What to feed?

muckypony

muckypony

Well-Known Member
Joined
24 August 2012
Messages
1,563
Visit site
My 5 month old shetlands are arriving this saturday and I'm not sure what to feed them. At the moment they are out 24/7 with hay and get fed a mixture which includes oat straw, pony nuts, sugar beet, barley and mix. They are among 20 odd others so it feasible for them to have that many different types of feed on the go, but for me just having two it seems silly having so much going on!

I planned to feed the just original hi-fi and pony nuts, but they will be in at night with hay and they grass is very good. Am I ok to change them straight onto this? Do they need anything else to aid their growing as they are so young? Any vitamin supplements?

Any advice would be great :)
 
The hi-fi and pony nuts? Or the feeding in general...? I've been looking back on previous related threads and most people feed their shetlands something as grass/hay doesn't have enough vits/mins, but I just want to know what.

I would like advice please not just negative comments! :o
 
Youngsters upto 2 years of age require higher levels of vits and mins but natives are generally good doers. I'd just give them a stud balancer which is a stud feed for good doers (youngsters that don't require the calories to maintain weight, but need the extra nutrition)

What height should they be a maturity? They will prob only need 100grams per day
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
Youngsters upto 2 years of age require higher levels of vits and mins but natives are generally good doers. I'd just give them a stud balancer which is a stud feed for good doers (youngsters that don't require the calories to maintain weight, but need the extra nutrition)

What height should they be a maturity? They will prob only need 100grams per day
Click to expand...

Thank you :)

I'm not 100% sure how big they are supposed to grow, they are supposed to be minis but they have really shot up and one is very bum high, parents are under 35" so about that height. How long do you feed them this for?
 
muckypony said:
My 5 month old shetlands are arriving this saturday and I'm not sure what to feed them. At the moment they are out 24/7 with hay and get fed a mixture which includes oat straw, pony nuts, sugar beet, barley and mix. They are among 20 odd others so it feasible for them to have that many different types of feed on the go, but for me just having two it seems silly having so much going on!

I planned to feed the just original hi-fi and pony nuts, but they will be in at night with hay and they grass is very good. Am I ok to change them straight onto this? Do they need anything else to aid their growing as they are so young? Any vitamin supplements?

Any advice would be great :)
Click to expand...

Id just be going with Hi fi or fibre nuts... and haylage... adding a youngstock vit and mineral supplement... i think I used equimins
 
Last edited:
I'd stick with 100grams per day then.

A stud balancer is by far the best option for them as your not adding calories to their waste line but also ensuring they are getting their daily levels of vits, mins and protein which you won't get from a fibre cube
 
Trot_On_Dressage said:
I'd stick with 100grams per day then.

A stud balancer is by far the best option for them as your not adding calories to their waste line but also ensuring they are getting their daily levels of vits, mins and protein which you won't get from a fibre cube
Click to expand...

If I were too get hi-fi lite or similar and add a vitamin supp, what would be the difference? Sorry, I've not had such young ponies before so have lots of questions! :o:p
 
Generally a vit and min supplement won't have a good level of good quality protein and the levels won't be for yooungsters, they need a higher level of nutrients than adults.

But most importantly you'll find a stud balancer cheaper to feed :)
 
Am I ok to change them straight onto something different? At the moment they are getting a lot of different feeds but in a very small quantity (if that makes sense) so they have a very small feed, and what I feed will also be very small.
 
It is generally best that you change feed gradually (replace 500grams of new feed to old feed every other day) but the amounts your feeding is small and if you buy all that feed you will have it for ages.

If you haven't got them yet I would just give them forage for a couple of days when they arrive and then give them the 100grams of balancer.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top