Feeding Suckling Foals

Some common practices in feeding suckling foals are to either rely totally on mare’s milk and pasture to meet the foal’s nutritional needs, or feed the mare a ration that is not designed for growing foals and allow the foal to eat along with the mare, and then, after weaning, providing large quantities of a good foal feed, or even free-choice foal feed, to grow the foal on out. In these situations, the foals will have been growing slower than optimum while nursing. Then, when the more nutritional diet is provided after weaning, the body will try to catch up to where it would have been if optimum nutrition had been available all along. This compensatory growth, during which the foal grows extremely fast, often leads to growth abnormalities such as contracted tendons. It is much better to provide a well-balanced foal feed, such as Purina Omolene 300 or Strategy, in recommended amounts to support optimum growth from the beginning. This supports a steady rate of growth and will give the suckling foal the best start possible.

Courtesy of Purina Horse Feed