Orphan foals, raised with a correct balance of nutrients and monitored for growth, food consumption, and weight gain, can be every bit as tall, strong, and athletic as foals raised by their dams. Managing an orphaned or rejected foal can be a complex and labor-intensive process. For further information on feeding horses please fill in our nutrition advice form here. The lowest-maintenance way to do that is to find a nurse mare which can play surrogate mom to your motherless waif. There are a number of commercial colostrum substitutes that can be recommended by your veterinarian if mare’s colostrum is unavailable. (The rates suggested are guidelines for a foal with mature weight of 500kg. Or you can add 20 grams per liter (four teaspoons per quart). No longer ride. 40˚C) (A thermometer and scale provides the best precision) As with the foal in the story on page 9, problems can occur during pregnancy or deliveries that make it impossible for a mare to raise her foal naturally. 5. The hole in the nipple should be small enough to prevent the milk from streaming freely when the bottle is inverted. Range method, amount, timing, frequency. The steam-extruded nuts of Breeda are highly digestible with over 90% being digested in the small intestine - helping to assist in essential amino acid assimilation and lower digestive disturbances in the orphan foal. This can be especially helpful for first-time parents. A weight tape can help you approximate a foal's size. Karen Briggs is the author of six books, including the recently updated Understanding Equine Nutrition as well as Understanding The Pony, both published by Eclipse Press. To replicate natural height and weight growth, you could feed 16 quarts of milk replacer daily with an eight-times-a-day feeding schedule. Those foals also had a slightly higher incidence of developmental orthopedic disease. Giving a foal access to milk at all times is feeding the natural way, on demand. This yields approx. If you have such a product, you will have to disregard the package directions and aim to dilute it to the tune of one to 1 1/2 pounds of dry powder per gallon of water (or 110 to 190 g per liter), for a dry matter content of between 10-17%. If feeding cows milk, adjustments need to be made to lower the fat content and increase the sugar content so it is similar to mare's milk. First, they are very high maintenance, particularly in their early days, needing attention every two hours or more, and second, there’s a perception that orphan foals, no matter how conscientiously you raise them, will always be playing catch-up with their peers, and end up stunted and unable to reach their full height or genetic potential. It has a high protein and energy level and can be dampened to make chewing easier for young foals. If your breeding operation is a small one, and you’ve been unable to collect any colostrum yourself, you might be able to purchase some from large breeding farms, where it undoubtedly will be kept in good supply, or veterinary clinics, some of which run colostrum banks for this reason. Even a foal which can’t derive enough nourishment from nursing his dam (as when she is a poor milk producer), or one prematurely separated from her, can be considered an orphan, because for all intents and purposes, he’s going to depend on you for all of his meals. Then there are the commercial mare’s milk replacers. (He also should be offered small amounts of a good-quality legume-based hay, or good pasture, from the time he is a month old.). She lives with her band of off-the-track Thoroughbreds on a farm near Guelph, Ontario, and dabbles in eventing. However, even an old retired broodmare or patient older gelding can be a good companion to an orphan foal. Allow at least one or two weeks for the foster mare to acclimate to the foal. Nurse Mares. If the newborn foal is unable to nurse, alternative routes of nutritional support are necessary. This allows the foal to grow on its normal diet of mare’s milk, as well as experiencing normal socialization. We recommend that during the first twelve months of life the foal be dewormed every 30 days. For that reason, some farms now prefer to use light-horse breeds for their nurse mares. Orphaned foals can begin to be fed pasture, or if pasture is not available lucerne hay, and concentrates from approximately two weeks of age. Finally, once the foal … Once the foal is one year of age the program should be changed to an adult deworming schedule. Impaction can happen when feeding goat’s milk, so some breeders recommend adding 30 ml of mineral oil daily to the liquid. Risks Associated With Feeding Horses Traditional Bran Mashes, Equine Innovators: Optimizing Barn and Arena Ventilation, Dealing With Pooling Urine and Frozen Winter Horse Paddocks, 10 Soft Tissue Injury Resources on TheHorse.com, Birth-Tissue-Derived Biologics for Equine Medicine, Northeast Association of Equine Practitioners Symposium 2019, International Society for Equitation Science 2019, Equine Parasite Control: Deworming and Beyond. Treat them like normal foals. Once the foals are a bit older (two or more weeks), the schedule can change to every four hours, but a consistent feeding schedule is very important. Suggested rates of 0.5-0.7 kg of Breeda and 0.1-0.4kg of lucerne can be gradually introduced to the orphaned foals ration after 2 weeks of life (mature weight 500kg). Colostrum has a high immunoglobulin content and foals, which have been deprived of colostrum, have a higher incidence of septicemia, diarrhea, omphalophlebitis and joint-ill. 250ml of colostrum should be fed to the foal every hour for the first six hours of life. The label may show 18% protein, but it could be only 8% useable protein. Orphan foals raised with a correct balance of nutrients and monitored for growth, food consumption, and weight gain can be every bit as tall, strong, and athletic as foals raised by their dams. The Breeda, lucerne and milk replacer can be fed in a soft mash. To make sure the formula stays fresh, however, mix only as much as your foal will consume in about 12 hours (half the daily ration). Make sure feeds contain the proper balance of vitamins, minerals, energy and protein. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website. Once a foal is 12 hours old, it will really be needing some assistance. © Mitavite 2018 - Scientifically Balanced Feeds. To avoid this, don’t spoil orphans. (Resist the temptation to tranquilize the mare, however. Good quality commercial milk replacers formulated for foals are available.