What is the maximum you would feed per meal?

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Acolyte

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I noticed on a recent post about horse loosing weight that some people suggested not to feed too much per meal, as it increased the chances of colic & the horse probably wouldn't digest it all anyway

I currently feed 1 scoop Alfa-Oil, 1.5 scoops D&H build up cubes, 0.5 scoop sugarbeet, pink powder, & dollop of oil per meal to try and encourage weight gain - is this too much? Not so much bothered about 'wasting' food but really about the colic side of things.

He's a 16.2hh SF gelding who is a poor doer - prob because he crib bites - he has ad-lib quality (nutritionally assessed) hay at night

Sorry - should have said he is fed twice a day - would prefer him to have 3 meals a day but that is difficult cos I work full time and he is turned out during the day in company
 
Depending on what work he does it doesn't sound unreasonable to me.

If thats what you've been feeding him for a while then I don't think he would colic just because of that all of a sudden
 
I'm sure I've read a horse should not have more than 2kg of 'hard feed' at any one time. I believe their stomachs are the size of a rugby ball and 2kg is the maximum they can cope with. Please correct me if my thinking is old fashioned!
 
He's ridden 6 times a week - mixture of hacking (once a week) flatwork for 45-60 mins (3 times a week) and jumping (twice a week, once in the school and once in the field XC). I hope to event him this season, if I ever get the money to affiliate him!

Thanks for the reassurance, he was on that much feed before I got him and seemed to be doing OK, just was having mix rather than build-up cubes - he has lost a bit of condition since I've had him
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since I started off feeding him some cubes made by the local country store which don't appear to have been very nutritious
 
that sounds fine to me, mine is fed 1 scoop TS cond flakes, 1/2 scoop speedi beet, 1/2 scoop dengie + veg oil and all this twice daily.
 
Depends on the type of feed. Hard feed being mix etc.

Roughage can be fed on much larger quantities. Chops etc are roughage. After all we don't feed hay in rugby ball sized feeds do we.
 
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I'm sure I've read a horse should not have more than 2kg of 'hard feed' at any one time. I believe their stomachs are the size of a rugby ball and 2kg is the maximum they can cope with. Please correct me if my thinking is old fashioned!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I've been led to believe too - horses will eat more than that in one go but the excess will simply be excreted without being properly digested. There's another downside too - I have a friend who feeds her TBs about 7lbs in each feed twice a day - they're permanently off their heads, take about 45 minutes to eat each feed and are all overweight - and she won't listen to any comments about over-feeding.
 
I understood it to be 2 kg too. Have you weighed out how much each scoop of feed weighs? 1 scoop of alfa a will only weight a few grammes whereas the same scoop of build up will weigh, perhaps, a kilo.
 
I thought it was volume rather than weight... I think I read in Your Horse or sim a few years ago that a horse nutritionist said the max you should feed a large adult horse at once is 3 level round scoops. But I don't see how that would fit into a rugby ball sized stomach...
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I'm sure I've read a horse should not have more than 2kg of 'hard feed' at any one time. I believe their stomachs are the size of a rugby ball and 2kg is the maximum they can cope with. Please correct me if my thinking is old fashioned!

[/ QUOTE ]

That's what I've been led to believe too - horses will eat more than that in one go but the excess will simply be excreted without being properly digested. There's another downside too - I have a friend who feeds her TBs about 7lbs in each feed twice a day - they're permanently off their heads, take about 45 minutes to eat each feed and are all overweight - and she won't listen to any comments about over-feeding.

[/ QUOTE ]

The excess it NOT simply being excreted. There is a distinct possiblity it will sit around in bits of gut (not sure of the technical term but it was explained in graphic detail by Nicola from Top Spec at a lecture) and there is a proven risk of laminitus. I did not realise before that it was also dangerous for the horse as well as a complete waste of money. Wasting money is up to the individual, but they DO need to be aware of the risk of lammie and/or colic. I wish I could remember all the biology type stuff she told us, but all I remembered was the result.
 
I was told by one of the feed companies, can't remeber which that 2kg per feed is the most you want to feed and that as a rough guide the weights are

1 silver bowl scoop alfa = 400g
1 silver bowl scoop course mix = 1.25g
1 silver bowl scoop fiber beet = 1kg
 
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