How important is grain for foal? My foal is not the first one I have raised, but she is MY first one. She really prefers solid foods in this order: grass, hay, then grain (never really finishes the 1 cup of grain she gets, a handfull is left behind). At times, mostly in the am, she completely rejects grain and will just wait untill Mom has had her grain, becauses she really wants the grass. Mom and baby get grass for about 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 hours a day. Then they go on dry paddock with hay. Any thoughts as to why she is not into grain? Most foal I have raised with over the years really got to like grain.
How old id your foal?
How old is she?
What grain do you give her?
Foals tend to like sweet flavour, as the milk of mom. Most foals supplement are sweet and they also smell.
Foal was born May 11, so she is 3 months old. Grain is Nutrena Life Design Mare and Foal. Mom loves the stuff. Baby has been exposed to grain since she was a few days old as she showed interest in seeing what Mommy eats, but really has not developed the " love" for grain.
Mmm…sorry I don’t know this grain.
But if it was my filly, I would try another type of grain or I would try to put a little bit of molasse in it. I say a a little bit because there is a lot of sugar in this, just for her to get use to eat it, and remove it after a couple of days.
I too would try something else. The foals I have had have all readily eaten Buckeye Foal Starter. Creep feeding is important as the mare’s milk really drops off nutritionally after the first couple of months.
I have also read that researchers believe creep feeding is one tool in the fight against DOD’s as it ensures a steady growth rate as opposed to a foal whose growth rate slows when they are weaned and then shoots up again as they become accustomed to adult food.
It’s not about “grain”, it’s about nutrition. Few to no actual grains, but something relatively high in nutrition is what is important.
Foals don’t have the enzymes to digest regular feeds other than milk based until they are at least 3 months old. Your foal may not be ready for regular feed.
We don’t feed our foals any feeds until they can reach into the mares feeders - which are kept pretty high. We have turn out on good pastures and we buy very good quality timothy and orchard grass and it’s worked just fine for us.
If you foal is in good weight and her coat isn’t dull and she is growing correctly don’t worry about the grain as long as she’s still nursing off the mare.
DO NOT feed anything like Molasses or other sweeteners - it will just increase the possibility of ending up with ulcers. Concentrated sugars turn to acid in the stomach.
I take good note.
Someone told me to do that but I never need it too.
I agree with the advice from ise@ssl
In general be more concerned with the quality than the quantity of what your foal is given. And avoid molasses or sweet feeds.
[QUOTE=ise@ssl;5038996]
Foals don’t have the enzymes to digest regular feeds other than milk based until they are at least 3 months old. Your foal may not be ready for regular feed.
We don’t feed our foals any feeds until they can reach into the mares feeders - which are kept pretty high. We have turn out on good pastures and we buy very good quality timothy and orchard grass and it’s worked just fine for us.
If you foal is in good weight and her coat isn’t dull and she is growing correctly don’t worry about the grain as long as she’s still nursing off the mare.
DO NOT feed anything like Molasses or other sweeteners - it will just increase the possibility of ending up with ulcers. Concentrated sugars turn to acid in the stomach.[/QUOTE]
This…
I’m not a big fan of any sort of grain, period, unless a horse needs it to maintain weight, which is rare. Good quality hay and/or pasture is all they need.
My three year old in training gets a bit of grain, but none of my other horses do, including the show horses going down the road.
For the first time ever in six years I have a creep pen up. I put it up to help my orphan filly who was losing condition. She has been on milk replacer up until about 2 weeks ago. We took her off (gradually)as she did not seem to need it, but all of a sudden she is showing ribs. I noticed also that she was trying to eat “grain” at feeding time with the others and was not having time to eat much. Her foster dam, Lodi, is still nursing her and her sibling is fat…but for some reason she’s struggling.
My “grain” ration for her is a mix of milk replacer pellets. alf pellets, rice bran and a few oats which she loves. That with her hay and pasture and a supplement is meeting her nutritional needs. The creep pen is allowing her time to eat without competing with a greedy mare and I can see a change in her already.
Note that out of that mix I’m feeding maybe a half a pound of oats a day. Not much “grain” at all. She is getting plenty of protein also from the alf. pellets and milk replacer.
Go Fish, good hay/grass MAY be all a horse needs, but especially with a very young, fast-growing horse, unless your forage tests as exceptionally highly nutritious, I would never leave it at that for a growing youngster.
Just because ribs aren’t showing doesn’t mean all the nutritional needs of a foal are being met.
Triple ditto this. Your foal cannot digest grain yet.
hmm not sure why you say a foal cannot digest grain.
I wondered at this, so went out and poked a stick through my foals poop (lol he gets grain as he was getting ribby as he is growing fast… biggest foal I have ever had) Very very few undigested grains in there. So if he is not digesting this grain, where is it going?
If they have the enzymes and gut flora/fauna to digest hay why couldn’t they digest grains?
ETA went off to look (inquiring minds want to know) and found this
“The foal and growing horse have undeveloped cecal and colonic digestion as compared to the adult horse. There is very little microbial digestion before three months of age. Therefore, the foal requires a diet low in fibre and easily digested in the fore gut. Foals who are seen eating their mothers manure are thought to be obtaining a bacterial culture necessary for future microbial digestion.”
from http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/livestock/horses/facts/info_digest.htm
They seem to be saying foals can’t digest fibre… which would be hay…
Our babies eat from mom’s bucket as desired (depending on how good of a sharer she is - which a few aren’t good at all :)) until weaning, at which point they get a small ration of their own which is increased and adjusted gradually to their needs. Knock on wood, we’ve not yet had OCD issues, etc.
Agree with giving any horse the very least amount of grain possible, depending on their needs, of course, be it growing, nursing, or just standing in a field :). They have extremely well maintained pasture and quality hay.
Hay is not grain, grain is not hay. Having the ability to digest one does not mean there is the ability to digest the other. In humans, babies do not have the ability to digest meat - more than a few Drs will tell you “no meat until there are enough teeth - that’s nature’s way of telling you what the body is ready to digest”. Similar with horses - the ability to digest different types of food varies with age. The digestive enzymes necessary for cereal grains just aren’t there until around 3-4 months. Yes, the stomach acid may be breaking down the grain particles but the digestion of the nutrients in them is not there.
By the same token, mammals generally lose the digestive enzymes necessary for properly digesting milk products, unless it’s something that is regularly consumed.
In all horses eating enough quantity of hay, you will see many little hay piece-parts in the manure - that is the indigestible part of hay. Very young foals shouldn’t be eating large amounts of hay, as there is not a great deal of it they can digest. Some hay, sure. Some grass, sure. Mostly it’s mom’s milk for which they have the enzymes to pull out the nutrition.
The article indicates the foregut is where simple starches are digested. The hind gut is where most of the fiber is digested. This right here is why high-grain diets are bad - they do not get fully digested in the foregut before the food moves on, and then it sits in the hind gut which is not designed to process grains (well). That’s when it starts fermenting and releasing toxins which result in colic and laminitis. That’s why a “feed room binge” is so, so bad.
Just to clarify this issue of enzymes to digest grains isn’t our opinion - there has been a lot of research on this. They will eat the grain and it will break down but they are not PROCESSING the nutrients into their system for those first 3 months (and I’m sure it’s not exactly 3 month). Plus if they aren’t processing correctly it can sit in the gutt longer.
People can feed what they want. But after 22 years of breeding Warmbloods and now GRP’s we’ve found that this information is extremely helpful.
I would also note the Alfalfa has a high calcium content and you have to watch not only how it affects bone growth but it can also cause more diarrhea in horses and foals.
I have a 2 month old that just finally just started sneaking bites of mom’s grain (she has been on mom’s milk, nibbling hay, alfalfa and pasture grass this whole time), ironically she didn’t show much interest until I started adding veggie oil and the “Total Control” to her diet.
I think it’s the apple smell of the Total Control that sparked her interest so now (for her own safety since her dam is food agressive) she has her own bucket with a 1/4 scoop of the Mare & Foal/oil/Total Control. She never eats all of it since the dam see’s the baby eating something and moves in to check it out/eat a few bites, but it gives me a warm fuzzy to see that she is progressing and growing up!!
