Yearling won't eat hay - at end of my tether!!!

S

scotsmare

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My yearling won't eat hay unless she's absolutely forced and even then it's a pathetic pick at it. She came from a stud who fed straw and will happily eat her bed all day long until the clean straw runs out
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I'd much rather she ate the hay - how can I encourage this? I don't really want to give her haylage as if I give one, I'm gonna end up feeding them all on it!

She's eating her bucket feeds twice a day but she's lost a bit of condition and I need to get her weight back up again.

Any suggestions
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Can you change bedding or put diluted jeyes fluid on the straw to stop her eating that?
She might then be a bit keener to eat the hay if she's not stuffing herself full of straw.
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Mine is very fussy, and what looks good to me isn't necessarily tasty to him. I think they're all getting a bit tired of hay though at the moment and are desperate for grass.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Can you change bedding or put diluted jeyes fluid on the straw to stop her eating that?
She might then be a bit keener to eat the hay if she's not stuffing herself full of straw.
smile.gif


[/ QUOTE ]

Have tried that already - she just doesn't eat at all then!
 
Only option, really, is to make up nets of straw, chaff and hay and try and force it in to her until she develops a taste for it!
 
The answer is simple really - bed her on hay!

Ideally make use of any waste hay and perhaps purchase outside bales from farmers, as you can get them cheaper than straw.

Also make sure you feed hard horse hay, not fluffy fertilised ryegrass
 
[ QUOTE ]
The answer is simple really - bed her on hay!

Ideally make use of any waste hay and perhaps purchase outside bales from farmers, as you can get them cheaper than straw.

Also make sure you feed hard horse hay, not fluffy fertilised ryegrass

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LOL I wondered which bright spark would think of that!!
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I will give it a try - just didn't want to waste piles of hay plus don't want to feed crappy stuff to her!
 
Well our herd is currently bedded on hay (in a massive cow shed), as no one wants to buy the outside bales and as we don't produce wheat, its cheaper than straw for us!

All our babies happily eat hay!!
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I feed Redigrass, great big huge tub trugs full each night - intoduce very carefully though and do damp it a bit as there have been a lot of reports of horses choking on it dry.
 
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Well our herd is currently bedded on hay (in a massive cow shed), as no one wants to buy the outside bales and as we don't produce wheat, its cheaper than straw for us!

All our babies happily eat hay!!
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We don't have outside bales unfortunately
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If the stud hadn't started feeding her straw then I doubt we'd be in this position now.....
 
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I feed Redigrass, great big huge tub trugs full each night - intoduce very carefully though and do damp it a bit as there have been a lot of reports of horses choking on it dry.

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Thanks, feed shop isn't open til tomorrow so will go get some then and give it a go.
 
Ah.

Well - how about popping her on shavings and then hay on the floor.

You could also try feeding a courser type of hay - or even haylage.
 
Well if its any consolation at least at the moment its probably cheaper to bed on hay than shavings!!!

Also forgot to say we don't 'feed' the bedding stuff, they are given fresh "eating" hay morning and night. All feed from the ground, even the ones in normal stables.
 
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I feed Redigrass, great big huge tub trugs full each night - intoduce very carefully though and do damp it a bit as there have been a lot of reports of horses choking on it dry.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ditto this
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I had a problem a few weeks ago when my fussy feeder went off his hay, I put some pure apple juice (Tesco's Value) in a spray bottle and sprayed the hay - he loved it!! A litre was lasting me about 5 days so at about 50p a carton it worked out very reasonable too!
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If the yearling isnt eating hay because she has never had it is there any chance of having a companion in that does eat hay to show that it is edible. I bought a youngster that had never had any hard feed and wouldnt touch it until she saw someone else eating some.
 
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