yearling needs to gain weight. feeding critique

I have two paso fino yearlings. One of which, is not gaining any weight. My filly has gained 40 lbs in the past 3 or so months. My colt, however, is still at 500 lbs. I have been separating them while eating because my filly is the more dominant horse and gets most of the grain. No, I am feeding her about half a scoop twice a day and him two whole scoops twice a day. Along with this, they get 3-4 flakes of hay twice a day. This is what I feed them
Producer's Pride HayStretcher, 50 lbs. - 2520080 | Tractor Supply Company

Do you think this is ok? Anything I can change up to make him gain some weight? He is skinner now than in the pic, but I do not have a more recent pic.

I think hay stretcher is not a grain but only extra fiber.

Oops, wrong one...
Producer's Pride 10% Sweet Feed, 50 lb. - 2525519 | Tractor Supply Company

I would have his teeth checked first then maybe add some sort of oil supplement to his feed. I used a flax seed oil supplement that my local feed store carried and it helped my one horse gain weight with out giving fat pockets. It came with a pump on it and I gave 4 pumps in the am and pm feed. He put on about 150lbs in a little over 3 months with no excess fatty deposits and I didnt have to worry about colic.

I think oil supplements are good for older horses, but I don't know about youngsters. Youngsters need specific nutrients to fuel their growth, not just extra calories.

So, just my personal opinion, I would get a feed made for growing horses. I was feeding Purina Ultium Growth for a long time, and my foal thrived. It was expensive though, and my baby was bouncing off the walls, so I ended up cutting it out of his diet. But for a baby that needs to grow, I would highly recommend it.

Also, I'm not sure what kind of hay you have, but alfalfa is very good for young horses too.

PS. Foals need higher amounts of protein than the 10% sweet feed is providing. Unless you know your hay is very high in protein, that is another reason to pick a feed formulated for young horses.

PROTIEN!!! I can't say it enough. Youngens need protien! Do you have a seminol feed near you? I've always hed great sucses with there feed.

Yup!!! Should be on a 14 -16% feed! Maybe add a bit of beet pulp. Even adding a bit of oats. I was told to soak all that and feed it as it doesn't have a tendency to pass through as fast. I don't know. Anything is worth a try.
Posted via Mobile Device

14-16% huh? The last bags that my husband bought were actually 12%. So I guess I should tell him to pick up 14-16 next time. Where woudl I get beet pulp at?

With the higher protein content comes a higher quality protein. The higher quality protein is going to have a higher lysine value. Lysine is the first limiting amino acid necessary for growth. Without enough lysine in the diet (it cannot be synthesized in the body) a young horse will either stop growing or grow at a very slow rate. The higher protein feeds are formulated for growth so they will also have added lysine.

As far as the rest of the diet, yearlings have a rather small eating capacity so what they do eat needs to count. What type of hay, what's the quality and how much (in #s) are they eating? From the picture, the colt looks like he's got a bit of a hay belly. That would indicate that the hay is too high in fiber for his immature digestive system to digest properly. Getting them out on green grass is the best thing for them and you will probably find that that is all they need forage wise. I wouldn't offer BP or oil to a growing horse. I want everything they put in their mouths to be chocked full of nutrients that will contribute to their growth. BP offers nothing more nutritionally than average grass hay at a premium cost. Oil is 100% fat. No vitamins, no minerals, no protein, no carbs. Just fat. Adding a little alfalfa hay is good as it's high in protein, Ca and Vit A. If alfalfa hay is too hard to come by, add a few #s of pellets. As tempting as it is, don't throw a bunch of feed at him all at once. You would prefer for him to grow and catch up at a nice slow consistant rate.

Agreed. 10% is not enough for any horse under 2 IMO. I fed my filly a 16% feed meant for babies until she was 1 year, and then a 14% until she turned two, and now she's on a ration balancer. A baby can not and will not gain weight without enough protein, and whenever I see babies that are thin I can pretty much guarantee they aren't being fed enough protein.

That being said I don't agree that a big belly in weanlings often comes from bad/lesser quality hay. A big pot belly is one of the hallmarks of a horse that doesnt have enough protein, and I'd bet it would be mostly solved by upping the protein.

As for beet pulp, I usualy feed beet pulp to a horse the needs more on their topline (and no I don't mean a horse that needs muscle up there). I up protein to get rid of pot/hay bellies and beet pulp to fill them out elsewhere.