Fudge is currently living out and is fed once a day on TopSpec Good Doer and Hifi Lite. The pic is of her on 16 Oct and she is currently 98 days pregnant. She is living out in a lightweight rug. Does she need any extra feed such as mix or sugarbeet or is she looking ok? She does tend to lose weight in the winter and has already dropped off since last month (pic taken 17 Sept). She is looking for food the whole time now.
Does she need more feeding?
- Thread starter FudgieFoo
- Start date
Fudge is currently living out and is fed once a day on TopSpec Good Doer and Hifi Lite. The pic is of her on 16 Oct and she is currently 98 days pregnant. She is living out in a lightweight rug. Does she need any extra feed such as mix or sugarbeet or is she looking ok? She does tend to lose weight in the winter and has already dropped off since last month (pic taken 17 Sept). She is looking for food the whole time now.
I certainly wouldn't go upping her feed just yet. mares only need their nutrition increasing in the last trimester of their pregnancy. This is when the foal needs more nutrition and when it is starting to take a lot more out of the mare. For now i think your fine. We have three mares in foal at work. clevelands and a TB. None are being fed yet and none are rugged up. The only one that gets a rug on in the winter is the TB and she looks really well at the mo. Just weaning her now and she is amazingly very fat!!! Ours also live out and at the moment are only on grass, no hay or anything else. Just keep ** eye on her but don't panic bout feed just yet
I would start feeding her some fibre now, to help her not drop off this winter.Add some high fibre cubes around now and then maybe some speedi beet through the worse months. It should help her to maintain weight through the cold ( along with hay of course) and be in good shape for the baby when it comes...
I agree being in foal shouldn't effect feed until the last few months, but you still might need to feed the mare what is your grazing like? even though it looks green it may be tailing off now (I know ours is) so putting out a little hay (or bringing her in for some) would be a good start, keep an eye on her weight, obviously her belly might get bigger so I would condition score, checking by feel for fat deposits etc, that will be the most accurate way to monitor her.
If you find with hay she is still dropping weight I would agree some more fibre feeds like sugar beet and fiber cubes introduced slowly until she can maintain her weight.
J x
what is your grazing like? even though it looks green it may be tailing off now (I know ours is) so putting out a little hay (or bringing her in for some) would be a good start, keep an eye on her weight, obviously her belly might get bigger so I would condition score, checking by feel for fat deposits etc, that will be the most accurate way to monitor her.If you find with hay she is still dropping weight I would agree some more fibre feeds like sugar beet and fiber cubes introduced slowly until she can maintain her weight.
J x
Could you please clarify where the fat deposits should be - everyone seems to say somewhere different.
We're not allowed to feed hay in the field. I've increased her Hifi lite and will keep an eye on her for now.
She looks perfect so shouldn't need anything more. You should see my mare who is 4 1/2 months she looks like a hatrack and gets fed 3 times a day on barley, stud mix etc, costs me a bomb!!!! Count yourself lucky!!!
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