Foals can be orphaned or have the need for supplemental feeding for several reasons. These include:
Death of the dam.
Rejection of the foal by the dam.
Illness of the dam resulting in decreased milk production.
Complete agalactia (failure of the dam to produce any milk) in the dam.
For whatever reason the foal is deprived of its normal source of nutrition, appropriate nutrition is needed to ensure proper health and growth of the foal. If the foal is orphaned or rejected at the time of birth, the first question to answer in the nutrition of a newborn foal is – did the foal receive colostrum? Colostrum is the first milk that the mare produces. It is different from regular milk in that it is higher in both energy and protein. The proteins that are most important are antibodies. The foal is able to absorb these antibodies intake during the first day of life.
Key points about colostrum as a source of antibodies:
Antibodies are essential in providing the foal with protection against bacteria that are normally found in our environment. Without this protection, the foal is at a high risk of developing a life threatening infection.
If the foal did not receive colostrum from its dam and it is less than 24 hours of age, then it should be given colostrum from another mare.
DO NOT expect to supplement foals by "syringing" milk into the mouth. Many foals will quietly suck the milk into the lungs, rather than the stomach!
The advantages of nurse mare fostering include the following:
Good natural nutrition.
Labor saving (after the initial introduction).
Socialization of the orphan foal.
Disadvantages of the nurse mare option:
Expense is often a disadvantage in nurse mare fostering.
Mares are generally leased for 4–5 months while they raise their adopted foal. Costs vary but can range from $2500-$3500.
In addition to the lease cost, many contracts include that the mare must be bred back before she is returned.
The mare's natural foal is now an orphan.
A good nurse mare farm is set up to handle orphan foals, but check the farm.
Nurse mares are not always available in all parts of the country.
Hand Raising Your Foal
Hand raising a foal can be done either with bottle or bucket feeding. Bottle feeding may be the easiest at the beginning because it is plays on the natural reflex of the foal to suckle. Ultimately, it is better to teach the foal to drink from a bucket, because this is less labor intensive. Bucket feeding also minimizes bonding to humans. This may at first glance may seem to be a disadvantage but if the foal bonds to the caretaker rather than other horses, it may develop undesirable or even dangerous behaviors.
Foals can be taught to bucket feed by repeatedly but gently dipping their muzzle into a bowl of warm milk replacer. Alternatively, if the foal has a good suckle response, you can lead its head down to the milk as it suckles on your finger. Patience is definitely a virtue in this endeavor. It may take several hours to teach the foal where the milk is.
The normal newborn nursing foal will nurse between 5-7 times per hour for short periods of time. It is difficult to mimic this type of feeding schedule in the orphan foal. However, healthy foals can tolerate large deviations in this normal schedule.
For the first week of life, foals should be offered food every 1-2 hours. By the time the foal is 4 weeks old you can decrease the frequency of feeding to 4 times a day. It is important to remember to keep the bucket clean and discard leftover milk.
Generally the normal nursing foal will eat 25-30% of its body weight per day. For the 100 pound foal this works out to 25–30 pounds or 12.5-15 quarts of milk replacer.
Hay and grain should be available for the foal from an early age. Normal foals pick at the dam's food as early as the first week of life. Solid food does not provide adequate nutrition to the foal until it is about 2-3 months of age. Milk pellets can be added to the grain to ensure adequate nutrition. Foals can be weaned off the milk replacer around 3-4 months of age.
