AQHA January / February Magazine AQHA JAN-FEB 2020 PRINT | Page 19

PG.17
What do
weanlings
need...
ARTICLE: DR JENNIFER STEWART
- EQUINE VETERINARIAN AND CONSULTANT NUTRITIONIST
THE TWO MOST IMPORTANT RULES WHEN FEEDING
WEANLINGS ARE FIRSTLY TO KEEP IT SIMPLE AND SECOND,
B
NOT TO OVER- OR UNDER-FEED.
ecause feeds and feeding
management are linked to
behavioural problems, growth
abnormalities,
immunity,
gastrointestinal
conditions
and a whole range of equine clinical
problems, a few simple dos and don’ts
can help prevent problems.
Several unwanted behaviours are strongly
linked to feeds and feeding strategies.
Crib-biting has not been reported in feral
or free-living domestic horses, but it has
been observed when Przewalski horses
are kept in captivity, suggesting that some
management practices can cause the
behaviour. In one study of foal behaviour,
42 out of 186 foals developed abnormal
oral behaviour - wood-chewing, crib-
biting or both - after weaning.
Some ceased wood-chewing and crib-
biting as they matured, but often once
a foal develops these behaviours, they
tend to become fixed and can become
excessive. One foal was observed crib-
biting for nearly 50% of its daily activity,
biting for 30 seconds every 5 minutes
for 22 hours a day – or 1470 crib-bites a
day. Wood-chewing often precedes or is
associated with crib-biting and has been
found in 30% of young horses and 74% of
wood-chewers became crib-biters.
Other work has shown that crib-biting is
increased by a low-forage or high-starch/
grain diet, often peaks 4 to 8 hours after
a grain meal and that feeding grain-based
feeds after weaning resulted in a four-
fold increase in risk. Grain-based and high
starch diets have also been linked with
increased stress, aggressive behaviour,
stomach ulcers and coprophagy.
Both before and after weaning, foals on
a fibre-oil supplement show less stress
(lower heart rates and lower blood
cortisol – the stress hormone) when
compared to those on grain-starch-sugar
feeds – suggesting that avoiding sugary-
starchy feedstuffs helps foals cope
with the stress of weaning. In weanling
feeding trials, foals given an oil-fibre
supplement tended to be more relaxed,
spent more time grazing, less time pacing,
had reduced fearfulness and reactivity (to
the ‘surprise test’) and spent more time
investigating (the ‘novel object test’)
than those on a grain-based, high starch
supplement.
The investigative behaviour studied in
the ‘novel object test’ involves a bright
blue and orange plastic child’s tricycle,
wooden intermittently quacking ducks,
bright tarpaulins and colourful twirling
golf umbrellas; the surprise test involves
JANUARY/FEBRUARY ISSUE 2020