Best feed balancer?

[only_me]

For various reasons, I am moving onto feeding straights (maize,oats,barley, chaff and fibre-beet) and need a feed balancer to ensure is a balanced diet.
What one do you reccomend? Just a general one, as he is also living out 24/7 but need to make sure he is getting right nutrients
Probably not a balancer in feed as such, more as a general vit/min supplement?

Reccomendations please?

 

[nemo_]

I feed my connie, who is a reasonably good doer, Spillers Lite Balancer and he looks the best he ever has! He's also very fussy but loves it and it's cheaper than quite a few of the others around.

 

[Foxhunter49]

Quite honestly if you are going back to feeding straights then there is no need to feed so much variety.
You would be better off feeding Equilibra and Tiger Oats if you horse is in work and needs more energy. Although the Equilibra is expensive they need little of it and so it lasts longer. The Tiger Oats are black and white oats and contain some Equilibra in them so it balances anything missing.
I have been feeding this with a grass chaff for several tears and couldn't be more pleased with the way everything looks and behaves.
I would never go back to mixes.

 

[only_me]

I have to take away wheat from the diet, which is why going onto straights and not feeding anyform of nut or mix/complete feed as one of the main ingredients in every feed is wheatfeed

He will hopefully only be on straights for a month or so, and then can hopefully start introducing small amounts of balancer/mix.

Its a supplement to keep his feed balance, using the word balancer (as in to balance the diet) is probably not the best term
I only feed small amounts of barley, majority of feed will be maize, oats and chaff

 

[jaspejoo]

if he is out all the time he really shouldn't need any extra nutrients....we did a ration calculation in our nutrition module of my degree, and my horse is out all the time, and gets half a scoop of alfa a and half a cup of competition mix (just to be nice) and he had 200X his daily requirement of all his key nutrients because he was out all the time! to be honest, they are a bit of a money making gimmick if you ask me

 

[Ali2]

Unless you know what's in your grazing and forage then nothing is really going to balance your minerals. Its not just about getting enough in its about getting the ratios right too.

I'd get a grass and hay analysis done and balance the minerals according to the rest of the diet

 

[Firewell]

Just our of pure curiosity why are you taking out wheat?

I would get a powdered vitamin and min supplement as I *think* pelleted balancers may have a small amout of wheatfeed in them too, maybe surelimb or pink powder as hes a competition horse...
If its just for a month though and he's out at grass he may be ok without the supplement, mine looks amazing at the moment and I know its the grass!

 

[only_me]

He has lumps that look like hives over his belly, which are going but have been put down to wheat (in feb I was feeding him a lot of cooked cereal meal which is basically wheat for weight gain) so we are taking him off it to see if they improve etc.
So by going back to straights, we can then start to add small amounts of feed to see how much wheat he can tolerate (its not an allergy, more of an intolerance, but because of how much he was being fed of it, it could have been the quantity of wheat rather than the actual wheat itself). We don't think he will be on it for long, maybe a couple of months, and then onto a balancer hopefully

Yeah, more of a supplement really, I know a lot of people swear by seaweed,but a lot of people hate seaweed - so confused over that really!

 

[Hedwards]

Most feed companies do decent allround feed balancers now, Bailey's low cal No.14 is good, Topspec Lite balancer is also good, I'm just doing some comparisons as I'm considering moving to the Spillers Lite balancer (we have a spillers nutritionist coming to our yard in a couple of weeks with a weigh bridge so going to speak to them).

Why not give one of the feed companies nutrician line a call and speak to them, I'd highly recommend the Baileys one - really helpful and very friendly people!

 

[maisey belle]

Why dont you give simple systems a call or visit their web site? they give excellent advise. I switched my mare to it 2 years ago after a ryegrass intolerance had been picked by hair analysis. I would not take her off it for anything now. I know plenty of people who now use it and it has helped many different problems in their horses. Worth a thought anyway...

 

[j1ffy]

Seaweed has certain minerals that your horse may or may not need. It has a lot of iodine which isn't suitable in some areas due to the forage. Similarly, brewers yeast can be good but it depends on what needs balancing Pink powder or similar is probably easiest.

Regardless, I would add 25g per day of magnesium especially if he's out at grass (you can get 85% magnesium calmag on eBay quite cheap). Then, as Ali2 said the best thing is to have your forage analysed. I'd like to do that too but due to the shortage of hay my yard kept changing suppliers so it was a bit pointless!!