Equus Feeds Newsletter

Feeding the Finicky Eater

Some horses present special feeding challenges, especially when they won't eat enough to maintain proper body
weight. Sometimes a lactating broodmare, a horse in hard training, or a horse recovering from illness or injury just
won't eat enough, and the horse owner must find ways to tempt the horse to eat more, or use feeds that are more
nutrient dense.

Karen Davison, PhD and equine specialist, advises checking for possible underlying problems whenever a horse is a
hard keeper. There might be a physical reason for an inability to maintain proper body condition or for a lack of
appetite. The horse might have bad teeth, digestive tract discomfort from ulcers, chronic metabolic disease, kidney
failure or some other problem that discourages eating.

Dental care can also be an important factor, making a difference to whether a horse eats with enthusiasm or reluc-
tance. Lacerations on the sides of the mouth, cheek, and tongue from bad teeth can seriously affect how the horse
eats. Anything like this which makes it painful to chew will result in horses not eating much.

Working with a veterinarian, try to discover why a horse is off its feed. "It's one thing if a horse is just picking through
the feed to eat what he likes, but it's a more serious problem if he just stands in a corner and doesn't want to eat or
won't finish a meal," says Davison.

Jerry Black, DVM, past president of the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), says a good veterinary
examination and some baseline laboratory work should be a starting point, particularly if there is weight loss involved.
When dealing with fussy horses, first check with your veterinarian to make sure a medical problem is not causing
the behavior. "If a horse is not an enthusiastic eater, we want to find out why," says Black. "The ones we are most
suspicious about are those that change their attitude about eating; they used to eat well, but are now fussy. This
should indicate something is wrong."

Kathleen Crandell, PhD, nutrition consultant for Kentucky Equine Research (KER), feels that every horse normally
has a good appetite and if a horse is picky, there is usually a reason. That reason can be anything from overtraining
to a health problem to pain. With ulcers, for instance, there might be no visible symptoms, but the horse just isn't
doing well. "Sometimes these horses eat, but not enough, or may be really picky about what they eat," says
Crandell. "Some of them dive right into the food, then slow down and back off. This can be a sign of ulcers, because
when the food hits the stomach and starts to irritate the lining, the horse becomes uncomfortable."

A horse with gastric ulcers usually does better on pasture, or when fed fine grass hay and no grain. Grain irritates
the stomach lining and causes wider swings in gastric activity, which can accentuate an ulcer. Living at pasture is
the best way to prevent or heal an ulcer, but many performance horses need high-energy feeds in order to give peak
performance and can't eat enough grass to obtain the needed nutrients. In the case of performance horses with this
problem it is important to select a concentrate with lots of added fibre (see the Importance of Fibre on Digestive Health)
Crandell adds that pain of any kind can also affect appetite. "A lot of older horses lose their appetites just because
of chronic pain from something like arthritis or an old injury. A horse with any kind of injury may back off feed just
because he hurts."

Horses in Hard Training

"We often see some really fit horses, like three-day event horses, that start backing off feed when they are at peak
performance," says Crandell. "That's usually a sign of overtraining - which can affect the appetite. The horse is getting
burned out and doesn't care as much about eating. Some horses seem to reach that point more quickly than others,
depending on how they respond to training, and it always seems to be the skinny ones that are the fussy eaters.
In these situations, the horse may need a layoff from work for a while."

Sarah Ralston, VMD, PhD, associate professor in the Department of Animal Science at Cook College, Rutgers
University, says that if a picky eater is in hard training and losing weight, she usually recommends feeding smaller,
more frequent meals and supplementing the horse with B vitamins given orally. "There is no strong scientific evidence
for the B vitamins, but theoretically they could help, and there are many anecdotal reports that they do. The smaller
meals (giving the horse no more than 0.5% of his total body weight at any one meal) three to four times a day will
usually improve feed efficiency and maybe stimulate more intake," says Ralston.

For horses in hard training it is also important to ensure adequate cooling down after exercise to help maintain
appetite.

Tips on Feeding the Fussy Horse

With each horse it is important to establish what's going on health wise. If you can't find a specific problem to correct,
the only thing you can do is try and tempt him to eat more. Giving fresh feed periodically through the day might get
him to eat more total feed, and some horses respond well to small changes like wetting down their feed.
The challenge is to find out what the horse will eat that meets the nutrient requirements.

Black says that finicky eaters usually eat more total feed if given several small meals each day instead of larger
portions twice a day. Fussy eaters will often clean up a small meal better than a large one.

"I always recommend small quantities," says Black. "Figure out what the horse will clean up over a six- to eight-hour
period and break the ration up into three or four meals per day. The horse will be tempted to eat again when you put
out the fresh feed."

Many horses eat better in company than they do alone, partly because of the competition factor. If a horse is part
of a group, he will feel more urgency about eating, because he knows that if he doesn't eat right now, he won't get
his share. This tends to stimulate his appetite, along with the fact that horses are herd animals. When one horse
eats, it's a signal for the rest of the herd to start eating. Herd life is the most natural situation for a horse and a
horse that is upset and nervous because he's in a stall or paddock by himself might not eat enough because he is
worried about being alone.

In some cases, however, a timid horse might be too nervous to eat well in a group situation. A non-dominant horse
might be insecure about his position in the social order, and may back off when threatened by the other horses.

At the end of the day, it is always a case-by-case situation to figure out how best to feed the fussy eater. A thorough
investigation of each particular horse is required to find the best answer. Once found, however, you will have the
information you need to keep him in good condition.

If you are experiencing problems with a "hot" horse, the best advice is to take a good look at his overall diet and
realistically assess his calorie needs. Some adjustment in feeding or activity level (or both) might make all the
difference.

There is, however, also evidence that in some horses the amount of dietary starch influences behavior, irrespective
of the total energy level. Based on fairly subjective assessments, researchers have reported that a decrease in the
amount of dietary starch is associated with a decrease in the level of excitability. Changes in brain chemistry might
be the link between dietary starch and sugar intake and behavior. Serotonin, a brain neurotransmitter, is known to
modulate mood, alertness, and activity. Indeed, low brain serotonin underlies several depressive disorders in humans,
and some anti-depressant drugs work by enhancing serotonin's action in the brain.

More contentious is the effect of high serotonin. It is known that a meal that is high in glucose (a product of starch
digestion) increases brain serotonin levels, and it has been proposed that this increase is responsible for the
"sugar high" observed in some hyperactive children. In a similar manner, it is suspected that big fluctuations in blood
glucose after a grain meal could alter the behavior of horses through changes in brain serotonin activity.

How to address this when selecting a feed

High quality properly formulated feeds always include a variety of energy sources - a range of different starches,
added oils, and highly digestible super fibres. See Ingredients and Composition of Equus products. The result is a
significant decrease in starch and sugar compared to most of the cheaper feeds available which rely heavily on only
one or two energy sources

Conclusion

In most cases, the 'fizz factor' is the result of a mismatch between the amount of energy fed (MJ) and that required
for the specific level of performance, rather than the total amount of protein in the diet. Too much starch per se can
create a 'hot' horse and thus it is important to choose a feed which draws energy from a wide selection of sources
rather than relying on starch as the main energy source. There is no evidence that the Protein percentage of the feed
will affect horses' behaviour in any way whatsoever!