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What do you feed a Shetland pony?
Ponies eat grass, hay, and grain on occasion. A pony typically requires a daily ration of forage equal to 2% of body weight. They may need a mineral salt block if they lack essential minerals in their diet.
Can you feed a Shetland pony carrots?
Apples and carrots are safest to feed cut into pieces. Only feed a very small amount of any hard foods like mints and hay cubes. A greedy horse may not chew the treat completely and bolt it down. The food can then become lodged in the horse’s throat, causing choke.
What can ponies not eat?
What Foods & Plants are Poisonous to Horses?
- Caffeine. While tiny amounts of caffeine probably won’t hurt your horse, you should still avoid giving him any foods that have caffeine in it.
- Avocado.
- Fruits with Stones (or Pits)
- Cauliflower, Cabbage, Broccoli.
- Bran Products.
- Potatoes.
- Rhubarb.
- Meat Products.
What do Shetland ponies like to eat?
The main part of a Shetland pony’s diet is grass. He eats for as long as 16 hours per day, so can eat lots more grass than you might have in your garden. Just like us, ponies like to eat a range of foods. They are especially fond of milk thistles in summer and eat prickly common thistles in winter.
What do ponies eat in the winter?
They are especially fond of milk thistles in summer and eat prickly common thistles in winter. They also enjoy other spikey plants such as blackberries, both the fruits and leaves, in the autumn. When it’s cold, the grass stops growing and ponies may need to be fed hay, which is dried grass, as a supplement to their normal grazing.
What kind of hay do you feed a pony?
Ponies need only the fraction of the feed that horses do. Hay for ponies should be good quality grass hay. Your pony probably won’t need the nutrition provided by alfalfa and clovers. These fodders, which are more energy and nutrient dense than many grass hay, are often too rich for a pony.
Is there such a thing as good pasture for a pony?
You may never be able to leave some ponies on good pasture. Ponies can become obese very quickly and that can lead to health problems like metabolic syndrome. Good pasture for a pony would be one that he has to work at finding the grass in. Sparse grass that grows slowly would be ideal.