Yearling wont eat hay - at end of my tether!!

[scotsmare]

Also in NL but wondered if anyone else has gone through something similar!

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

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

 

[zizz]

mix the straw and hay then graduallly reduce the amount of straw? Bedding her on shavings may help too.

 

[JanetGeorge]

You could try steaming or soaking the hay - or get some Graze-on and add a couple of scoops of that to her bucket feeds. It's pure dried grass - so higher feed value than hay - and very palatable.

 

[scotsmare]

I've solved it!!! (I think!)

I put a big pile in the corner and scooshed apple juice over the whole lot - end result pony tucked in and has demolished a good 3 sections of hay so far. Hopefully this will continue......

 

[Rollin]

Well done you! I was about to post every solution I could think of...very boring. Keep us posted if it works.