worth in each feed :(
 
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expanding_horizon

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Does this truly apply to forage in the bucket?

I’m not really sure how chaff in a bucket is very different to hay and we don’t worry about volume of hay eaten per meal.

It makes sense if applied to concentrates, not to forage like chaff and soaked speedibeet, IMO.

A Stubbs scoop of pony nuts / fibre nuts / conditioning cubes is about 1.2kg. As is a dry scoop of grass nuts.

But a soaked scoop of grass nuts expands to over 2 scoops.

But the other cubes will also expand a fair bit if soaked. So it’s an odd measure. Shouldn’t you measure every feed soaked as that’s how much it will expand in the stomach?

Also how can a 17hh not have a bigger stomach than a 14hh horse?
 
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Sossigpoker

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GrassChop said:
Thank you.
I'm still stuck though as only 500g of Veteran Vitality when soaked weighs quite a lot. Not sure how much but it feels like a good couple of kg.
Click to expand...
Most of the volume will be water.
For a 400kg pony I'd feed no more than about 1/2 Stubbs scoop (as dry ) feed.
 
GrassChop

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expanding_horizon said:
Does this truly apply to forage in the bucket?

I’m not really sure how chaff in a bucket is very different to hay and we don’t worry about volume of hay eaten per meal.

It makes sense if applied to concentrates, not to forage like chaff and soaked speedibeet, IMO.

A Stubbs scoop of pony nuts / fibre nuts / conditioning cubes is about 1.2kg. As is a dry scoop of grass nuts.

But a soaked scoop of grass nuts expands to over 2 scoops.

But the other cubes will also expand a fair bit if soaked. So it’s an odd measure. Shouldn’t you measure every feed soaked as that’s how much it will expand in the stomach?

Also how can a 17hh not have a bigger stomach than a 14hh horse?
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Completely agree with this. It's a bit confusing!

I wouldn't feel that a bucket with 2 Stubbs scoops of chaff would be an issue or too much either as it's so light and like you say, no different to hay essentially.

I also made the VV mash fairly sloppy so obviously the volume was a bit more. It's really hard to judge when it's a soaked feed. A lot online says to go by dry weight but the volume of say 2kg of chaff compared to 2kg of nuts is very different.
 
Squeak

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Is the pony needing to gain weight? Otherwise you possibly don't need to feed as much as two scoops a feed anyway? I often find the recommended quantities way way too high and never need to feed as much as that.
 
GrassChop

GrassChop

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Squeak said:
Is the pony needing to gain weight? Otherwise you possibly don't need to feed as much as two scoops a feed anyway? I often find the recommended quantities way way too high and never need to feed as much as that.
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Only a small amount and then to maintain it through the colder months but she will be on haylage as well and has linseed in the feed already. The 500g dryweight is the lowest on the recommended bracket for her size in rest to light work on the Allen & Page website.
 
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