Will more grazing help oldie?

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Scampi

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Have an oldie who finds it difficult eating hay. He lives out with his friend. He had a dentist look at him and we have another coming out in a couple of weeks for a 2nd opinion. He has 2 hard feeds per day of fast fibre and speedi-beet.

There is an opportunity to rent some more grazing and i'm wondering whether this would benefit him? As we are approaching winter, obviously there won't be any nutritional value in the grass (not sure i have phrased that right) so would it benefit him?

It would really stretch me financially so would it be of any benefit or would i be better spending the extra dosh on more hard feed? ie, outshine etc. would hay still be needed to be put out? (his mate would be moved as well).
 
I have a 30 year old who cannot chew hay very well at all.

He has 2 feeds a day of fast fibre and chaff. Ideally Id love some extra grazing for him over winter because he simply cant chew hay well enough.
Hes doing just fine at the moment, and will come out of winter alot better than last year when I got him.
But yes, I would much much prefer more grazing than more feed for my oldie, definately.
 
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The trouble is now, going into winter, the grass will have less in it, so you will need to continue to bucket feed. FF is an excellent "oldie" food as are soaked grass nuts.
Next spring though, that grazing will make all the difference.
 
My 21 year old's teeth are starting to expire, so already he too is finding it difficult to chew hay. He's out 24/7 on really good grazing which I'm sure really helps and gets fed twice a day with Spillers Veteran Fibre and Global Herbs Globalvite, he's never looked better! If you have the opportunity of more grazing, I would seriously think about taking it on, but if you're concerned about the hard feed, how about adding an all-round supplement?
 
Derfette said:
My 21 year old's teeth are starting to expire, so already he too is finding it difficult to chew hay. He's out 24/7 on really good grazing which I'm sure really helps and gets fed twice a day with Spillers Veteran Fibre and Global Herbs Globalvite, he's never looked better! If you have the opportunity of more grazing, I would seriously think about taking it on, but if you're concerned about the hard feed, how about adding an all-round supplement?
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It will stretch my financial budget so want to see if it would make any difference now we are getting into winter? Will be a different story in spring i know!

Would i still need to put hay out? There is tons of grass in it, it was cut end of summer.

Would still bucket feed but would i need less hay?
 
joeanne said:
The trouble is now, going into winter, the grass will have less in it, so you will need to continue to bucket feed. FF is an excellent "oldie" food as are soaked grass nuts.
Next spring though, that grazing will make all the difference.
Click to expand...

Grass nuts, are they expensive? how many scoops do you feed?
 
I'd also suggest soaked grass nuts, for a lunch my oldie has a scoop of grass nuts with half a scoop of oats, all soaked until the become a mush.

Its difficult to advise as there isn't much in the grass, and if it is frosty you obviously need to be careful with lami / colic.

I've just started mine on veteran vitality too, for some added boost, as i'm struggling with her weight.
 
It is difficult to get the right balance. I have always thought it's nice to have something dry going through them, but as long as they are getting the right quantities of fibre in some form you should be ok with feeding less or no hay depending on what you want to do. I feed Spillers Veteran Fibre which really works for my boy, but will consider Fast Fibre when he finds things more difficult.
 
My friends oldie can't eat hay and struggles now with grass. She is currently having 1/2 stubbs scoop of A+P calm and condition and 1/2 stubbs scoop conditioning cubes with 1/2 mug of linseed. She has this twice a day.

She also has two full stubbs scoops of fast fibre (dry measure) twice daily. One scoop is equivalant to one wedge of hay xx
 
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