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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!!


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[RC] Question for Dr Garlinghouse.....or anyone who can help enlighten me!, Patsy Davis