[belle4]

What has been your experience with feeding a mare with a foal on her side?

How much protein?

[Lou3]

hehe i'm pretty lazy i just feed a complete pellet forumulated for lactating mares and use the amounts on the back as a guideline. All our mares do pretty well on it - i couldnt even tell you the protein content though. I do the same when Jodie has puppies - brood b.itch food.
The important thing is ad-lib hay/grass and plenty of water, Jess goes through a quarter as much hay again when she's suckling than normal. We also feed a seaweed supplement which seems to help.

[Dawn of Sandman]

I'm sorry, I can't help you here.

but, I assume you need the information for personal use?

If that is the case, good luck

[Blistering Winds]

NRC requirements say:

From Foaling to about 3 months of foal age
This is per 100 lbs of horse

: DE 2.57 Mcal
CP 129.73g
Ca 5.09g
P 3.27g

3 months - Weaning

De 2.21 Mcal
CP 95.27g
Ca 3.27g
P 2.00g

[prettyqtrs]

Strategy

Crude Protein (Min) 14.0%
Crude Fat (Min) 6.0%
Crude Fiber (Max) 8.0%
Calcium (Min) 0.60%
Calcium (Max) 0.90%
Phosphorus (Min) 0.60%
Copper, ppm, (Min) 55
Selenium, ppm, (Min) 0.60
Zinc, ppm, (Min) 220
Vitamin A, I.U./lb (Min) 3,000

And their instructions for
Pregnant Mares (last 120 days)
feed amount of Strategy Professional Formula GX equivalent to 2/3 to 3/4% of body weight per day along with hay and/or pasture.
Lactating Mares (up to 150 days)
feed amount of Strategy Professional Formula GX equivalent to 1-1/4 to 1-1/2% of body weight per day. Feed three times daily along with hay and/or pasture.

Right now all of our mares are getting fed different amounts of grain. So I couldn't tell you how much as an overall. The least amount of grain being given to a pregnant mare right now is 4 cups of Strategy per day (two cups in the morning and two at night). (All mares that are pregnant are due in 2006). We will bump of thier grain as needed, as they get later into their pregnancy.

We also give our pregnant mares a supplement called Mare Plus.
I wont list all of it's ingrediants but...you are basically just looking for protein... and each pound contains not less than
Crude Protein (Min) 6.0%

It's directions say
Feed one ounce of Mare Plus twice daily with the feed - once in the morning and again in the evening. Mix right with regular ration. (they have an enclosed scoop that holds one ounce)

We don't give it to them twice a day, we only do it once.

Our mares also are fed good hay, have access to fresh water 24/7 and have salt and mineral blocks in their pastures.

[Blistering Winds]

Ummm....No, you do NOT just consider protein when feeding horses.

Calcium to Phosphorus ratios MUST be kept at a certain amount to each other, or your mare AND foal suffer.

Digestible Energy is #1 in all reality to balance your feeds for. Then comes Crude Protein, Calcium and Phosphorus. And they all need to balance a certain RATIO to Digestible Energy, or nothing is getting done properly.


Many of the Feed dealers try to take as much "guess" work out of it, but even then, some people STILL underfeed or overfeed their horses every day.

[Drafty1]

I just feed my mare grass hay. In the beginning I was feed alfalfa and grace was growing too= fast then I changed her to grass/alfalfa mix and I was still having a problem with her tendons getting to tight. After putting everyone on grass she is fine.

You just want to make sure your foal isn't growing to fast, tight tendons. And keep an eye out for boxy ankles.

[reinerdude22]

Well we were feeding our mare brood mare food(not sure wat the name is) but anyway. We feed our horse this and it caused her milk to be so rich that it almost made the baby founder. So know we just feed straight pellets, and all the babies have been fine. Just something I thought I should mention.

[prettyqtrs]

Originally Posted by Blistering Winds

Ummm....No, you do NOT just consider protein when feeding horses.

Calcium to Phosphorus ratios MUST be kept at a certain amount to each other, or your mare AND foal suffer.

Digestible Energy is #1 in all reality to balance your feeds for. Then comes Crude Protein, Calcium and Phosphorus. And they all need to balance a certain RATIO to Digestible Energy, or nothing is getting done properly.


Many of the Feed dealers try to take as much "guess" work out of it, but even then, some people STILL underfeed or overfeed their horses every day.

Did you mean for that post to be to me? If so, I didnt mean that is the only thing she should look for. What I meant was, thats what she was asking about in her original post..so I just stated what the protein amount was in that, instead of listing all of the amounts. But I can list them if someone wants me to.
Sorry I wasn't really clear about that, and I can see how someone could have read that and been easliy confused and thought, "What the heck is she talking about". lol. Sorry,

[Blistering Winds]

No problem. It IS common for the regular horseman/woman to only look at protein content and not anything else.