How do I make my horse gain weight?

Question

My horse is too skiny and I know that he does not have worms. Does anybody have some tricks on how to make a horse gain weight?

Answer 1

Get some beet pulp. Soak it  - two parts water, one part pulp. Let it absorb the water, then feed twice daily, twice as  much as you do feed.

Have you desanded the horse? Metamucil or a horse product for desanding with psyllium husk (same as in Metamucil) in the feed seven days in a row out of a month. Horses pick up sand when they graze and that can accumulate in the intestine and cause weight loss.

Try a senior feed, too. It's a complete feed and easily digestible, even though the horse is not old.

Do you give it plenty of hay/grass? If it doesn't have pasture 24-7, give it free choice, fresh hay 24-7.

This should help.

Answer 2

DONT OVER FEED HIM! itt might make him colic, at you're local feed/hay store there should be a feeding supelment. use that. make sure he dosent have any problems like worms or anything. give him like only at the most 6 flakes of hay a day. 2 at a time. and only like 2 cups of grain. add some sunflower seeds and corn with the grain. mix it all together. sunflower seeds help his keep coat shiny. and the hole corn helps keep hiss teeth grinded down. thats about it. if that dosent work. call you're vet.

Answer 3

Use a high fat hard feed and add half a cup oil to it in order to up the fat content even more.

Answer 4

Well there really is not a tirck to getting your horse to gain weight.  The only way for them to gain weight is by proper feeding and blanced nutrition.

You need to take a few things into consideration before you decide on a feeding program. How much does the horse weigh, what you do with the horse, what you want the feed to do (you already mentioned you want to put weight on the animal), and any health concerns (as mentioned before: worming, ulcers, dental issues, etc.)

General things to keep in mind when designing a feeding program:

-Make changes gradually over a period of 7-10 days.

-If you need to make any adjustments to a program change no more then 10-15% at a time; or no more then 1 pound of feed.

-The horses body condition should be assessed at regualr intervals to determine if the current feed needs to be adjusted.

-When feeding roughage and concentrates you need to feed at least 10-15% of the horses body weight with roughage(hay).

-Always provide fresh water and salt.

Now, from what you said about your horse and my guess that you have no health problems, your horse being about 1000-1100 pounds, you want to put weight on, and you are doing light work with him these are the following I would reccomend feeding him one of the following feeding programs.

(Keep in mind your horse needs 20,000 calories and these diets are baised on the factors listed. As always consult your vet if you have questions)

Complete Feeds

-18 pounds of Equine Adult

-16.5 pounds of Equine Senior.

Note: if you are feeding with hay, reduce about 1 pound of feed for every 2-3 pounds of hay fed.

Sweet feeds

-6.5 pounds Omolene 200 with 12 pounds of hay.

Pelleted Feeds

-7 pounds of stratagy with 12 pounds of hay

-5.5 pounds of Ultium with 12 pounds of hay

(Remember to feed by WEIGHT) Stratagy is a pelleted feed and Ultium is an extruded pellet (meaning there is air puffed into the pellet). One scoop of stratagy is going to be very different from one scoop ultium nutritionally.

These are a few diets you can try. Just remember to monitor your horse and adjust as needed. Start with one of those at the reccomened amounts and increase as needed. Remember to spread out the concentrates and dont feed them all at the same time. The horses digestive system was not designed for 3 large meals or even worse one large meal. Thats a whole differnt subject.

I really would stay away from just fats like rice bran and oil.  They dont give any nutrition what so ever.  Think of it this way, a diet of just candy bars or a diet of fruits, veggies, carbs, proteins, etc.  Which one is more healthy?  Rice bran would be like eating sugar all day while a balanced feeding program would not only give a balanced diet, I doubt you will have to give any other supplement except a joint one if you so choose.

Answer 5

give them rice pellets and grass hay and alfalfa and grain and all in one.   make sure not to over feed them though.

Answer 6

give them lots of food

Answer 7

tell us what you are feeding now, and how he is kept and worked, and if he has been diagnosed or has symptoms of any medical condition.....then we can try to help.

Answer 8

a safe way would be a weight gain supplement. Grain can be good, like beet pulp but it can also be dangerous or make your horse hot. Is he losing muscle mass too? for a safe weight supplement i would suggest something like a scoop of beet pulp mixed with Farnam Platform Weight Formula and a small amount of Mazola oil. Platform Weight Formual helps your horse gain weight without the danger of colic. It also helps with muscle mass too. Dont forget to soak the beet pulp too, until it is a mushy and looks almost like oatmeal and you can mash it up easily. This is a pretty safe way, i do it with my horse in the winter, he has a hard time keeping weight on, especially in the winter (hes a 17.3h, 19yr old TB) and i do this mix, only with a little joint formula added. But make sure you measure everything so your horse doesnt become fat. Increase his intake a bit, most of the horses at my barn eat 20 pounds a day of alfalfa (they ARE serious event horses though). So unless your horse is an insane sport horse that is ridden ALOT i wouldnt recommend a ton of extra feed. Also consider his size and weigh too when feeding.

good luck! =D

Answer 9

I'm in California and if I have a horse who's starting to look a bit "ribby" or I've purchased some rack of bones,  I go out and buy a 50LB sack of A&M (Ground alfafa and molasses) (In the mid west they use beet pulp BUT I've been informed that you HAVE to add water to it or it will swell in a horse's belly causing colic), dump it into a tub or feeder in the horse's stall, then top it with some rolled barley corn that is mixed with corn oil and apple cider vinegar. (I feed a 3LB coffee can of the barley corn mixture once a day.) The horse will normally devour the first couple of bags of A&M, but then they will slack off as they get used to it (Never had an issue with colic or founder)...

I haven't fed oats or any mixed feed in decades, basically because I've had running horses and TBs I'm trying to keep quiet, so I feed the rolled barley corn mixture to them for weight, NOT heat.

I also give my horses a hot bran mash twice a week with the vinegar and corn oil (I can mix the barleycorn into it.).  I feed 1/2 a 3 LB coffee can of red wheat flakey bran and add enough water to it so that it looks like oatmeal in consistancy.

I make sure that they get 2 flakes of alfafa hay per feeding.

Answer 10

For our "hard keepers" we use beet pulp to help them gain weight. It contains lot of fiber and the horses can digest this very well. It is not too expensive either. Feeding this will defiantly put weight on the horses. But do your own research on it. And once you introduce your horse start out with a small amount and gradually increase the amount fed. It should tell you this on the bag when you buy it.

Answer 11

There is a fatening supplement called Empower and if you just give a cup of his once a day in you horses feed he will start gaining weight within 2 weeks. When he starts putting on the pounds lower the amount to half a cup once a day. The following website is information about the product but you should be able to find it at a local feed store.

http://www.nutrenaworld.com/screens/Bran...

Also you can use beat pulp. There is also another product called maxi glow or rice bran. This is a powder and you can but a scoop of this in applesauce and feed it to your horse once a day as a treat or you can but it in his feed as well. Hope this helps and good luck.

Answer 12

1 1/2 Scoop Beet Pulp ( get shredded so you don't have to soak it in the morning)

1 scoop Weight Gain

1 scoop High Protein and Carb Grain( Blue Seal Trotter or performance)

mix together and add water to about 1 inch above grain mixture.  Let sit for 10 minutes.  Stir and serve.  shoudl take 2 months to see a diffrence.  

You can do this twice a day if the horse is on grass but not if you are jsut on hay because it could cause colic.

Answer 13

at my stable, they feed  close to 7 or earlier in the morning and at 3 in the afternoon.Do not give him a lot cause he could colic.put some oil in in his feed and mix a little, it will help fatten him up.

Answer 14

A half cup of vegetable oil mixed in with grain once a day. This puts on weight and gives them a shiny coat. Just be sure to work up to a half cup slowly.

Answer 15

Well what are you feeding him now? Is he eating hay? Add some grain to that diet. Go to your local feed store and buy a sack of it. You mix it up with water, and give him 2 scoops every  night.

How old is he? Maybe he needs senior feed.

If you're feeding grass hay, consider switching to alfalfa, a richer food. But read up on it first because it can cause a horse to founder if you give them too much.

Or have you considered health problems like thyroid or cushings syndrome? Talk to your vet and get some blood work done if they think its necessary.

David

http://gentlenaturalhorseman.blogspot.co...

Answer 16

Beet Pulp is the vegetable matter that remains after sugar is extracted from sliced sugar beets. It is bulk feed, high in fiber and unique in that its fiber is extremely digestible. Beet Pulp swells tremendously when moistened which pulls the ration apart in the animal’s stomach and allows the gastric juices to circulate freely. This product should always be moistened with water!

I use it and my horses have fattened up nicely. We had a bad winter and a hay shortage last year.  It does not take but 5 minutes of your time to add a few scoops of it in a bucket and add water. I feed good alfalfa mixed hay because if your isn't a working horse it can be to rich of a diet.  Because it is richer in energy and protein, alfalfa should be limit-fed—fed in a fixed amount—rather than offered free-choice. Horses that are fed too much alfalfa or allowed to eat as much as they want often relish the forage so much they will become obese. And obesity is certainly a predisposing factor for colic and laminitis. Because alfalfa has a higher nutrient value, less alfalfa hay will be needed to meet the horse's requirements, compared to the amount of grass hay needed.