another youngstock feed question

[eventerbabe]

i finally got my hands on Kez's diet sheet yesterday. He's been fed on 1/2 (large) scoop of happy hoof, 1/4 (of the same scoop) of youngstock cubes, cooked, flaked barley and conditioning cubes. He also gets 1/4 scoop of sugar beet to moisten it all. Now, this equates to one hell of a lot of feed, and Kez is hardly ribby or struggling weight wise ;) i've bought a bag of barley and one of youngstock cubes. I really don't think he needs the conditioning cubes, am i right? i've also switched him onto speedi-beet (purely as we've a bag of it already). So, will he be getting everything he needs from the cubes, barley and a citamin supplement?

Also, any suggestions for a diet i could transition him onto when we've used up the current bags of feed? the people in the feed shop were horrified that a 2 and a half year old was being fed youngstock cubes!!

[Mehitabel]

personally, i'd be aiming to get him just onto the happy hoof - with an eye to adding sugar/speedibeet in winter if he needs the help. with decent grazing, and a multivit supplemetn if he is not getting the recommended amount of HH, i can't imagine he wil need anything else until he is working, if then.

[eventerbabe]

right, i'll start phasing out all the extras then. seems an awful lot for him to be getting, it filled his feed bowl to the brim last night!

[Lgd]

:eek:

Try and get him down to as little as possible - he's a native and they need very little in the way of additional feed. Couple of handfuls of happy hoof with a broad spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement and then add sugar beet if needed for weight maintenance in the winter.

[eventerbabe]

:eek: :eek: was my reaction when i tipped out his feed last night! i've 7 days worth of feed from his breeder. Might actually split these in half. Poor thing struggled to eat it all last night.

[teabiscuit]

gosh that's a plateful! no wonder he's looking so well!

[Jessey]

I would agree, if he is not needing it I would cut out the barley and conditioning cubes, the HH and a some nuts should be fine.

Youngstock feeds are normally designed for the up to 2 year olds and broodmares (ie anything that is using tonns of energy growing), it won't hurt him to stay on it until you use it up, but a basic nut/mix should be fine, so long as he is getting all his vits, minerals and trace elements.

Saying that with the natives renowned later development and the fact he could still be laying down bone you might be as well to keep him on it through the winter and cut it out in spring, so long as he doesn't gain too much weight with it :D

Although if you prefer a high fibre diet you may find that alfalfa will provide him with the highly digestable fibre based energy and elevated vits and minerals (like calcium) that he needs with out over loading his system with starchy feeds.

So many choices :rolleyes: what will you be feeding Tob's?, you may be able to give very similar but just top it up to suit your babies needs, save having 100's of different feed sacks hanging round.

How was it then? did they drop him off? how did Tob's react? has he settled well? come on...all the details :D

J x

[eventerbabe]

Jessey, for an update see the general section :D

Toby gets hi-fi lite and the dengie fibre mix. I will be swapping kez onto hi-fi lite as opposed to happy hoof. I've a bag of the cubes and a bag of barely i bought yesterday so we'll defo stick with the cubes, possibly ditch the barley til later in the year. I took your advice from an earlier thread and got him some limestone flour aswell. he's certainly not thin, but i'm just cautious that i make sure i don't under feed him since he's still growing.

[Mehitabel]

hifi lite doesn't have the pellets in happy hoof, which are the trace bits and bobs that mgiht be lackjing - happy hoof is designed as a complete feed, whereas hifi lite isn't - so definitely add a broad spectrum supplement if he will only be on hifi.

[Jessey]

I have all of mine on HiFi lite, the 30yo, 8yo and 3yo, then I just top them up differently.
In summer the younger two just get Hifi with supps nothing else, In winter I might switch it to Alfa rather than giving to much in the way of nuts/mix.
Either way they get the same basic feed, I just vary the qty and the supplements that they get like grass nuts, speedy beet, conditioning cubes, oil, vit & min supp etc

I read your update (got to over excited before I visited General :o)

J x