What do you feed your hard keeper?

[chandab]

Ok, so I did a search, and found several threads that mention hard keepers, but thought it would be nice to have information on feeding them all in one place.

I have one that really has a hard time keeping weight in summer; its partially bug related, and partially related to him not wanting to eat much when its hot (the rest are little piggies and they don't care what the temp is as long as I feed them).

so, what do you feed your hard keepers and how much? [Don't forget to include how big your hard keeper is.]

Mine is 38" and 350# right now, and needs to gain some. He's getting a ration balancer (1/2#), oats/beet pulp mixed (2 cups) and a weight gain supplement plus pasture all day and grass hay at night (he won't eat more hard feed than this right now). Just started on the supplement, so it hasn't really had a chance to start working for him. Since he doesn't want to eat, he needs a power packed meal to provide his calories. I've been feeding it dry, so today, I'll try it wet and see if that improves his desire to eat it. I really don't want to resort to a sweet feed, but will if that's what it takes to get him to eat. [Currently, his ration is divided into two meals. I could add a third while he's out on pasture during the day, but not increase his two current meals, as he shares a paddock with a piggie, while they are separated for grain it takes him forever to eat, so I don't want to add to the time it takes for a meal.]

Thanks.

 

[targetsmom]

We feed our hard keeper ... whatever she likes! Ruby is not just a hard keeper but a picky eater. She is about 32" and weights an estimated 200 pounds. Our vet rated her a 4+ on body score, when all the rest were 5 (or more).

Right now she is in the back yard with our newest mini, eating grass and keeping Dancer company. Ruby eats very slowly and will take all night to eat her hay (which is weighed). I just started feeding her alfalfa cubes at all meals, not just a bedtime, because I noticed that she really likes them. She also gets some grain (about a cup each meal) and supplements and beet pulp, which she might finish overnight but not in the morning. I know some will think that ulcers may be the issue (and they could be) but the fact that she eats so slowly and always has, makes me think that is unlikely. She shows NO signs of ulcer pain. Also, she eats a lot like I do, and has a similar body type... then maybe I have ulcers???

I tried adding oil to her feed and also Stomach Soother, and am not really sure if those helped or not. I may go back to the Stomach Soother as that is supposed to help appetite. That will also help ulcers. I highly recommend it!

 

[midnight star stables]

Mary, I have a mare just like yours. Such a slow eater. My mare gets shown a lot and isn't a hard keeper, but more like always perfectly trim. She'll get fat quick on lush grass, but I try to avoid that. My girl, Joy, gets hay, 13% grain and beep pulp 2-3 times a day. I wonder about ulcers too, and am saving up to buy her some ulcer medication to try her on over the winter (I don't think it will hurt her). I just think that is her way though, as she has never had to rush to eat.

My hard to keep broodmare gets a lot of food, trying to get her weight up, once she starts looking better we'll drop her feed a little. Once her filly is weaned, her protien level will be dropped to more of a Senior/High Fat, High Fiber diet. Right now, she gets just under 3 lbs of grain (recommended feed amount according to the bag) of a 16% Mare&Foal and 14% Senior/High Fat, High Fiber mixture. She gets 4 scoops of soaked beet pulp and 3-4 flakes(offered 24/7, that is just what she eats) of hay. She is fed 4-6 times throughout the day, in small meals. This mare is out on pasture during the day and stalled at night.

Just sharing our own program.

 

[Magic]

Our 27 year old mare eats slowly, and gets pushed around by all of the other horses except for the current year foals, so during the day she gets free run of the barn aisle and front yard of the barn, where there is stacked hay that she can eat free-choice. She also gets between 4 and 8 cups of a senior feed, soaked, divided into two meals a day. In the winter she also gets soaked beet pulp. There's a little bit of grazing in the barn yard, and then at night when it's cool she goes out on pasture with the mares and foals. Lots of feed out there right now since we opened up the hay field for grazing instead of trying for a third crop of hay. She's doing great. It's cute how she knows the schedule, she's waiting to be let in every morning, and can't wait to go out at night.

When the foals are weaned she will go in with them as she does every year.

 

[Becky]

Chanda,can you feed alfalfa? I've found it puts weight on better than anything else out there.

 

[mydaddysjag]

My 11 year old gelding is a hard keeper, he measures anywhere from 34-35 depending on his feet, and is about 280.

Hes eating Purina Ultium Competition (the original blue bag) which is 11.7% protein and 12.4% fat, then he gets alfalfa chopped hay, and 1/2 flake grass hay for munching. He's supposed to be getting beet pulp too, but having issues with the boarding barn hes at. He comes home at the end of the month, and will be put back on beetpulp, as hes a little thinner than I like. Once show season is over, I'll take him off of the chopped hay, and he'll get regular timothy/alfalfa hay through winter.

 

[Margo_C-T]

If you are in or near TX, I'd recommend 'Thrive' feed, which is produced only there(so far, at least), and so far has dealers only there plus one in KS and one in NY state...go figure! It is mainly forage-based(alfalfa, timothy, grain sorghum, whole soybean meal, rice bran, kelp meal...and a host of vitamins/mineral...all info is on the back of each bag), and is popular in rescue/rehab facilities for its safety AND ability to upgrade a horse's condition.) I am VERY pleased w/ how my horses are doing on it(I also use ground flax, soaked beet pulp, in addition to plenty of good forage hay...i.e., grass hay with nuttitional value.)

I have a 29 YO mare who is entirely 'on' TC Senior and rabbit pellets, along w/ a generous serving of soaked beet pulp(pellets daily. She still has most of her teeth,which have had regualar maintenance for the 26+ years I've had her, but they just aren't very 'efficient', according to my vet. She will NOT TOUCH soaked hay or hay pellets. period; I went to rabbit pellets because she can still chew those, as they come. She is actually slightly FAT; I've reduced her Senior by nearly half, and her rabbit pellets by about 1/4, this summer...with no discernible drop-off in weight. She will graze a bit when turned out(now that we've had a bit of growth after a few rains), but doesn't really 'get much' out of grazing.She seems to feel good and is always eager to eat when mealtime rolls around! You might try rabbit pellets for your hardkeeper?!Just a thought....

Margo

 

[Davie]

Margo, great idea about the rabbit pellets--I have an older guy that has not tolerated this almost 60 days of 100+ degree heat and when it is this hot he does not eat well (for that fact neither do I) and I can't separate him as he sure won't eat at all if stalled (darned if I do, darned if I don't) and he is always a very slow eater and has had his teeth done recently.

He does not like the alfalfa pellets as I guess they are too hard to grid and I can't soak them since he is in a group environment as all the others would run him off if he had something special. Will get a bag and try that and see how it does on him.

 

[chandab]

Chanda,can you feed alfalfa? I've found it puts weight on better than anything else out there.

I can't get alfalfa pellets, and the new hay crop isn't home yet (our homegrown alfalfa won't be suitable for horses, too coarse and possibly musty due to harvesting conditions); not to mention he rooms wiht a fatty (so grass hay only to share), so it needs to be a calorie packed feed I can give him wiht his grain ration twice a day. He does graze all day, which includes alfalfa. Not my first choice, but what's available, so my BIL is picking up a bag of COB today (it'll have a bit of molasses, so maybe that'll encourage him to eat, he's just not thrilled about eating anything I have on hand).

I've tried several feeds on him, but he's just not that interested in anything I have at home right now. Not senior, not plain oats, not beet pulp (he eats his ration balancer); he's eating, but just not that thrilled with it. Everyone else dives right in to their meager ration balancer meal.

 

[Reignmaker Miniatures]

Have you tried adding BOSS (Black oil sunflower seeds). It seems to be not only tolerated but enjoyed by almost every horse I've offered it to and it is very high fat. I often use it to add shine to my horses and must be very careful not to give too much or they will pack on the pounds pretty quickly. Just a thought.

 

[chandab]

Have you tried adding BOSS (Black oil sunflower seeds). It seems to be not only tolerated but enjoyed by almost every horse I've offered it to and it is very high fat. I often use it to add shine to my horses and must be very careful not to give too much or they will pack on the pounds pretty quickly. Just a thought.

Thank you for the reminder. I used to feed BOSS to my horses, but got out of the habit, so will pick up a bag next time I'm in town and try that on him. I know it works wonders for coat and weight.

 

[chandab]

Come on there has to be more of you with hard keepers and good ideas to keep them eating. Whether they are just picky or don't like the heat, or whatever causes them to be hard keepers.

I think we might be going to town tomorrow, and while I don't what another bag of feed in my feed room, if I remember correctly he went nuts for Horse Chow, I think it was 100. While it doesn't have a high protein or calorie count, getting him eating is what's important. I did get a bag of COB and that's helping a little bit, but he's only gettting a small amount, as I don't want to rush him onto it and make him sick.

 

[mydaddysjag]

I use purina Ultium because its easy to get in my area, and I like feeding a pelleted feed. If my hard keeper was really picky, I would use Triple Crown Complete, its 12% protein 12% fat and a sweet feed. I haven't met many horses that wouldn't eat a sweet feed. Heres a link to it: Triple Crown Complete

You can feed it as a complete feed, or feed it with hay, you just adjust the amount. In your situation, where you cant feed a lot of different things due to other horses and your hard keeper being picky, its the feed I would try.

 

[chandab]

I use purina Ultium because its easy to get in my area, and I like feeding a pelleted feed. If my hard keeper was really picky, I would use Triple Crown Complete, its 12% protein 12% fat and a sweet feed. I haven't met many horses that wouldn't eat a sweet feed. Heres a link to it: Triple Crown Complete

You can feed it as a complete feed, or feed it with hay, you just adjust the amount. In your situation, where you cant feed a lot of different things due to other horses and your hard keeper being picky, its the feed I would try.

That sounds like a good one, but I can't get Triple Crown here. Of course, all the good feeds that would work well for a picky eater can't be found around here.

 

[mydaddysjag]

If you can get Purina, Im pretty happy with Ultium. The killer is the price, its about $21 a bag, but I feed less of it, and Im not having to add a bunch of extra stuff like I was before. I feed ultium, hay, and beet pulp. I feed beetpulp to both horses though, so I can reduce my hay a bit in show season and still keep weight over their hips. When he was on a different feed he was getting his grain, beetpulp, hay, flax oil, boss, and probiotics. I figure the extra $5 Im spending per bag of ultium im saving on all the extras I used to have to add, and Im getting better results now.

 

[chandab]

If you can get Purina, Im pretty happy with Ultium. The killer is the price, its about $21 a bag, but I feed less of it, and Im not having to add a bunch of extra stuff like I was before. I feed ultium, hay, and beet pulp. I feed beetpulp to both horses though, so I can reduce my hay a bit in show season and still keep weight over their hips. When he was on a different feed he was getting his grain, beetpulp, hay, flax oil, boss, and probiotics. I figure the extra $5 Im spending per bag of ultium im saving on all the extras I used to have to add, and Im getting better results now.

I might have to talk to the local Purina dealer, and see if its one they carry, they carry very limited selection. I hate to buy a big bag of feed for only one of my minis, but sometimes you just have to.

 

[Minimor]

Hard keepers here usually get alfalfa hay and a grain mixture, usually half oats half pellets--and for pellets we use the Frontrunner Phase One or Two as both have brewers yeast in them. The Phase one is higher protein but the phase two has higher fat--it is the phase 2 that I usually have on hand. We can't get any of the big brand name feeds here so those are out even if we wanted to feed them. I think we can get some Nutrena products but I have no use for those. If the horse needed more than the Phase 1 or 2 I would go to Calf Manna--Over the years we've had much success with that. We couldn't get it here for a time but one of the feed stores in town now stocks it. I also like BOSS as an extra fat supplement.

I would think that even if you cannot get actual alfalfa cubes one of your feed stores must sell rabbit pellets? I bought a bag of those one time--they are 100% alfalfa, nothing else (just double check with the store to make sure, but that is the case with the ones here) and the ones I bought were bigger pellets that the usual horse feed, and were fairly soft (unlike the alfalfa pellets we used to buy from the local plant when it was in operation--those were extremely hard) and they were very very green. Some of the horses really liked them; of course the one I actually bought them for didn't like them so I didn't bother with them again.

 

[chandab]

I would think that even if you cannot get actual alfalfa cubes one of your feed stores must sell rabbit pellets? I bought a bag of those one time--they are 100% alfalfa, nothing else (just double check with the store to make sure, but that is the case with the ones here) and the ones I bought were bigger pellets that the usual horse feed, and were fairly soft (unlike the alfalfa pellets we used to buy from the local plant when it was in operation--those were extremely hard) and they were very very green. Some of the horses really liked them; of course the one I actually bought them for didn't like them so I didn't bother with them again.

Technically, I don't even have a feed store; one of the local elevators sells a few horse feeds, a slightly larger cattle feed selection and dog and cat food. Its hard to find much of anything around here, I haven't seen rabbit pellets at the elevator and the manager doesn't like to special order. An elevator in another town (one we don't go to often) does have alfalfa dehy (alfalfa pellets), but I tried them and no one liked them and they were rock hard. I've picked up alfalfa cubes and timothy cubes, no one like them (I always end up feeding most of the bag to the cows); I don't like how hard they are dry, they don't really like them soaked. I guess I have weird and/or picky horses.

I can get one good senior horse feed, alfalfa-based, so I'll try those on him again, and see what he thinks. He kind of quit eating them. I might try them soaked and see if that peaks his interest, and then add in a little COB for more flavor.

I live way out in the country. The town I usually go shopping in is 60 miles (SW of here) and they have the elevator with limited selection. My mom lives 37 miles away (NE of here), the vet clinic there carries a very limited selection of Purina; I don't particularly care for Purina. And, the town we don't go to often is 55 miles away (S of here), their elevator has a better selection of feed, but still limited. Most of my feed is delivered once a month from a store about 300 miles away, they make once monthly delivery rounds to our area; I get my ration balancer from them and sometimes the senior and a couple other products (they were just here this past week, so it'll be a month before they are here again). So, as you can see, I really need to plan for things, its not just a quick trip to the store for this or that.

 

[Minimor]

I know what you mean about the horses not liking cubes. My Morgans ate them pretty good, but the Minis just aren't keen on them, dry or soaked. I was feeding some timothy/alfalfa cubes to Ice Man & he liked them dry--they were quite soft so I'd break them into small pieces and give them to him dry. I went & bought a new bag only to find it came from a different company and these cubes are rock hard. I cannot break them up by hand so have to smash them up with a hammer before I can even soak them, or they simply won't soften up. Ice Man doesn't like them--not dry, not soaked--if I leave the pan out for him he'll pick at them now & again but in this hot weather I can't leave soaked cubes out because they'll just ferment & turn moldy in no time at all. So, there they sit. Alfalfa cubes are generally that hard every time. That one time we tried the alfalfa dehy pellets from the alfalfa mill north of here even the Morgans didn't like them, they were just SO hard.

I thought we had a limited selection of feeds but sounds like you're worse off than we are. We do have the selection of Feed-Rite, Masterfeeds & Nutrena products, and the one feed store gets in a grain mix that is custom made for them. I haven't tried it because oats works the best for us overall. But, at least we do have some choice & can pick it up right here in town.

 

[chandab]

I thought we had a limited selection of feeds but sounds like you're worse off than we are. We do have the selection of Feed-Rite, Masterfeeds & Nutrena products, and the one feed store gets in a grain mix that is custom made for them. I haven't tried it because oats works the best for us overall. But, at least we do have some choice & can pick it up right here in town.

I just hope the place that delivers continues to deliver and carry my feed; they handle a selection of Progressive Nutrition feeds, and I use the ProAdvantage Grass formula (ration balancer). They only carry pelleted versions, no sweet feeds, I imagine its because the pelleted feeds store better than the sweet. the also carry a more economical feed line, and I like the senior and a performance sweet feed from that company. [The gelding in question was on the senior and sweet feed mixed this spring (mixed per manufacturer recommendation), but he actually got too fat; guess I might have to put him back on it once some of these other feeds I have are gone (I have too many different feeds in my feed shed and not enough horses to eat the extras).]