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