Diet Ok?

[AlaskanShepherdess]

This winter has been hard monetarily for my husband and I and we just ran out of hay at the wrong time, when we ran out of money. Hubby's boss found a big job so we should be able to get some more pretty quick here but I was just wondering if in the meantime if their diet is ok.

Thankfully we had enough to buy plenty of alfalfa pellets and barley. So for the last 10 days I have been giving them (5 Nigerians) 2, quart yogurt containers of alfalfa pellets and 2 yogurt containers of barley in the mornings. With plenty of dried powdered wheat grass and kelp. They are hungry in the mornings but not acting like they are starved. It hit me this morning that I should probably be splitting that into two feedings so I'll start that tomorrow.

Ok or no?

BTW my 3 over conditioned does are finally beginning to lose a bit of weight with this "diet" and the one who was at a ideal weight is maintaining so I'm pretty happy about that!

 

[ksalvagno]

I say do what you gotta do. Doesn't sound bad to me. You found a way to feed them and that is the main thing.

 

[Our7Wonders]

Nutrition wise I would say it's ok. My only concern would be their rumen. I *think* others on here have said that they need long stemmy stuff to keep their rumens functioning. I'm new to this so I really couldn't tell you for sure.

 

[elevan]

Long stemmy stuff is needed for the rumen to function...how long they can go without it before the rumen starts shutting down someone else will have to answer cause I don't know.

Free long stemmy stuff can be hard to come by in winter, especially I'd say in Alaska. Maybe you could give them some pine boughs too? If you have any around...

You do what you've got to do, I know I've been there too. Good luck to you!