Feeding Miniatures horses--Please HELP!!!

hannah

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I need help... We have 6 miniature horses( 2 of them being last years babies). We have a 16 year old breeding stallion, a 6year old broodmare(pregnant due in end of May 2011), a 4 year old broodmare(due the end of June), a "babysitter mare" who is 7 years old and takes care of the babies after they are weaned. All of the above horses are fed Purina Strategy Healthy Edge and a good quality grass hay and they all look GREAT!!!! The problem is with the 2 babies, they are coming out of winter too skinny. With their thick hair coats, I didn't realize how thin they were. They are also on the strategy healthy edge along with grass hay. Just yesterday we bought Purina Miniature Horse and Pony Feed but I am just not sure how much exactly to feed them. Do I just supplement the new feed with the strategy or change them over completely??? They are all also on a regular deworm program every 6 weeks and new fresh water 2 times a day. There is no or very little pasture, they are in a dirt lot for exercise. I don't want to feed them too much too fast, I just want to feed them correctly and approaitely. Under their thich hair coat you can feel their ribs, hip bones, ect... Please help me.......

Very Confused
 

patandchickens

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What is your worming program (what is it you're using every 6 wks) and have the babies been included. It might be worth having a fecal float done on them, and/or treating presumptively for tapeworms (if the tapeworm wormer is safe for mini weanlings, I don't really know for sure so you should check)

Personally I would not be trying to feed them any kind of concentrates at all, it is just too much of a big kick-me sign for laminitis in minis. Just plenty of good hay will do it as long as they have access to it (other horses aren't keeping them away or hogging it all themselves) and no underlying medical problems. Free choice good-quality hay is much safer than adding concentrates.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat
 

hannah

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Sorry, I meant every 8 weeks. They were last dosed with Strongid Gold and yes the babies have been de-wormed ever since they were 2 months old on a rotating deworm program. They were last dewormed 2 weeks ago yesterday. How much hay would you recommend??? It is good quality grass hay. With the miniature horse and pony feed from purina, how much would you recommend of this as well?? The filly is 11 months old, 30 inches tall and probably weighs around 120 lbs no pasture and the colt is 11 months also but he is only 25 inches tall and about 100 lbs. Seems like they just really need the fat put on them. Anybodys help is greatly appreciated!!!! Thanks in advance.

P.S.
They are all kept in seperate stalls while being fed. Nobody is taking any of their feed or hay.
 

goodhors

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Are they cleaning up the hay they are given? I would start with more hay. I am not a fan of feeding grain to babies (under 3 yrs) and I don't want a lot of flesh on them either. Bones and bodies are not ready to carry a load yet, still growing and soft. Since I am feeding to a long-use lifetime in that equine, I don't want to hurt the body young by being fat. A flash of ribs as they race about is not skinny! Equine owners are too convinced by advertising that a fat horse "looks good", instead of a trimmer horse looking like the athlete he should be. Fit, not fat is best.

You need to read the CONTENTS label on the feed bag, see what is inside, compared to what you were feeding before. Are the fat, protein, calcium, phosphorus levels close or the same? How many micro minerals are contained in the feeds? Are the totals going to equal the 100% needed for daily needs? How much of this feed is advised to be fed daily? Is it a "total" feed, so nothing else needs to be fed? Sometimes you don't find that out without reading every word on the feed sack. With a total feed, you often don't need to feed ANY hay, throws of the diet balance if you do!

I am VERY reluctant to advise on feeding more grain/prepared feedstuff, because it can vary so much. The feed maker WANTS your money, so they may advise feeding bigger quantities than minis need. I know reading big horse feed quantities off the bag would never be an amount I would recommend! Very FEW horses are working hard enough to need those quantities. We usually feed only plain oats and cracked corn mixed for grain. Old horse with bad teeth would be the exception. My 16-17H horses only get about 1 pound or less of the mix per day, depending on work. The oats do not provide much nutrition, mostly for the "scratching" of oats inside the digestive system. The cracked corn is very nutritious, but they only need a small quantity to be effective as a feed. Commercial feed makers will tell you what they think you need to hear, may not always be the best thing for the equines involved.

Most minis need very little feed to stay good looking. A young mini will not look like their older friends who are MATURE, with mature horse muscling. Comparing them SHOULD be difficult with still growing bodies on the babies, who are often not proportionate yet. Your worming program sounds like it should have taken care of problems.

Have you the babies had teeth checked? Minis often have teeth problems, so maybe what they eat is not chewed enough to use well. Just an idea.

I am not a mini expert, but I do see and hear about them a lot. Yours sound extremely little. Anything you do should be done in small steps with prepared feeds. Hay additions that they clean up should help, but not be as strong a step as increasing quantities of grain. Minis are made to survive WELL on grassy hay, no additives. Cleaning the extra hay should be your sign. When they waste or leave quantities, they have more than they need. Quantity would be more than a few leaves, some stems. Leaving quantities, I would cut them back on hay a bit. Hay is better, works harder in their digestive system than concentrated feeds do, healthier for the equine.
 

patandchickens

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How much hay would you recommend??? <snip> They are all kept in seperate stalls while being fed. Nobody is taking any of their feed or hay.
So, wait, how are they getting their hay -- only when stalled? Unless they are stalled most of the time, this almost certainly means they are not getting enough hay. (If OTOH you mean they have hay free-choice in their paddock, and it's just concentrates they get in stalls, then other horses may be preventing them from getting enough hay)

For thin horses, the idea is you feed good hay free choice. That means, you don't worry about amount, you just give them plenty and they eat however much they want to eat. Ideally you do this in a way that minimizes waste (as goodhors says, ideally you give it a number of times per day, as much as experience shows they will jsut *barely* clean up - but for thin horses it is important to err on the side of giving too much rather than too little). The point is to have hay essentially-always available to them. Not just a coupla times a day in less-than-they-want quantities.

I'd be reeeaallll leery of feeding concentrates to minis, even young ones, and will make no recommendations on the subject. If you really really wanna do it, I'd suggest finding several internet forums for SPECIFICALLY mini breeders and ask them what they suggest, then go with the more conservative of the advice you get.

Pat
 

brokegothorses

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triple crown senior has been the best fed I've found for our minis of all ages. Dynasty pro is my back up, if for any reason I can't get the TCS.
 

Horsiezz

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Miniatures don't actually need grain to tell you the truth. Good quality hay is enough for them, especially babies. So if Iwere you, I would take the young ones off the grain for sure and just give them free choice hay throughout the day. Alot of horses lose weight through the winter because they have to use alot of energy to keep warm, especially younguns. If your really concerned have a Vet come out and check them out.

If you need advice for your minis feel free to PM me, I have 2 of my own, soon to be 3 or 4, because I'm buying mares and starting a small breeding operation.
 
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