Is it OK to feed a 1 and 1/2 month old filly mare and foal sweet feed

I had heard some where that it can cause colic and I am kind of worried she is doing so well. Her vet told me to get mare and foal food for her, but did not say any thing about sweet feed being bad.

Thank You

Sarah

It is perfectly fine to feed them sweet feed. That is what many of the mare and foal feeds are anyways. The amount of grain that the foal is eating right now should not be enough to colic her.

The big thing that you need to do is to find out how much protein that the feed has in it. Too much protein on a young horse can cause them to grow too quickly which can cause them to be more likely to get developmental diseases (OCDs). That is a HUGE problem. A 14% is ideal, a 16% is ok if in moderation, but any higher than that may cause a problem.

I do not know what feed stores you have around, or what brand of feed that you are feeding, but QUALITY is more important than QUANTITY. That means if you are feeding a lower end feed, that the horse will have to have more quantity, which in turn could cause problems of its own by the horse receiving too much in their diet. If the feed is a higher quality, then the quantity is less, and the chances of having problems are less.

An adult horse should eat between 2 and 4% per 100 pounds of its body weight a day total (in the less range or lower if they are a lawn ornament or not working that much and in the higher range or even more than this if they are really getting worked, lactating like your mare, hard keeper or need to gain some weight). That means that a 1000 pound horse will receive on average 20 to 40 pounds a day in grain and forage (grass and hay).