Are there any negatives to feeding grass nuts?

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sonjafoers

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I was thinking of adding grass nuts to my TBs feed over winter to help her maintain condition. She is quite sharp & spooky so needs something that won't fizz her up too much.

I've been reading through threads on here & people who feed them seem very happy with them. Does anyone know of any reason not to feed them?

Thank you
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Sorry I know this is obvious but can I advise not to EVER feed them dry; I know someone who did feed dry grass nuts to their pony and it caused a choke. Luckily pony was OK - but it was a near thing.

No personal experience of feeding them tho' - so sorry can't help.
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i understand where you are coming from but horses can choke on nything so this isn't really a fair arguent
 
MiJodsR2BlinkinTite said:
Sorry I know this is obvious but can I advise not to EVER feed them dry; I know someone who did feed dry grass nuts to their pony and it caused a choke. Luckily pony was OK - but it was a near thing.

No personal experience of feeding them tho' - so sorry can't help.
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The same could be said about any cube. The thing to remember about grass nuts is that is just what they are. They have not been ballanced in any way and are nutritionaly just rather good grass .They must be considered a straight feed . Personaly I like them (or rather did ,till the price of oil made them so expensive). "Back in the day" I used to sell quite a lot ,together with Lucerne cubes,and even straw cubes. Lucerne is usefull if you understand its limitations and is also very much an acquired taste (very bitter).
 
broke_but_happy said:
Mike I actually thought they sounded quite cheap? My feed merchant has them at £8 for 25kg.
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£320 per tonne. Not bad when you consider the price of hay weight for weight thats equivalent to £6.40 for a conventional bale . Of course its a lot richer and you couldnt just substitute one for the other .
 
The one big negative I found was that my two boys didn't really like them! They are fussy tb's thought. Might be worth asking for a sample before buying a big bag.........
 
We feed a variety of horses, with grass nuts as the main bulk of their feed. The good doers get a very small amount, the old lady has a much larger amount, along with sugar beet. We have found no real drawbacks to them, we do tend to feed them as a mash. I cannot see any reason not to use them, as they provide nutrition in the most 'normal' form for horses.
 
Thank you everyone, I did know about soaking them MyJods - having had a horse who suffered from choke I tend to feed everything damp/wet!

I would only be feeding them as an 'extra' to already balanced feed just to help her maintain condition, but I'm now wondering whether she will eat them. She is quite fussy, won't eat lucerne (alfalfa) in any form apart from TopSpecs and won't eat sugarbeet - I just thought as she ate grass she would eat these. Maybe I'm thinking too literally :)

Mike007 are they just pure grass or do they contain anything else?
 
Never tried grass nuts, though have considered them. I don't tink ANY feed should be fed dry, even mixes and straights. I feed all mine with a good amount of water.
 
My arabs do fab on them, & no silliness in the spring when it starts to come through in the field. You can get them with different protein levels (eg from simple systems), I use the low protein ones. My friends 23 yr old tb does very well on the high protein (red bag from ss) ones, has never looked better & still working.

As a previous post said, I always feed soaked, never as a dry nut.
 
YorksG said:
We feed a variety of horses, with grass nuts as the main bulk of their feed. The good doers get a very small amount, the old lady has a much larger amount, along with sugar beet. We have found no real drawbacks to them, we do tend to feed them as a mash. I cannot see any reason not to use them, as they provide nutrition in the most 'normal' form for horses.
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We do , also, make sure that any-one who has grassnuts gets an equal amount (at least) of dried grass. The old lady has been known to choke without that, even with soaked nuts.
As for palatability, we have used them to carry supplements that the horses won't eat otherwise.
 
Ive always fed grass nuts. Mainly to add extra protein to the diet, in a sugar free form.

Just watch the protein levels though if you need to. For example alfalfa pellets come up as 16% protein, whereas Simple System blue grass pellets are lower, at 8%.

I tend to soak overnight, rather like sugar beet and it forms a dark green mush.
 
Absolutely godsend for my 42 yo gelding (RIP!!). I soaked huge buckets of them and they turned into grass slush which he licked up as he couldn't graze very well any more. He looked shiny and beautiful until the end.
 
There may be a binding agent, but not usually mollasses, the feed company who suplies will tell you what their binding agent is, if they use one.
 
I fed grass nut for many years and only stopped because I now seem to have nothing but good doers. Used to get them direct from the driers, 16% protein, no molasses. Always fed soaked, they are very hard and I heard of horses breaking their teeth on them. Very useful for veterans and youngstock, mixed as a mash in with Hi Fi or Fibergy and D&H Suregrow (which is also brilliant for older horses)
 
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