bran for weight gain?

weesophz

weesophz

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one of the liverys at my yard suggested i feed bran to fox to help get the weight on him.. id never heard of bran being used as a weight gain feed, i thought it was for those with tummy upsets (dont know if thats right either, its just what u was told when i was younger! :o)

anyone use it? and what for?
 
Hi! I use RICE bran for weight gain, which is quite different to traditional wheat bran. You should not feed a lot of on a regular basis due to it's inversed calcium - phosphurous ratio unless you are balancing this out by adding more calcium :)
 
Don't know about horses but humans use it to bulk out food and make them regular. I thought it was mostly fibre with little calorific value. It also absorbs iron and can lead to anaemia. seems odd:confused:
 
http://www.thunderbrook.co.uk/freshly-milled-organic-bran/

Some good reading there on bran - its the high phospherous you have to be careful of with bran - to make sure you balance it with calcium. It only tends to act as a laxative if you feed it as a one off big mash when the gut bacteria arent used to it.

I like the thunder brooks basemix, bran and live oats for putting on weight or for poor doers - its much too good for a good doer mind.
 
I use bran for my oldie to keep his gut moving since he had colic.

It works for that purpose but I dont believe it has any nutritional value to speak of. I also feed limestone flour to balance it.
 
I swore by Bran last year when my boy lost weight - helps A LOT! I used just traditional bran and balanced it with limestone. Made it up with hot water and then a bit of cold too cool it down before giving it to him. Needs to be really damp but I found it went a bit yuck if left damp overnight for breakfast feed. It can make them a bit runny as well if you don't bulk it out with some high fibre food and give them plenty of hay. Doesn't seem to have much in it energy wise and Budley became really lathargic. I've got him on calm and condition this year and he hasn't dropped any weight so far (he doesn't hold weight in the winter at all!) If you want something for weight gain, that doesn't need supplementing, might be woth looking into that?
 
rockysmum said:
t I dont believe it has any nutritional value to speak of
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How wrong you are.....! From my link that I posted earlier.....

So you think wheat bran has very little nutritive value and is mainly used as a laxative rather than a food source? Think again! Here's some facts. Freshly milled stoneground organic wheat bran has:

Higher total antioxidant capacity than many berries, fruits and vegetables (including some 'super foods' such as blueberries, raspberries, plums, etc).

It has an ORAC rating (Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity!) of 80, compared to 62 for blueberries. Antioxidants are very important in 'mopping up' free radical damage during times of stress, disease and injury.

More protein than sugar beet and about the same as alfalfa (15.6% crude protein compared to 10.0% sugar beet pulp, 14 to 16% alfalfa)

Similar levels of digestible energy to both sugar beet and alfalfa (10.8MJ/kg compared to 11.0 for sugar beet and 10.0 for alfalfa)

only 0.4% sugar (non-molassed sugar beet can contain up to 7% residual sugar in the pulp, molassed can contain up to 25% or more)

starch and sugar contents are low, and fibre content is high, making it a suitable feed for horses with metabolic problems such as insulin resistance, should the owner wish to 'bulk' the hard feed out.
Click to expand...
 
Apparently Omega rice by falcon feeds is amazing for poor doers, but I notice it is based on rice bran and..... Yes you guessed it..... HHO's very fave.... Micronised linseed! And I don't think it has the calcium phosphorus problem. So I guess you could try feeding those two components as probably cheaper... but normal bran may help too.
 
When I was a horse owner previously (the 1970s) horses' feeds were mostly comprised of bran. You put a generous few scoops of bran in a bucket, add a little oats and maybe a scoop of pony cubes, dampen with water and there's your feed. :D

Sometimes linseed, sugar beet or molasses were added to the above.

I'm told the bran we used then was much better quality than is available now though. We certainly believed it helped keep weight on, if a horse was a poor doer they got extra bran. :o
 
I quote from theHorse.com, Article 6350, by Maria King, on Equine Winter Nutrition:
"The number 1 myth is the benefits of hot bran mashes," says Williams (Carey Williams, PhD, Equine Nutrition). "Wheat bran does not serve as a laxative, nor does it keep the horse warm. Bran mash is what we, as nutritionists, call a 'comfort food.' It makes the owner feel better! Although it is neither harmful nor helpful to your horse, do not make a daily practice of this as wheat bran is not nutritionally balanced for horses and may throw off the mineral ratios of their normal ration."
 
I feed it because it helps with my lack of phosphorus and is palatable so helps minerals go down. I haven't found it especially good for weight gain. I tend to feed proportionally more to the one out of work that is watching his waistline.
 
Rice bran is outstandingly awesome..notable results after just 5 days(and that was introducing semi gradually but not too carefully. I swear by Falcon feeds - the 20kg bag is best value. I also use micronized linseed & always have bran in my feed room..can aid to loosen or dry up upset by feeding wet as a warm mash (never hot) or sprinkle some on feed dry if watery tum..(with caution-add salt to encourage drinking in this case) so basically a good tum settler for upsets/scourers/constipation..bulks out feed too so if you had a good does(never have) you could use it to give him the impression he's getting more..but do add limestone for the calcium and I always add salt. Do your research & introduce gradually. Omega Rice(Falcon Feeds) is exceptionally good for fusspots who need tempting too & has lots of benefits-www.falconequinefeeds.co.uk and its listed under supplements or conditioning i think
 
With so many nutritionally balanced weight gain products on the market why would you use bran? Years ago bran was a better product. Nowadays wheat is milled to death and the resulting bran is pretty rubbish.

I would use one of the other tried and tested products recommended on here :)
 
TigerTail said:
How wrong you are.....! From my link that I posted earlier.....
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TT I doubt that the bran in horse feed is that lovely sounding stuff you are describing. I think nowadays the milling process is so thorough that your normal cheap bran is basically dust.
 
Fair point Clodagh - hence why mine comes from Thunderbrooks organic milling plant :)

Hedgewitch13 - im guessing you're talking about things like baileys conditioning feeds etc? In which case id rather use straights and bran any day, no questionable binders/fillers or high sugar contents unsuitable to a scrub grazing animal.
 
I think today's bran is far too processed to have any feed value at all, unless you can get it from somewhere like TigerTails does.

Pigs (and show cobs!) used to be fed middlings which I think was a form of bran as that seemed to help with weight gain but not sure if you can still buy it.
 
jodie3 said:
I think today's bran is far too processed to have any feed value at all, unless you can get it from somewhere like TigerTails does.

Pigs (and show cobs!) used to be fed middlings which I think was a form of bran as that seemed to help with weight gain but not sure if you can still buy it.
Click to expand...

I think you mean "thirds", lots of people I know use it for weight gain. My feed merchant won't stock it, which is a shame because i'd like to use it
 
TigerTail said:
How wrong you are.....! From my link that I posted earlier.....


More protein than sugar beet and about the same as alfalfa (15.6% crude protein compared to 10.0% sugar beet pulp, 14 to 16% alfalfa)

Similar levels of digestible energy to both sugar beet and alfalfa (10.8MJ/kg compared to 11.0 for sugar beet and 10.0 for alfalfa)
Click to expand...

Not disagreeing with this but if you think how light bran is and how heavy sugarbeet is, then you are unlikely to feed it in the amounts to take advantage of the protein and calorie levels. The big lad gets a scoop of Speedibeet and a scoop of bran, the sugarbeet comes to about 600g dry weight the bran possibly not even a third of that.

I might look at getting the Thunderbrook stuff, as I said I feed it for phosphorous and palatability but looks like I can add some extra benefits by switching to this from the standard stuff.
 
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