[crystal98110]

OK, we have 3 mini mares, all of which are over weight. We have only had them a few months, switched them from sweet feed to orchard grass. Been giving half a flake to each. Is this too much?

Also, one of them is 15 and has a missing molar, had the vet out, he floated her teeth, and said the only thing we can do is do a dental implant. Can NOT afford that! Well, she is prone to colic, in fact she began to yesterday, we walked her around until she passed a small amount of feces.
My question is, should we give her some sort of mash instead of hay?

Thanks!

 

[G and K's Mom]

We have a REALLY old pony that is missing all but 9 teeth. She'll choke on hay so she's feed soaked hay cubes. We weigh out her cubes into four feedings of 2 pounds each with about a gallon of water for each soaking.

The extra water from the soaking may help with the colics as well.

How much does a flake of the hay weigh? If these guy's should be around say, 200 pounds then you would want to feed 1.5% of that weight or 3 pounds of forage.

 

[CheyAut]

I've never heard of a dental implant, interesting!

If she is having problems chewing properly due to the tooth issue, don't feed hay. Switch to soaked hay cubes or soaked pellets instead.

Can't answer about your flake of hay, because all flakes are different. You can weigh your flake, but even then, it's hard because each flake, even from the same bale, are different. I don't weigh my full size horse's hay on a scale, but I do go by feel. None of them are indanger of being overweight, so I err on the side of more is better, so I don't feel I NEED to weigh theirs.

But with my minis, since they ARE prone to getting overweight, we DID weigh their feed. They get soaked pellets, soaked beet pulp, and some get Jr and/or Sr. We weighed it out in the beginning, and know how much of a scoop (because we weighed it) to feed them. We also give them bermuda hay, but our bermuda here isn't very good nutritionally, so we give it to give them chewing time and fiber. We don't weigh the hay for them since it doesn't do much for their weight. But other hay DOES, so you can't go by that like we can We make sure their nutrition comes from the pellets.

 

[qtrhrsecrazy]

Don't feed regular hay to yours missing the teeth.

I had an old pony with some missing teeth, and fed him chopped hay and he did great. It comes in plastic bags at most feed stores.

Most you'll find is straight alfalfa... Triple Crown has orchard/timothy chopped mix.

I also fed him Nutrena Senior (soaked) in addition - great complete feed which includes beet pulp, flax, and probiotics

 

[New_image]

Ours will all stay over weight from watching the big horses eat.
I cannot tell you if your feeding to much as every flake is a different size and hay is different also. I can tell you that ours receive one flake daily each and two cups of Safechoice. They stay decent, over weight but I can still feel ribs if I look hard enough threw that heavy winter coat.

As far as the mare with the tooth issue, if she only has one missing it depends, is she OK with her hay? If she has a hard time or chokes obviously, she'll need to be switched to a soaked hay cube or Triple Crown diet. I've had horses missing a tooth here and there who did fine with hay.

With her being prone to colic I SWEAR by SOURCE. Try her on this, it will last her nearly a half year for $30. My mare Molly was very prone to colic, she would have belly aches often. We started her on this and shes been 10 years free and clear. Also, when she foaled her colt four years ago... He was two days old and collicing, he colliced again at a month old and again at six weeks. We almost lost him. I put him on SOURCE at that point and never again.
This in addition to making sure she gets enough water, I know some minis are water picky.