RE: [RC] Question for Dr Garlinghouse.....or anyone who can help enlighten me! - Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M.
Without crunching numbers, what you’re
feeding looks pretty good to me. It might be that the lysine content is a
hair low, depending on the quality of the Bermuda
you’re feeding, so you might consider adding just a handful or two of
alfalfa pellets. Or, if your girl needs to put on a bit of weight, then
you can slowly increase the amount of XTN you’re feeding, *or* add an additional feeding of a higher
protein ration, maybe 16-18%. I might lean more towards the latter.
As others have mentioned, keep an eye on
her body condition to make sure she has sufficient calories overall. It’s
not so much that mules and donkeys need less feed, it’s more that they
are more efficient at digesting fiber, and thus derive more nutrition from feed
(especially low quality feeds, though that’s not an issue here,
presumably) than do horses. They don’t tend to deal well with
a lot of carbohydrates, so if she needs more calories later on, you can
increase the beet pulp rather than continuing to increase the grain too much.
I think you’ll have a great time
with her. I adore my molly mules, they’re both little SUVs with
ears.
Susan Garlinghouse, DVM, MS
From: ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:ridecamp-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Patsy Davis Sent: Sunday, February 20, 2005
8:54 AM To: ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: [RC] Question for Dr
Garlinghouse.....or anyone who can help enlighten me!
I have a 10 y/o Molly mule that I am conditioning for
CTR and LD endurance. She is strong, smart, great on trails and I love
riding her. She is about 14 HH and weighs about 800-900 lbs.
I am able to ride her about 4 times a week
average. A couple of those are rides of about 8 miles. As the days
get longer I will be able to ride her more.
I know it is said that mules require less feed than
horses so I'm really unsure what and how much to feed. I rode a much
larger mule in CTR last year and fed her beat pulp and senior feed with grass
hay. I am feeding my new mule beet pulp (1200cc dry), Nutrena XTN (1 1lb
coffee can full), vitamins, and about 1/2 cup ground flax seed. I soak
the beet pulp and XTN and then add the flax seed just before feeding. She
also gets Bermuda grass hay. I hope someone can tell me if this is
enough, too much or too little or the wrong feed all together.
Thanks very much.
Patsy
When you ride a mule, getting there is all the
fun!!
