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Minifoal

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Our mare just foaled a gorgeous little appy filly. It is trying to eat her feed at 3 days old so I am putting her feed in a trough so she can't reach it. I have care questions & would appreciate your help.

1) When is it ok to let her eat pellet feed with her Dam or when do I feed her in her own bowl and how much to start with?

2) When do I worm her & with what kind?

3) How long should I wait before I wean her?

4) What would you say on her registration papers? (Black Appaloosa with white Blaze)??? I will be triple registering her with AMHA, AMHR & FBR, so need to get this right.

Any other care tips is greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Marsha Milsom - Country Dreamin

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Congrats! The filly can eat and drink anything it's mom does.

I'd wait a few months until worming, but do deworm the mare right away!

I'd wean anywhere between 4-6 months, depending on the situation.

She is very flashy! Does look black appt with a blaze to me.
 
O what a little beauty!!

I'm jealous. I try to encourage our babies to eat as soon as possible - whether it be from mom's feed bucket (usually works better when fed from a tub and mom is OK with that - my 2 mini sized Shetland mares will actually attack their foals if they try to take food out of mom's bucket.) or from their own. I also teach mine to stand tied while eating - mom is tied at her bucket and foal starts with a line around their barrel thru the loose part of the halter at the bottom of the noseband or thru an attached larger ring and then wrapped around the post. I make sure that I turn them loose before they get so tired that they lay down. With some foals that can be a very short time (5-10 minutes) at first. Then you go longer periods. I also use this time, or try to - sometimes Im running harder to feed the rest of the crew lately - to handle the foal - rubbing her body, picking up her hooves, touching her ears. Some foals will not like being touched while eating - deflect a bite with your arm or other body part at first if your baby tries to bite you. All of ours learn that handling at feeding time is to be expected and accepted...

Of course there are other ways to do the above handling and initial training.

We live in NC and all vets here in our area seem to concur that foals should be wormed with Panacur at 30 days of age, Strongid at 60 days. Then they vary - some say rotate back and forth till 6 months, some say on 90 day worming go to Ivermectin and use Ivermectin for 4th, 5th & 6th month. So, in the past, we have done the 30 day worming and every 30 days there after until 6 months of age, they are wormed. At 6 months of age, they "join" the rest of the herds' next worming which takes place every 60 days. I have had several foals' fecals checked when I decided to skip a worming - the foals that were skipped had heavy egg counts &/or actual worms while foals that had been wormed had less - though never none. We do have a large number of ponies on our place. We are checking into going the more natural route now - but didn't have any foals in 2014 and none planned in 2015. We are researching the best way to deal with foals and natural products worming and IF it works.

You should check with other horse owners in your area to find out how they worm their horses AND talk to your vet. Local pastures, weather and animal load can affect choices of when to worm your horses and what with.

I can't answer on your registration color questions.

More pics of your lovely girls? The name you decided on?
 
Feed amounts? If you are using a mare & foal feed - follow the directions. You can start with a handful or so and add to it as she cleans it up. OR you can start with more and let mom finish it. I've done both ways. If you are using a different feed - you might consider going to a mare/foal supplement for both the dam and the foal (I use Mare Plus and cut the amount given; and also add a milk replacer to the feed of both the mare and foal if the foal appears to be pulling the mare down or the mare was underweight at foaling/soon after. We feed wet/soupy to all of our ponies and horses).

When to wean is based on you, your schedule, if your into the moon schedule, your mare and foal and your pasture/pen area. I've weaned as young as 2 months of age (that foal went to our vets' barn 2 miles up the road to keep an orphan BIG TWH filly company and teach her how to eat w/o her dam - when our filly was 6 months our tiny fill was able to completely walk under the full size filly's belly so she returned to our pasture and the other foals we had. She was back out with her own dam, but didn't return to nursing that we know of..) and as "late" as 2 yrs of age when an old mare used to let all the foals line up and take turns nursing... to include foals that weren't hers!! Usually we aim for 4-6 months of age. It depends on the condition of your foal, how she is eating, how your mare is doing and all the above.
 
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Ditto to Disneyhorse......

We feed our dams in a large tub and the foals will investigate within a few days....Our preferred feed is actually a "Senior" feed, but mare and foal is good too. Worming the dam immediately after foaling is important. If you haven't done so, do it anyway. The wormer will filter through the mare's milk.

We worm our foals at about 4 months, since we wormed the dam just after foaling. The absolute earliest we wean is also at 4 months, but

prefer to wait til about 6 months... by that time the psychological bond is breaking... the foal is much more independent and the mom is starting to nudge her baby off her when it does occasionally approach to nurse. I also have used the Farmer's Almanac and found it to be

very helpful.
 

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