What to gain weight?

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Lill

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Allen and Page weight gain mix?
Barley rings?

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Already fed on Baileys No 4, Alfa a oil and speedibeet.... but looks like he has dropped a bit in the past week or so
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Those are all very high calorie feeds already - Baileys No 4 is 13.5 MJDE/kg, Alfa A Oil is 12.5 MJDE/kg and Speedibeet is 12.5 MJDE/kg. Are you feeding the Baileys at the recommended rate? And are you giving three feeds a day and ad lib hay?

If you start making changes to his diet you need to check the calorie levels of the feeds you swap to - for example, Calm & Condition is only 12.5 MJDE/kg, so if you changed from the Baileys to C&C you would have to feed more of the C&C to get the same weight gain effect.

If he is not a fizzy sort then you could try changing from Baileys No 4 to Baileys No 1, which is even higher in calories at 14 MJDE/kg, but this is unsupplemented so a vit/min supplement or balancer should really be fed alongside it.

If there is any reason to believe his gut bacteria have been disrupted through stress, antibiotic treatment etc., then a probiotic/prebiotic (contained in most balancers) could help.

Another option is to swap his hay for haylage, which will probably have more calories and be more tasty meaning he will eat more of it.

ETA: Allen & Page Weight Gain Mix is also lower in calories than Baileys No 4 - being 12.5 MJDE/kg. Barley is usually between 12 and 13 MJDE/kg so that is no higher either, although it may work out cheaper.
 
I have seen amazing results from Rowan & Barbary Sumo - you feed very small quantities but there can be some issues with the taste of it to start with. It is a v high oil feed.
 
I found the only thing that put and kept weight on my TB is fibre and plenty of it, a high oil chaff, high fi cubes, ad lib hay/haylage and turnout if poss.
 
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Those are all very high calorie feeds already - Baileys No 4 is 13.5 MJDE/kg, Alfa A Oil is 12.5 MJDE/kg and Speedibeet is 12.5 MJDE/kg. Are you feeding the Baileys at the recommended rate? And are you giving three feeds a day and ad lib hay?

If you start making changes to his diet you need to check the calorie levels of the feeds you swap to - for example, Calm & Condition is only 12.5 MJDE/kg, so if you changed from the Baileys to C&C you would have to feed more of the C&C to get the same weight gain effect.

If he is not a fizzy sort then you could try changing from Baileys No 4 to Baileys No 1, which is even higher in calories at 14 MJDE/kg, but this is unsupplemented so a vit/min supplement or balancer should really be fed alongside it.

If there is any reason to believe his gut bacteria have been disrupted through stress, antibiotic treatment etc., then a probiotic/prebiotic (contained in most balancers) could help.

Another option is to swap his hay for haylage, which will probably have more calories and be more tasty meaning he will eat more of it.

ETA: Allen & Page Weight Gain Mix is also lower in calories than Baileys No 4 - being 12.5 MJDE/kg. Barley is usually between 12 and 13 MJDE/kg so that is no higher either, although it may work out cheaper.

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Hmm so no point changing particularly then? Thank you for that info
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May invest in a pot of pink powder and put him on the 4 scoops of that a day ?

He gets a big round (full!) scoop of baileys per feed, no option to give him a 3rd feed per day, and B won't put hay out yet, i am going to try and get him moved to a field with more grass tonight
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calf milk powder. My friend who has bred 2 HOYS supremes in the last 10 years swears by it. I also use pink powder on my mare and shes putting weight on at a good healthy rate
 
Baileys No 1 (cereal mix) if they still do it, although I still think the best thing ever is supa barley rings, this was the only thing that slightly put weight on my poor doer.
 
how about haylage? i've just changed my youngster from hay to haylage as he had a cough and he's noticeably expanded his waistline in just 4days! i feed him loads of conditioning feeds - topspec cool condition cubes/topspec super conditioning flakes/baileys outshine/alfa-a oil/sugar beet with no real change in his wt and a few days on haylage and he looks porky already!
 
I have had great success with Badminton horse feeds Triple top up. I really rate it and its good value for money with a bag being about £30 and lasting for 5 weeks. It made a good difference to a horse who was on similar feeds to what you are giving and had a nasal infection so was losing weight and condition in his coat.
 
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