Nutrition – Feb 04
Help Your Foal Grow with Proper Nutrition
A healthy foal will grow rapidly, gaining in height, weight and strength
almost before your eyes. From birth to age two, a young horse can achieve 90
percent or more of its full adult size, sometimes putting on as many as three
pounds per day. Feeding young horses is a balancing act, as the nutritional
start a foal gets can have a profound affect on its health and soundness for
the rest of its life.
At eight to ten weeks of age, mare’s milk alone may not adequately meet the
foal’s nutritional needs, depending on the desired growth rate an owner wants
for a foal. As the foal’s dietary requirements shift from milk to feed and
forage, your role in providing the proper nutrition, gains in importance.
Following are guidelines from the American Association of Equine Practitioners
(AAEP) to help you meet the young horse’s nutritional needs:
1. Provide high quality roughage (hay and pasture) free choice.
2. Supplement with a high quality, properly balanced grain concentrate at
weaning, or earlier if more rapid rates of gain are desired.
3. Start by feeding one percent of a foal’s body weight per day (i.e., one
pound of feed for each 100 pounds of body weight), or one pound of feed per
month of age.
4. Weigh and adjust the feed ration based on growth and fitness. A weight tape
can help you approximate a foal’s size.
5. Foals have small stomachs so divide the daily ration into two to three
feedings.
6. Make sure feeds contain the proper balance of vitamins, minerals, energy and
protein.
7. Use a creep feeder or feed the foal separate from the mare so it can eat its
own ration. Try
to avoid group creep feeding situations.
8. Remove uneaten portions between feedings.
9. Do not overfeed. Overweight foals are more prone to developmental orthopedic
disease (DOD).
10. Provide unlimited fresh, clean water.
11. Provide opportunity for abundant exercise.
The reward for providing excellent nutrition and conscientious care will be
a healthy foal that grows into a sound and useful horse. For more information
about providing proper nutrition for your foal, talk with your equine
veterinarian and ask for the “Foal Growth” education brochure provided by the
AAEP in conjunction with Education Partners Bayer Animal Health and Purina
Mills. Additional information about foal nutrition can also be found on the
AAEP’s horse health Web site,
www.myHorseMatters.com.
The American Association of Equine Practitioners, headquartered in
Lexington, Ky., was founded in 1954 as a non-profit organization dedicated to
the health and welfare of the horse. Currently, AAEP reaches more than 5
million horse owners through its over 7,500 members worldwide and is actively
involved in ethics issues, practice management, research and continuing
education in the equine veterinary profession and horse industry.
