Cheaper alternative to Baileys No.4 topline conditioning cubes........

Chellery1 said:
How did you find the ready mash extra compared to the no.4 then?? My tb would get through 2 stubs scoops of nuts in a day where as 1stubbs scoop of ready mash makes a massive ammount that I could split into atleast 3 feeds...thus lasting longer! Sooo confused right now lol


Ahhhh......wish. Had one of those types that sniffed ass and put on weight!
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I too wish I had one of those, mines a nightmare to put weight on which is why I have tried EVERYTHING!

I did various feed profiles for him on feed xl website, not sure if Im allowed mention it here? It cost me about £6 to join - it analyses the nutrition profiles of your horse (depending on weight, breed, level of work, good or poor doer) and what their needs are, and had to change all my feed initially as what I was feeding wasn't enough. It also helped me work out how much everything was costing depending on bag size/ supplements/ daily cost/ and costs if I substituted with similar brand that had same nutrition profile. Then I did some more research and I basically went from him getting 1 scoop alfa a, 1 scoop cubes, 250g balancer, 300g soy flakes and his supplement x2 a day to 1 scoop alfa a, 1 scoop ready mash (before soaking),500g soy flakes and supplements. (though I have variously experimented with outshine, barley rings etc).

What I found doing the feed profile is the amout of ready mash I needed to feed (a scoop of cubes is 1.8kg, vs mash dry weight a scoop is 1.15kg) so you are not swapping like for like, make sure you are giving him nutritionally like for like, not just what looks like the same amount.
 
Sugarbeet, if it doesn't send him crazy, is a very cheap and very effective weight gain feed.

There's a couple of cheaper brands of plain alfalfa. See what your feed store has. If you need to feed chaff to pad it out, it's much cheaper. Add your own oil.

My feed store does it's own brand conditioning cubes. Much cheaper!

If you want to feed a horse ball, get barley rings (high energy and also a fabulous size) and put a good handful or two of chaff into the ball. Slows it's release considerably. Barley rings are cheap and should last you a good 3 or 4 weeks if your not generous.
 
Go onto straights it will work out much cheaper.
I'd go with oats, sugar beet and micronised linseed with brewers yeast which is a digestion aid so that he gets the most from his diet plus ad lib hay/haylage.
Oats £8 25kg bag (last nearly a month
SB £7 (probably last a month
ML and BY from Charnwood Milling http://www.charnwoodmilling.co.uk/mail-order/Horse_Food.html which will cost approx £70 for both but will last you nearly a year so £6 a month.
Shame he doesn't like the soaked grass pellets (Graze On are the best I've found) as they are usually great weight producers and would save on needing any chaff at all.

Echo the barley rings too although I would soak them and add to the meal.
 
When I had a skinny horse, she did just as well on cheapo pony nuts as Baileys No 4.

Dont get the high fibre ones though - tried these and she lost weight on them
 
Hi, I found with my skinny minny that feeding Bailey's no 1 along with no 4 worked wonders! And it doesn't send them loopy. I'd also recommend ditching the outshine overpriced and overrated imo.
 
aimsymc said:
Hi, I found with my skinny minny that feeding Bailey's no 1 along with no 4 worked wonders! And it doesn't send them loopy. I'd also recommend ditching the outshine overpriced and overrated imo.
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Well I've got a bag to use up and then I'll switch the outshine to micronised linseed. I'm going to check out the price of baileys racing nuts as they are the same thing as no.4 ..except more vitamins and 0.5. % more protein....baileys are sneaky ******s! The racing nuts are quite a few quid cheaper too!!! Someone told me this on here and I checked it out.......
 
i tried no 4 and didnt rate it with my boy i was going through 2 bags a week! changed to spillers HDF layoff cubes and at £10 a bag its a bit cheaper and only 1 bag a week! they are conditioning and give loads of stamina but not fizzy .ive been very pleased with them.:)
 
Our 30 yr old who is hard to keep condition on does exceptionally well on Speedibeet, soaked grassnuts, grass chaff, linseed oil and a dollop of molasses with ad-lib haylage. She is pretty cheap to keep, although she eats plenty.
 
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