Feeding minis

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Mini Mouse

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Hi, I have been reading post on how much to feed your mini's and am now very confused. I have two mini's that are 5 months old. I feed Omolene 200 at 1 1/2 cups twice a day and 1/4 flake of hay twice a day. They are also on pasture but the grass is not very good now. I read some posts of people feeding as much as 6 cups. PLEASE ... am I feeding enough? I'm very concerned now that I'm starving my minis.
 
You could add a little hay and see how they react to that. Remember, forages are a horse's primary source of nutrients, vitamins, and energy. Concentrates (grain) are used when forage isn't sufficient for their needs. I think my guy is up to 4 flakes of reasonable quality hay plus some pelleted concentrate on top. I think I'll back him off grain entirely soon; he's gained the weight he needed to.
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Get a good weight on your little ones if you can, to help get a guideline for feed amount.

That said, I do add extra to mine. They eat just about as much grain as they can consume comfortably at each feeding, which ends up being a little over 2 cups (1 lb.) of a development feed.

The weanlings weigh 60 lb. to 80 lb. each (they are 2 mo. apart) or thereabouts yet they eat the amount for 100 lb. of horse (says 1 lb. per 100 lb. on my feed's website/tags). They eat 2 lb. per day and though the younger one is SLIGHTLY pudgy, neither is fat. My vet seems to feel just fine about my feed program as well as my horse's weights (and he really knows how minis can get way overweight fast, so he prefers me to keep them moderately slender).

This is just how I do it. My hay is a good quality orchard grass hay and my own pastures are low in quality though they have access to it at least 12 hours per day.

Liz M.
 
Here's my personal #1 rule of feeding horses: EVERY HORSE IS AN INDIVIDUAL and should be fed as such. Basically that means that what someone else feeds their horses may bear little to no resemblence to what you should feed yours. Circumstances include geography, feed availability, hay, pasture, metabolic rate, age, growth level....the variables go on and on. Even amongst your own herd, it may not be a "one-size-fits-all" scenario.

I have 29 minis. Some get 4 oz (less than 1 cup) of a ration balancer twice per day, 2-3 lbs of hay and grazing several hours per day and we STILL fight the battle of the bulge. Am I starving them? No. Am I feeding them too little? No -- if I was, they wouldn't still be fat :new_shocked: . On the other hand, my nursing mares with babies on their side get 3 cups of a mare/foal feed twice per day, plus a full flake of T/A hay plus grazing. Far different than what I feed my mature maintenance pasture pet geldings (pasture and a vitamin/mineral supplement and NO grain whatsoever).

What I'm concerned with is the VALUE of the nutrition -- whether they are getting what they need on a daily basis in terms of vitamins, minerals, and protein for their 1) age, 2) stage of development, 3) work load. THEN I work on calories and maintenance of weight and energy -- some will need more hay, some will need more feed, some may have to be restricted from pasture, while others can stay on it 24/7 -- all this calculated on an INDIVIDUAL basis depending on the horse.

Your feeding program (in terms of volume) sounds very "average" and probably pretty close to what many mini owners provide.

Robin C
 
Thanks so much for you help. These are my first minis and I'm constantly concerned about there health. I am calling the vet today to have them checked out. I love these little guys and want to do all I can to make sure they are healthy and happy.
 
Have no fear listen to your vet. When I told my vet there were people on my mini board who feed 6 cups of grain a day he almost had a heart attack. Mine get roughly 2 cups of grain a day and quality hay and minerals and all have been borderline fat and have had to have changes made often to get to a desired weight. I have a nursing mare now who is pig fat and as soon as baby weans she will have her grain cut back. I have to watch all the time or mine are fat. So listen to your vet and good luck.
 
Your vet will be an important source of information regarding vaccinations, de-worming products/schedules, etc. for your geographic locale. It's always a good idea to have your vet visit with your mini when he is healthy, so he can get a baseline familiarity with your horse BEFORE he becomes ill or injured (hopefully that never happens, but we all know....). Good routine health care and proper nutrition can help ward off a host of evils.

One thing I did fail to mention when I posted last night, but is equally as important to what I did post is this. Feed companies/manufacturers set rate of feeding for each individual product as well, and these feeding rates are invariably expressed by weight (not volume, like 1 cup, 2 cups, etc., that is, unless they provide their own "cup" like Buckeye). Recommendations will be made for weight of feed in relationship to weight of horse. And while it's becoming a little more common, most bags will never mention feeding rates for a mini, though they might for a pony. More often feeding rates will be expressed in pounds of feed for an average 1000 lb horse at maintenance or moderate work and you will have to do a little math to figure what the feeding rate for a mini would be (and that requires having at least a guestimate of what your mini weighs).

Since many of my responses to posts get long, and sometimes complicated, I think I'm going to try a new approach. A "short version" for a succinct answer to a question, and then a "long" version which gives more of an explanation, for those who are interested in the whys and wherefors.

SHORT VERSION:

Each feed will have it own rate set for delivering nutrition/guaranteed analysis. While some feeds might require, for example, 2 pounds per day (maybe 4 or more cups per feeding) be fed, others might only require 8 ounces per day (1/2 cup or less). Similar levels of nutrients, but in wildly different volumes. Feeds that require LESS to be fed on a daily basis provide the same level of nutrition, but usually less calories per serving, and are frequently called "more concentrated".

LONG VERSION:

Some of the reasons behind this WEIGHT vs volume measurement are:

1) feeds all weigh different amounts. Weigh a single cupful of several different feeds, grains, etc., and you'll see what I mean

2) guaranteed analysis (all those numbers and percentages on the back of the bag) are determined by weight of the feed and not by volume.

Simply put, if you want your horse to have ALL the good things you bought the feed for (after all, you may have spent a great deal of time narrowing down your choice to that particular feed), then you MUST feed to manufacturer's recommendations for weight/activity level of your horse in order to achieve that benefit.

You certainly CAN feed less than manufacturer recommendations, but if you do provide LESS than bag recommendations, then your horse is no longer getting the full benefit of that feed. If you feed MORE than the manufacturer recommends, you're probably okay to a point. Many nutrients in excess will just be lost to excretion in the urine, but why p*ss your money away (literally!) PLUS there are nutrients, when fed in excess, which can reach toxic levels (selenium and vitamin A come to mind).

That being said, the caveat for miniatures is that many feeds, when fed according to manufacturer's instructions, will provide too many calories for our minis, therefore making them too fat. So you're darned if you do, and darned if you don't...Right? Not necessarily. There are viable options. One is to change feeds to one with more concentrated nutrients (that's why many folks feed their minis ration balancers -- lots of nutrition packed into a smaller package -- more bang for the buck nutritionally, but less calories). These are often the more expensive, premium line foods. It seems like they cost more, but in the long run they actually cost the same or less because you feed less of the product for the same amount of nutrition provided on a daily basis. The second option, if you really, really love the feed you are giving, but the manufacturer requires that you feed more than your mini can tolerate calorie-wise, is to feed less of it, but supplement with an additional/vitamin mineral supplement (these generally contain little in the way of calories).

BOTTOM LINE: Your mini has a need for a certain level of vitamins/minerals/protein per day. These are provided through hay, pasture and the addition of hard feed (when required). In the absence of hay/pasture analysis, many people look to the hard feed portion of the diet to supply the bulk of the vitamins/minerals because there is at least a tangible label on those which tell you what the feed is providing. However, it's important to remember that hay and pasture are providing nutrients, too, as well as calories. It's a balancing act for sure! Look to the manufacturer's feeding rate guidelines to tell YOU how much to feed YOUR mini of THAT feed, rather than looking to what your neighbor is feeding.

Robin C
 
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