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Thank you very much for your reply.  That's a very good discription of Ruby!   The hay quality can vary, depending on where we are able to get it so I will pick up some alfalfa pellets.  She will love that!   I will keep a close eye on her condition and adjust the feed accordingly. 

 

Thanks again.

 

Patsy

 

 

"Susan E. Garlinghouse, D.V.M." <suendavid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

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

 

 

When you ride a mule, getting there is all the fun!!