| Help your Foal Grow with Proper Nutrition
A healthy foal will grow rapidly, gaining in height, weight and strength
almost before your eyes. From birth to age two, a young horse can
achieve 90 percent or more of its full adult size, sometimes putting
on as many as three pounds per day. Feeding young horses is a balancing
act, as the nutritional start a foal gets can have a profound affect
on its health and soundness for the rest of its life.
At eight to ten weeks
of age, mare’s milk alone may not adequately
meet the foal’s nutritional needs, depending on the desired growth
rate and owner wants for a foal. As the foal’s dietary
requirements shift from milk to feed and forage, your role in providing
the proper
nutrition gains in importance.
Following are
guidelines from the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP)
to help
you meet the young
horse’s nutritional needs:
- Provide high quality roughage (hay and pasture) free choice.
- Supplement with a high quality, properly balanced grain concentrate
at weaning, or earlier if more rapid rates of gain are desired.
- Start by feeding one percent on a foal’s body weight per
day (i.e., one pound of feed for each 100 pounds of body weight),
or one
pound of feed per month of age.
- Weigh and adjust the feed ration based on growth and fitness. A weight
tape can help you approximate a foal’s size.
- Foals have small stomachs so divide the daily ration into two to
three feedings.
- Make sure feeds contain the proper balance of vitamins, minerals,
energy and protein.
- Use a creep feeder or feed the foal separate from the mare so it
can eat its own ration. Try
to avoid group creep feeding situations.
- Remove uneaten portions between feedings.
- Do not overfeed. Overweight foals are more prone to developmental
orthopedic disease (DOD).
- Provide unlimited fresh, clean water.
- Provide opportunity for abundant exercise.
The
reward for providing excellent nutrition and conscientious care will
be a healthy foal that
grows into a sound
and useful horse.
For
more information about providing proper
nutrition for your foal, talk with your equine veterinarian
and ask
for the “Foal Growth” education
brochure provided by the AAEP in conjunction with Education Partners
Bayer Animal Health and Purina Mills. Additional information about
foal nutrition can also be found on the AAEP’s horse health Web
site, www.myHorseMatters.com.
Reprinted with permission from the American Association of Equine
Practitioners.
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