What's the best way to put weight on mini mare nursing a foal?

Question

when I got her about a month ago she was severly underweight and her hooves looked like elf shoes I got her feet fixed and wormed her.I got some rice bran cause somebody told me that would put weight on her,but she wont eat it.she want eat carrots or apples the only thing she will eat is hay and sweet feed.How can I get her to eat the rice bran or something else to build her weight back up while she's nursing and how much of it,she is a mini about 30 inches tall

Answer 1

you can put some cooking oil to the feed but i dont know how much.:(

Answer 2

equi jewel you can buy it at any feed store.

feed it with her sweetened feed

Answer 3

First, thank you for giving me just about all the information needed to recommend something.  Since you mentioned she will only eat sweet feed then I would give her Omolene 300.  Its a sweet feed designed for lactating mares and their foals.  Safe for both of them to eat.  

I really don't like to use rice bran since its pretty much fat.  When you want to put weight on the horse you want to give them a balanced diet with just more calories.  Think of a diet of just candy bars to add weight or a balanced meal of proteins, carbs, fruits, veggies, etc.  Its much better for their bodies to have balance then to just put fat in them.

As for how much to feed well that's where I cant give you an exact answer.  You will feed baised on weight.  Make sure to giver her at least 1-1.5% of her body weight in hay.  Since she is nursing she will need more.  The bag should have a table on it with the reccamended feeding amounts.  You want to follow the reccomened amount since thats how the feed was formulated so the animal gets the correct amount of nutrition.  The easiest way to weigh the feed with a fish scale and plastic bag.  Put feed into the bag and weigh it to the correct amount needed.  Then put the feed in your scoop and mark the scoop so that you know how much to scoop and not have to weigh it every day.

Always make sure they have no health problems which may prevent them from gaining weight, along with fresh clean water.  

When you make any change of feed make it over 7-10 days so you lessen your risk of colic.  

You'll want to assess your mini for any changes every 2-3 weeks to determin if you need to adjust the feed.  If you do adjust you do not want to change more then one pound.  

Horses are designed to eat lots of small meals rather then 2-3 large ones.  If possible spread the meals out.  Never give more then a couple pounds of concentrates at a time.  5 pounds max for an average horse.  depending on your mini's weight 1-2 pounds maybe 3 depending on weight.

Answer 4

Put her on chaff. It is a type of hard feed and chaff can easily be used when putting on weight :)

Goodluck and congrats on your new foal :)

Answer 5

We got our Minis from a world renowned Miniature Horse breeder...and we fee them what she fed ALL of her horses.

1 coffee can of

2parts oats (two bags)

1part sweet feed (one bag)

all of her horses look GREAT and she also gives the pregnant mares like 1 and 1/2 cans and Alfalfa Hay :) Hope that helps and good luck with the baby oh and here is her website in case you want to look around or something

http://www.impressibleminis.com/

Oh, and if you need any help just ask me. I also have a Miniature Horse foal, Mare in Foal, and three others ^^