weanling that won't eat

[Bert]

I have a 7 month old foal that wont eat any hard feed. Any advice on what I can do?

[owston]

I usually put little piles of feed in a bucket rather than mixing them altogether, so for instance a handful each of chaff, speeding beet, youngstock mix, balancer, grated carrot and grated Apple. That way they tend to pick through it or around it and after a few days should be tucking in it. Don't leave the food in for hours though, keep refreshing it or it will go sour especially in this weather. Plus try a couple of handfuls of grass too. Good luck, I know it's worrying

[judyh]

Have you tried soaking it?
You could also try mixing in milk powder.

[sarahp]

I teach mine by feeding with their dam to start with, but I assume your's is weaned. Have you another foal who will eat, in which case you could try putting them together to see if the non eating one would copy its friend?

If not, I usually find soaked sugarbeet works in the end, just leave a small amount down and give fresh at each feed time. Will he/she eat apples? Mine all do as they get windfalls and any veg peelings going too. If he does, what about putting apple juice on the hard feed? They usually try some in the end.

[ChartsideStud]

How long have you been trying to hard feed him/her?
I find foals quite often go on hunger strike for a while so dont panic too much, i know its frustrating but as long as its eating some hay and drinking they usually come round after a while. But also as the others have said keep the feed simple and maybe just try one thing at a time as some can be quite fussy.

[connemaras123]

Our foal is greedy but she will only eat spillers foal and youngstock mix. Wont touch the baileys version, won't touch calm and condition or chaff.

We out a handful of each different feed in different buckets to see which she went for so could work out what she liked and what she didn't.

Worth a try!