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  Discussion on Feeding the new mom?
Author Message
New Member:
Canadien

Posted on Saturday, Jun 21, 2003 - 10:14 pm:

I have a 1300 lbs Cheval Canadien mare who just gave birth to a bouncing baby boy. The colt is a voracious eater - latching onto his mother every 20 minutes or so with plenty of naps in between. The mare has free access to good timothy hay and during the latter part of her pregnancy was fed 3 lbs of 16% sweet feed (twice a day) along with a Selenium/Vit.E supplement recommended by our vet. Her current weight seems to be about right; however, I am concerned that she may begin to lose weight rapidly while lactating such a large foal. I have heard that lactating mares should be feed 1% of their normal body weight.. with adjustments made according to the condition the mare maintains. Is this a good "rule of thumb" for lactating mares ?
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Sunday, Jun 22, 2003 - 9:33 am:

Just my unscientific 2 cents... I was worried my mare would lose weight exactly as you describe so I fed her up for about 3 weeks after foaling. She got ENORMOUS and she is a mare that can lose condition by just looking out of the stable window normally.

I have stopped feeding her since there is an abundance of good grass at the moment, and the books on foaling I have suggest that for May and June, and until the grass starts to lose some nutritional value in the dryer half of July, you don't really need to give supplemental feeding unless the mare is losing condition.

She's still very fat but nothing compared to the gi-enormous Irish draft broodmares you see at shows here in Ireland at this time of year.

Interested to hear what Dr O thinks? My foal is a little ribby but nothing too bad and it's growing like stink and is very active so I think it's entitled to be a bit gawky. I think there are quite a lot of risks in overfeeding foals but I don't have any experience to draw on.

All the best

Imogen
Member:
Goolsby

Posted on Sunday, Jun 22, 2003 - 9:02 pm:

Imogene

My mare is also getting fat fat fat. She has a 6 week old and is on pasture. I feed her a little 10% sweet feed with a little calf manna when she decides to come to the stall, about every other day or two. The colt is putting on weight and very energetic. Im am worried she is gaining too much weight, but have heard not to take them off grain when nursing.
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Sunday, Jun 22, 2003 - 11:11 pm:

No Peter 1% is completely off base as a total weight of diet on a dry matter basis. The mares current condition needs to be taken into account as does the quality of the forage available.

Please read Overview on Nutriton and then » Equine Reproduction » Breeding and Foaling » Care of the Newborn Foal and Mare which takes you into feeding the lactating mare.
DrO
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003 - 3:38 am:

So, what exactly do you feed a fat lactating mare on good grass to make sure she has adequate calcium and protein but doesn't get any fatter?

All the best

Imogen
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003 - 6:56 am:

What is the total diet of the horse Imogen and what is the makeup of the pasture?
DrO
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Tuesday, Jun 24, 2003 - 7:14 am:

Erm, as much grass as she likes to eat (24 hour turnout). The grass is just typical mixed pasture grasses - not high quality, it's believed here that horses do better on non-lush grazing, but there's plenty of it. Mare and foal are in a paddock of about 2 acres.

I could give her a bit of beet pulp and oats just to make sure on the protein/calcum. I checked the acidity of this field in March and it was OK but we are on generally acid land that has to be limed every 5-7 years.

All the best

Imogen
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 25, 2003 - 6:39 am:

No clover in the field?
DrO
Member:
Imogen

Posted on Wednesday, Jun 25, 2003 - 2:21 pm:

Loads of clover. Also plenty of tasty weeds (no ragwort) but overall the grass quality is not bad. It was mixed sheep and cattle land for about 15 years before I got it and it got then (and gets now) only small amounts of low nitrogen fertiliser and a bit of topping to control weeds. Old-fashioned unimproved perennial pasture but with our climate the grass still grows...

Surely that's what horses are designed to eat? Do a mare and foal that look well on such a diet really need supplemental feeding? I know you can't say with such an unscientific description of the pasture but I'm doing my best... if you like I'll post a picture of a typical chunk of it...?

To be honest my only worry would be that due to the general acidity and ironbearing nature of the ground rock around here the calcium could be low.

All the best

Imogen
Moderator:
DrO

Posted on Thursday, Jun 26, 2003 - 6:42 am:

The clover, being a legume, is rich in both calcium and protein, it is unlikely you have a nutrition problem.
DrO
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