What to feed an exceptionally fussy veteran

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AGAGE

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I never thought I'd end up writing a post about Ted being fussy with his food, he has always been a greedy pig, well until this year anyway!

Ted was fed spillers senior maintenance mix and spillers cool fibre for a couple of years, until about 4 months ago, when he slowly stopped eating it, he would tip over his food and then leave it!

He looked well on this feed, but as he stopped eating it I thought I'd put him onto Spillers Senior Balancer, fibre beet and a handful of Badminton veteran nuggets. He ate this feed for about a couple of months but then stopped eating it, taking a particular dislike to the balancer, picking it out when he could. His teeth have been recently checked and were very good for a 19yo.

He will happily eat his carrots and hay and will eat his feed if it has copious amounts of my sisters pony nuts mixed in.

This week I thought I'd try him on Allen and Page Veteran Vitality, as he wasn't eating the other food. Yesterday and this morning he ate his feed with a small amount of the new feed mixed in and appeared to happily eat it, however this evening he turned his nose up at it.

I've never owned a fussy horse as far as food's concerned. He loves pony nuts but I'm reluctant to feed him these, as he could do with a more conditioning feed that also has extra nutritional support for older equines, as he can suffer from arthritis, and didn't look as good when he was fed on nuts and sugar beet.

What veteran feeds are appetising to a fussy eater? Should I continue with the veteran vitality and not give him the option of having nuts etc added? My husband says if he's hungry he'll eat, and that he's just being a spoilt git!

If possible would prefer to keep him on Allen and Page as there Mill is in the same village as where my husband works, and it's much easier to get hold of. I don't know if their Old faithful mix is worth trying. I'm starting to get really annoyed by Ted's fussiness as I now have 2 bags of balancer that he won't eat!
 
you might have to pander to him!! sisters pony nuts sounds good to me. as much good hay as you can get him to eat. can you not sel the balancer to someone else on the yard? i have to say all mine love alpha a and sugar beet. i would phone round all the feed companies and ask them if they can send you some samples to try.
 
have you tried a small feed of just veteran vitality? maybe you are just mixing to much together.

ETA do you present him with whacking great feeds? if you do maybe you are over facing him, try smaller feeds more often.
 
Mmm - we're very lucky I think with our 37yr old as she isn't fussy at all but this is what she has.....

A huge tubtrug full of readigrass, hifi senior and veteran mollichop


Another bucket with two scoops of Allen+Page fast fibre


Another bucket with two scoops of hifi senior plus 1/2 scoop of dodson+horrell conditioning veteran mix

She can't eat hay anymore and costs a fair bit to feed but she deserves it at her age, out of all this I'd say she loves her readigrass and her fast fibre the most.

Perhaps you could get a few different feeds (I know it'll be expensive) and feed something different every day? Plus lots of good hay of course.

Hope this helps you xx
 
Sounds like my old boy! He seems to prefer Countrywide conditioning cubes on the whole but I seem to spend a lot of time tempting him with various brands along the way! I swear by a vitamin b supplement to increase his appetite (usually use the equine america one). Especially as the grass becomes poorer and vit b harder to gain from this source. Just about to try NAF pibbbnk powder too! I also feed alfa a with oil rather than just plain alfa a. Probabaly best not to give him too much and leave him looking for that bit more!
 
Thanks for all your advice. I think I'll try and keep his feeds smaller, and see how he takes to it. He loved it yesterday and this morning yet this evening took a mouthful and left the rest and started on his hay.

Unfortunately we don't keep him on at a livery yard so cant sell balancer on.
 
I'm looking after a friend's 32 year old. She is incredibly fussy at times. The one thing I have noticed with her is that she will eat a LOT less if she is uncomfortable (she's a bit arthritic) and after a lot of trial and error, devils claw seems to do the trick.

Feeding wise she has a mixture of JustGrass or Grazon (seems softer than Readigrass), with unmolassed chaff in a huge trug. She also has plain micronised flaked barley which she loves. The barley is mixed with FastFibre, SpeediBeet, Soaked Alfa Pellets - a mixture of these or just one or two depending what she fancies! I'm using a TopSpec balancer at the min which is going down well. Apple Juice is a winner when things get really bad, she actually doesn't like apples much but juice is a favourite. I have also been know to grate carrots into her feed - if they are chopped she will pick them out and leave the rest of her feed. She will eat hay or haylage, sometimes. I seem to break a lot of rules of feeding with her, I chop and change at random to keep her interested.

Sorry that was a bit random, I'm sure there are other things I have missed. You have my sympathy, it is so hard! Hope I have given you a few ideas.
 
Absolutely swear by old faithfuls. My mare loves it! Shes 19 too and we have struggled to get the weight back on her this year after weaning her foal. She is now up to weight and shinier than ever. And she loves the mix, it smells wonderful :)

ETA - forgot to add, she is fed this with D&H just grass and speedibeet with sunflower oil
x
 
AGAGE said:
He loved it yesterday and this morning yet this evening took a mouthful and left the rest and started on his hay.
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Can you not put his hay in until after he has finished his feed so there is nothing to distract him! Also play around with the consistency of the Veteran Vitality to see whether he prefers it a bit sloppy or firmer - using warm water can make it more tempting.

If he doesn't take to the Veteran Vitality, why not look at some of the conditioning cubes on offer, particularly as he seems to like pony nuts.
 
Ted has now decided that he likes his Veteran Vitality, well for today at least. I gave him a small amount of it for breakfast, with a few pony nuts and he happily ate it, and then he had a little more on it's own when he came in from the field and he ate it all, without playing around with it. I don't think he liked it yesterday as it was quite sloppy,and I put a little balancer in, which he doesn't like, he might not of liked the texture, combined with the fact it had the balancer in. I just don't understand why he suddenly won't touch the balancer, he used to really like it!

Fingers crossed he won't change his mind about eating veteran vitality again. Thanks for the apple juice/ grated carrot idea, I hadn't thought of that, and it may be a good back up, as I don't really want to keep changing his feeds because he goes off them, as it can't be good for him.

I will be much happier if he'll eat the Veteran Vitality. I spoke to their nutritionist and they said that he shouldn't need any other feeds with it, so long as he has 2kg dry weight/day and it's high fibre. It will make my life a lot easier, just having to get one bag of feed a week, rather than several different feeds, from different places.

My sisters horse will eat any type of food, although unfortunately he will also attempt to eat inedible objects, including his wood pellet bedding. It was quite sad, as I think he thought the pellets were pony nuts, he looked so happy when he discovered what he thought was a bed with a few pony nuts sprinkled on top, only to take a mouthful and then spit them out very quickly.
 
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