Feeding the young ones

[vickie gee]

Could someone give me some general guidance on feeding my first foal? She is 7 weeks old and has to be stalled because of leg surgery. Now that she is home from the horse hospital I need to know when to introduce food, how much, what kind, and how often. I let her and the mare come into the front yard for about an hour every evening. So she is getting grass then and also nibbles a little on the hay in her mom's stall. I have been mixing her twice a day antibiotic pill with just a few feed pellets because it is the easiest way to get her take her medicine. Besides mom's milk what should she be getting?

 

[icspots]

I give mine nutrena youth with a little calf manna in it (the calf manna is basically added because it helps keep the moms from getting run down) and they freely indulge as early as a few days old! When it comes time to wean they are eating great and in good flesh, never seem to go through that post weaning potty stage etc.

 

[vickie gee]

Thank you icspots. Do you happen to know what % protein nutrena youth is?

 

[bevann]

As a breeder for over 20 years I noticed my babies were alway trying to eat mom's feed so I started giving them their own little bucket with just a handful I use a 14%sweet feed for my nursing moms.Babies will usually start nibbling at about 2 weeks of age and are eating well by 4 weeks.This has worked really well for me and when they are weaned they are already used to eating grain .They always try hay, too, but be sure it is not really stemmy.I have never had a weanling lose weight due to not eating.Some moms do not share well so we have had to tie mom while baby eats since most babies eat slowly and play lots with their food.good luck with your baby.My favorite things in the world are Mini foals and puppies.

 

[Kilkenny Farms]

I have my mares on a mare and foal feed for the last couple of months before they foal. It is about 16% protein which is a bit high, but I have a mare that really gets dragged down when she has a baby nursing and I like to build her up as much as possible. (I may try that calf manna that was mentioned in an earlier post. That sounds like a good idea. We get the best ideas on this forum!)

The babies start imitating mom and eating from the feed bin at just a few days old. Mine are about five or six weeks old now and they are both eating well. They eat the grain, the hay and grass from the pasture if they want to....but of course mom's milk is still the prefered meal. <LOL>

It definitely makes weaning a lot easier if you know they are eating well on their own.

Barbara Kilkenny

 

[Jill]

For our nursing foals, we have always given either complete senior feed or complete junior feed. For a foal we have had to hand raise, we've been giving a mixture of Vintage Mare & Foal and Omelene 300 4x a day. We also give soft orchard grass hay (we are VERY careful never to feed coarse hay to minis and especially mini foals).

 

[rabbitsfizz]

I offer my foals their own feed from 10 days (roughly) on and by seven weeks they would be, and are, eating a good amount of feed, beet pulp, weanling mix, even grass hay chaff.

I bring them into the round pen on their own by about four weeks and they get used to being away form Mama for a while, they can still see her and smell her but they cannot nurse.

This, for me, is the start of weaning.

By seven weeks I would expect your foal to also be eating hay.

Since she has had surgery I would really want to consult the Vet on what she should be fed, as you do not want her getting too "hyped up" if she is on stall rest, but she certainly does need a lot more than the mare's milk.

Good Luck!!

 

[targetsmom]

Of course, I am very new to this, but this is what I am doing with our 2 months old. From just a few days old, I would offer him some of his mother's grain in my hand. Then I started putting some in his own dish, and he now gets his own "dinner". It is the same grain the mare gets (Nutrena Safe Choice), a 14% protein pelleted feed, to which I add soaked beet pulp. In his case, I make it pretty soupy with the water from the beet pulp so it is very soft. They also get very fine second cutting grass hay which he will also nibble on. At bedtime they get a tiny bit of soaked alfalfa cubes (our horses are a bit spoiled) and he loves that too. Ours are on some pasture too.