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Post by rebeccajane on May 11, 2006 6:02:33 GMT -1
I was hoping that one of you (Lancs Lass keeps hers in?) could give me some pointers to faten up Vincent. At the moment he shares a cart shed with Rowley and they go out to play for a short while each end of the day. I cant turn them out at the moment as the stallion is in connecting ields and they just plague him.
Vincent is growing but not holding his weight - usually all mine tend to be on the large side of round - but not Vincent and now I can see all his ribs.
Hes reg. wormed vacced etc. and gets ad lb haylege (the hay I got this year was too dusty).
He gets a mix of cubes, barley sbp, ready grass and Alpha A x2 daily.
He gets oil about 40ml a day, garlic and seaweed in feed. He chucks his food bucket about (tyre or no tyre) but cleans up afterwards.
As he has to be in I dont want to screw his head with too much barley.
Ideas please?
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Post by lancslass on May 11, 2006 9:15:56 GMT -1
hi rebeccajane mine are actually out thru the day now with the land being dry apart from the fell from ell! LOL but, yes, thru winter mine are stabled with limited turnout. you can save yourself some money here too.......this is only my opinion and what i have found with mine.........the readigrass is useless, the barley will fire them up and if they don't actually physically show it, it can fret weight from them. alfa a is excellent stuff but very rich for our natives. ok, i would use baileys no 1 the convalssing feed [crumb......needs to be dampened to be fed] and spillers hi fibre nuts fed at the recommended rate [on the bag] along with soya oil. you shouldn't need any other supplements if the spillers nuts are fed in the correct quantity as they have all necessary vits and mins. none of these feeds will fire/fret the pony. daniel has a feed intolerance and comes out in lumps if i feed "rich" feeds.......so i did a lot of research into what to feed him for the best results. he is only on the spillers hi fi nuts and loks superb off them........along with haylage. [that was his winter diet and still gets the same now] i hope this helps  |
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Post by rebeccajane on May 11, 2006 10:14:04 GMT -1
Ive got a bulk purchase of some other cubes to use but Ill get the Hi Fi this afternoon on my way home from the dentist
Thanks Ill try cutting out the Alpha too.
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Post by harleydales on May 11, 2006 11:23:44 GMT -1
When Harley lost all his weight (over 10% of his body weight) I phoned Dodson & Horrell and they suggested Build-Up and Fibergy, with up to a cup of soya oil. They told me the rate to feed at. Once he started to put weight on and get a bit giddy, I took him off the Build-Up and put him on Staypower Muesli. It worked really well for him. Plus ad-lib hay.
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Post by jacquidales on May 11, 2006 11:47:43 GMT -1
I've always used Topspec to fatten up (not normally a problem for me to be honest) but I put Bifrost onto Simple Systems eclipse balancer a month ago and the results are astonishing. I hadn't seen him for 5 days due to working away and when i came back I couldn't believe how much he glowed; he looked fab.
He only gets a tiny bit of Alfa A with it and hayledge, but I'm sticking with it as it clearly has something good in it.
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Post by DalesLady on May 11, 2006 12:37:50 GMT -1
Interesting - Karen - reading what you way above, the spillers hifibre cubes cut out the need for anything else?
We only use coolmix and hifi lite as base, so the cubes would be the equivalent?
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Post by lancslass on May 11, 2006 13:17:43 GMT -1
i looked at it this way penny, i needed the nearest thing to grass within reason and not readigrass to maintain daniel as even coolmix of any description he reacts to. ask yourself when the ponies look at their best........in the summer out on grass. i have to feed the level advised on the bag to get the full benefit of vits and mins etc. you can feed a complete mix, but if you are not feeding the required amount for your ponies weight/work then you may be either missing out on some things or overdoing them on others.
in theory if you feed a complet mix they shouldn't require anything else if they are being fed the manufacturers recommended amount. on the other hand, it is difficult with natives and you have to use your own common sense and judge the picture you see infront of you and know when to slightly adjust the feed to maintain the correct weight.
why do you use hi fi lite penny?
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Post by greydales on May 11, 2006 13:31:03 GMT -1
I've always kept my feeds as simple and as high in fibre as possible and steer clear from any kind of cereal mixes. I only ever use Spillers hi-fibre cubes and happy hoof or alfa-a, I've always used sugarbeet as a conditioner and it's worked well, along with soya oil. Generally though mine just eat grass and just only extra feed if they are in for any reason. Interesting that you say Daniel comes up in lumps Karen, Dancer has just got the same but only on ONE side of his body  I remember this from last year, very strange. I would have thought if he was allergic to something it would be all over? He is on grass only so I wonder if it is a bit too rich for him. |
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Post by lancslass on May 11, 2006 13:37:01 GMT -1
daniel only gets them on his O/S quarters gill. occasionally an odd stray one somewhere else, but as soon as i found the root of the problem.....his feeds.......i cut them all out and the lumps receded. they are like nodular skin disease [to touch and the way they look]. i have tried introducing various things thru winter to experiment what he wil tolerate and most times its been a bad reaction to everything! soya oil, sugarbeet, alfa a.........the list goes on! occasionally when we have changed our haylage he has come up in the bumps..........i read somewhere that rye grass can be the culprit of this! he also rubs like mad if fed alfa a, alfa oil or soya oil!
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Post by DalesLady on May 11, 2006 13:51:32 GMT -1
simply because we always have and didnt want to upset them at all by changing, BUT I am aware it may be an absolute waste of time and would like to review just what they are getting.
They are out all night most nights, on lovely grass which is too good really.
they have haylage when they are in and on top we give them a small amount of coolmix (which as you say may probably be too small an amount to give them everything they may need), and hifi lite, because I wanted to give them fibre without adding too much richness.
Recently I saw the hi-fibre cubes and did wonder if this may not be a better option.
We feed no oils as this appears to make them itch more.
They have a little bran (since D had the one bout of colic it was suggested we did this), garlic and D has her half dose of oestress so she can travel (when she is not on this she travels badly).
open to advice though, which is why I asked the question.
Have to say the girls dont look bad on it though, they are nice and healthy looking, plenty of shine on them and not lacking in energy as yet!
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Post by greydales on May 11, 2006 13:53:29 GMT -1
Again interesting that Daniel only gets them on one side of his quarters, so Dancer isn't so peculiar after all then The vet is coming next week so I will ask his advice. |
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Post by lancslass on May 11, 2006 17:25:44 GMT -1
penny, with your grass and haylage at night, your girls will be getting more than sufficient...........i understand you need to mix the garlic and m are stressy stuff in something for them to eat it tho! they shouldn't need hi fibre nuts with the grass you have.
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Post by manxmaclir on May 11, 2006 19:28:16 GMT -1
Dunno if this is of any use to you or not. I have a similar problem. A meadow full of potential laminitics and one skinny dales pony!  Anyway, Mac is as cool as a cucumber it seems, even had an enjoyable day at his first show event... Ive been feeding him Dengie Build Up. He gets about 0.25 of a buckful of this. Then about 0.10 of a bucket of barley (rolled) I had no idea this can fizz them up, but thankfully hasnt made a dot of difference to Macs behaviour/temperment. He gets a 1/4 scoop of soaked sugar beet and a full mug ful of cheap as chips sunflower oil (supermarket quality). All mixed together with some garlic granules. He has this once a day, and for the rest of the day is in 100% turnout, but the pasture is well grazed, sheep and ponies. He has been on this for about 2-3 weeks and is only now showing some minor improvement body wise. He is on my picture where my registration name is...(cant remember what its called) mac lir |
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Post by DalesLady on May 12, 2006 5:05:56 GMT -1
Thanks K. I thought they would be OK too, but sometimes you begin to wonder about stuff dont you? There seems llittle point in feeding the hardfeed they do get, other than to give them garlic etc because I give them only a little really as a mixer as you say. And I only give them garlic because i read somewhere it can help them repel flies, although this morning you would not have known it was having any effect at all, poor things! Midges are out and savage the last few days. Sorry rebeccajane for taking over your thread!! |
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Post by lancslass on May 12, 2006 5:44:00 GMT -1
they say garlic is good for the respiratory system too, so if it doesn't repel the flies at least it my hve other uses penny.
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I remember this from last year, very strange. I would have thought if he was allergic to something it would be all over? He is on grass only so I wonder if it is a bit too rich for him.
