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At the 2015 Kentucky Equine Research Conference held in Melbourne, Australia, equine nutritionist Clarissa Brown-Douglas, Ph.D., presented information on the nutritional management of young foals.

Brown-Douglas said that nursing supplies 100% of the nutritional requirement for six to eight weeks after a foal’s birth. Mare’s milk is 98% digestible and is thus the perfect food for young foals.

By nursing as often as 10 times an hour on the first day, a foal consumes about 15% of its body weight in colostrum and milk. During the first week, the foal nurses about seven times an hour, consuming approximately 25% of its body weight per day. By the fourth week it is nursing only about three times per hour, and this rate drops to about three times in two hours by about four months of age.

Some foals start to nibble on hay or grain within days of being born, but the average week-old foal typically spends less than 10% of its time eating solid food. This number rises to 25% by the time the foal is a month old, and as it passes the four-month mark, the growing foal is eating solid food for almost half of its day. By the time it is five months old, it spends almost three-quarters of the day eating solid food.

From a nutrition standpoint, it’s unnecessary to provide grain to foals on good-quality pasture until they are about 90 days old as long as the broodmare has been fed properly during late pregnancy. For foals at this point, a well-fortified foal feed can gradually be introduced up to 0.5 kg (1 lb) of feed per month of age.

Orphan foals must be carefully managed but can grow well with the proper program. If orphaned at birth, these foals need colostrum first because a newborn foal’s gut is permeable to passing large immunoglobulins for only the first 12 to 24 hours after birth. Colostrum should be fed before starting on milk replacer. If orphaned a few days after birth, foals can start on a milk-based diet using a milk replacer designed for horses. This formula will usually be made with about 15% fat and 22% protein.

Placing a young orphan foal with a nurse mare is often the best management plan. Older foals that are orphaned may develop adequately on a diet of high-quality forage and creep feed.

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