All About Feeding Horses and Ponies and Mules - Slow Feed Hay Feeder
In nature, horses spend most of their time eating – grazing grasses and other plants. When making feed choices, it’s important to start out with the forage: pasture and/or hay. All equines need forage for calories and other nutrients, also as fibre to assist keep the alimentary canal healthy. Insufficient fibre can cause digestive problems like colic.
Hay and pasture got to be top quality for horses. The equine alimentary canal doesn't handle poor quality forage efficiently, and really poor-quality forage may increase the danger of digestive problems.
The daily amount of hay and/or pasture-fed is additionally a consideration. Horses, minis and ponies need a minimum of 1-1.5 pounds of hay or pasture (on dry matter basis) per 100 pounds of weight a day. You can’t always be present to feed them and leaving them with fodder alone can be a big problem hence you may opt for slow feeders for horses. These are horse auto feeder that you can adjust according to the feeding speed of your horses.
For example, a 300-pound miniature horse needs a minimum of 3-4.5 pounds of hay per day or 9-13.5 pounds of pasture (fresh grass is far higher in water content) per day. Hay feeder for horses will help you prevent overfeeding your animals.
Just like people, all horses need protein, vitamins and minerals, also as energy from calories to support maintenance, growth, reproduction and work.
It’s common for horse owners to feed quite the minimum amount of forage recommended. Feeding more forage is ok as long because the total ration is balanced to supply optimal amounts of nutrients to satisfy the animal’s needs, including calories, protein, vitamins and minerals.
Mature equines can often maintain their weight and condition on the calories provided by hay or pasture alone. However, there are some necessary nutrients commonly lacking in forages, including some minerals in fresh pasture, or amino acids, vitamins and minerals within the hay. Additionally, growing horses, broodmares and dealing horses usually need a further source of calories.
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