Foal feeder laments ...

[TrueColours]

Okay - who has a super foal feeder that actually works??? Instead of the standard blue Farnham edition that the mares yank out the bars on and/or kick off the walls, and is SO deep the foals have to stick their entire faces in up to their eyeballs to get anything at the bottom of the feeders ...

And the foals rarely get to the bottom which means the flies swarm around the stuff that remains at the bottom ...

And its at the perfect height for mares to poop in, so you end up having to unscrew them off the walls to dump them out to hose them down before you can use them again ...

I am seriously thinking of designing a new and improved foal feeder that can removed easily off the wall for cleaning and once the foal has finished eating from it and is literally 1/4 - 1/3 the depth of the Farnham ones so their whole face doesnt have to be stuck in there for them to eat.

What do you all think? Am I the only one who thinks great improvements can be made in this area and if I built a "better mousetrap" I'd have a great and willing market for them???

Any and all comments would be MOST appreciated!

[surprisewind]

I would love it if you designed something the mare couldn't actually stick her face into.
No matter what I did, if the bars were wide enough for the colt to feel comfortable and not act like a snout tourniquet, the mare wound up with a nice snack.

[camohn]

Guess I don't have that problem as I do not grain anything younger than a weanling. Whatever they snatch from sharing mom's food bowl is all they get.

[cewright]

Our mares and foals live in a pasture. We use a standard pasture feeder surrounded by round pen panels. There are two openings, one at each end. A bar is extended accross each opening which is set at a height to allow the foals to enter but excludes the mares. Mares are fed in their own pans. Foals are fed free choice in the feeder. The panels must be solidly secured or the mares will push them aside to reach the foal feed. I use T-posts to secure the panels. Drive the T-pots then slip the end post of the panel over the T-post. This is a pretty standard arrangement in this part of the coountry. Good luck!

[madelyn]

cewright is describing a field creep feeder. My next barn will have 10x15 foaling stalls, and wall brackets to allow a 10' 2x6 to be slotted in for a creep feeder. The foal will have its own "personal space" where mom can't go. In the meantime I bought shallow wall mount "goat" feeders, square plastic feeders about one square foot, at the stockyard for $1 apiece. They are about 4" deep. I took steel rods with threaded ends, threaded a nut on each end followed by a washer. Drilled holes in the front and rear sides of the feeder near the top. Put the rods through and followed up on the outside with another washer and a cap nut. Cross tightened and voila foal feeder. I mounted them in the corner, underneath the mare's feeder so they are REALLY hard to poop in.

[Galejade]

Not to be rude but you would not get any business from me. I do not creep feed foals. About 5/6 weeks old they start diving into Mares bucket and they soon learn the trick of ducking under the mares neck and lifting her head out the way.

I month or so befire weaning ( and I wean late) they have thir own bucket with a little food in it.

Since most problems come with foals which grow too fast why is there a need to creep feed? Is this a very common practice?


Paul
________
VTX1800R

[Galejade]

Not to be rude but you would not get any business from me. I do not creep feed foals. About 5/6 weeks old they start diving into Mares bucket and they soon learn the trick of ducking under the mares neck and lifting her head out the way.

I month or so befire weaning ( and I wean late) they have thir own bucket with a little food in it.

Since most problems come with foals which grow too fast why is there a need to creep feed? Is this a very common practice?


Paul
________
buy no2 vaporizer

[madelyn]

You obviously feed doubly strong about your post... and you are in the UK and I am in the US so your threat to withhold your custom is relatively harmless.

Some mares just simply will not permit their foal to share their food. And foals have somewhat different nutritional needs than mares. But foal pellets are truly delicious so often, mares will scarf them down. It also permits any meds the foal might require to be mixed in and fed (like anti-snots meds, yoghurt or fasttrack for diarrhea, etc.) And it permits you to monitor the quantity of food the foal is eating which assists in calculating when the foal is weanable. Of course, that is just my (uninformed? ignorant?) opinion.

[TrueColours]

Yes - MOST foals will dive in and share with Mom but as Madelyn has pointed out, their nutrional needs are different and not all mares allow them to do so

The one colt I have now will wait until she is done and then lick the bottom of the feed bucket. I think he is lucky if he can find one pellet left in there, so I have resorted to going in with a bucket and allowing him to eat his fill that way, but I cant do it twice a day and there has to be a better use of one's time ...

I am NOT trying to force feed anything to get giraffe's out of my babies, but he is coming up to 2 months of age and in MY humble opinion, he NEEDS the nutrition that foal feeds can offer to him

Not everyone needs every product out there so I know when I invent my new superdy duperdy foal feeder to not go knocking on your door to buy one ...

[Karie]

I'll buy it!!!

I hate foal feeders! They all suck!

I am going to try and build some sort of a creep feeder in the field but I have some downright tricky mares so its gonna be tough.

In all of my mare and foal stalls 20X10 there is a regular corner feeder and a foal feeder.. 2 of the 4 mares let baby eat with them.. the other 2 are such hogs that they wont let baby have anything. They gulp down the feed in the corner feeder and then head right to the foal feeders..

and don't worry I only have my own mares & foals at my farm so no one can get upset with me!

[Galejade]

I must apologise if my post was read to be condemnatory of foal feeders. I guess I was more expressing surprise at the need for them.

The difference is probably UK practice as opposed to Stateside due to our temperate climate.

I checked with quite a few other breeders of my scale ( 6- 10 mares) and we all presume our foals will live out 24/7 ( unless the weather is horrific) from about 4 weeks old. Normally we have grass in abundance and are feeding additional to our lactating mares rather than feeding the foals. Weaning practice varies amongst us with some going at 4 - 5 months and hence they are giving foals a bucket a few weeks before hand whilst some leave weaning intil October 1st when the oldest is probable 9 months and the youngest say 5 months in which case they could have been on their own bucket for a few months

None of us feed foals separately until 4 months and although several of us are also sheep farmers and used to creep feeding lambs none of us own a foal creep feeder. A great worry here in the UK is the speed of growth of some foals, on the rich grass, and the big ones are normally the OCD cases or cysts in the stifle. Some breeders deliberately check the big foals after weaning either by cutting concentrates or bringing in to a stall during the day without feed except hay.

I agree getting medicines down is a pain and we have to go to expensive pastes rather than powders or make a suspension in a dosage syringe for the foal.

Please forgive any unintended offence given - there just wouldn't be many users in the UK.
________
Plymouth Fury specifications

[Nessa]

The thing is, if you do a good job of your new invention you can get a patent and that means extra money for whatever. Many people have improved a product already in existence and improved their fortunes at the same time, so get started.

[myheartsezyes]

We have small red foal feeders. They slide into the bars so the bars cannot be lifted out. we screw them onto the fence I have had no problems and big mommas can't get their heads in them When I feedthis afternoon I will get you the company name. And to the ignornant people that have no common sense Some mares will not allow their foals to eat anything they go as far as to bite them to get them away from the tub. I have a mare that will absoulutely not let her foal near her tub. So lighten up.

[griff]

put every body on free choice oats which I believe run about 12%. I believe oats and good grass plus some free choice 12-12 is all any equine needs unless thay are racing.

Once they get full they really don't eat any more than I'd give them if I were hand feeding.

griff

[DLM]

TC .. that was a RIOT!! You hit the nail on the head. I hate those foal feeders for all the reasons you listed.

We put 4x4's across the stall corner so foals can feed there and moms can't.

If you design a mare proof feeder put me on the list for 10 of them!!