Cheaper feed balancers, benefits of oil & treat ball q's?

Sol

Sol

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Looking for a cheaper alternative to TopSpec feed balancer? Trying to save some money so that I will be able to keep Dante, hopefully! Anything helps :)
I've heard that the power supplements are cheaper than the pellet balancers? However he has a treat ball at night (he gets bored easily) so has his chaff, balancer & sometimes some chopped fruit/veg in there... if I used a power he'd have to have this in his morning feed (bucket) I guess as otherwise it wouldn't get eaten I presume! So would have to use something else, pony nuts?, in his ball.... which probably wont work out cheaper anyway?!

Someone tell me if I'm being silly or a cheap alternative to filling his treat ball?

He's looking quite well on the balancer with just a scoop of Alfa A with it (morning & evening).
He also gets garlic, parsley & linseed oil - mostly for the garlic (for summer, but has it all year round anyway) and the oil - is there any real benefit to him having the oil?

Thanks,
Sol x.
 
Can you split his morning feed and put some of it in his ball?

I buy D & H daily vits and mins. It costs me £9 and lasts my 14hh pony almost 2 months normally
 
That sounds a lot cheaper! :) Just worried that having only chaff in his ball wont be that interesting for him :( As if I cut out the balancer & replace with a powered one, he'll just get the Alfa A and sometimes an apple!! :o
 
Pony nuts are about £6 a bag, you could shove a couple of handfuls in the treatball over night and a bag (if stored correctly) should keep for a couple of months, I reckon it takes me 2 1/2 months to get through a bag if not longer.

Oil is good as it's a good way to get calories in without fizz, what oil do you feed? Vegetable or sunflower oil from the supermarket is cheap and you can build it up to half a mug a day.

As for a vitamin/mineral balancer, pay for a soil sample to be done on your grazing and only feed the vitamins you need to.

Why do you feed garlic and parsley?

If you are looking for a way to entertain overnight, I give my horse two water buckets, a large and a small and he gets an apple in the smaller one... horses love apple bobbing! (Carrots, as we have found, do not float!), the other thing I do to stop boredom is to cut up a carrot or two into lots of little bits and hide them around the stable, he notices the ones in the haynet first but by the morning he's spotted and eaten every bit (there are a couple of walls and ledges and they get hidden in bits of floor without bedding etc) you can buy big bags of carrots cheaply from places like Countrywide and if you're on a yard share with someone else and take it in turns to buy as it stops the carrots spoiling as they're used quicker.

Hope that helps!!
 
Will look into the price of pony nuts then to double check, it could work! :)

Oil is linseed - comes pre mixed with the garlic & parsley, hence buying the bottle as we've always fed garlic to aid with the flies in summer....

Buckets are a no go, he'd just tip them over.... he doesn't have a hay net as I don't think it's good for them to eat out of one, and his walls are flat! :o
Not the easiest is it!?

Thanks!
 
Ooooo I have just halved my feed bill! Will share :)

Mine has scoop Alfa a oil morn and night (figuring as it's the oil version can feed a bit less then the normal version as it's a bit higher in energy), mug low cal balancer morn and night, a bag costs £25 and lasts me 6 weeks. It's brilliant! I know it says low cal but that's decieving as balancers dont have calories in them anyway! It just means it's low in starch then some of the others which is good for my sometimes flighty Tb. He blooms on this balancer.
Glug of veg oil from the supermarket in each feed.
Economy nuts (£5.50!), he gets 3 handfuls in his ball at night and I think the bag is going to last me months!

I really rate the low cal balancer though as a cheaper alternative, it's really good. I'd never buy topspec or blue chip, they are sooooo expensive!
:)
 
Topspec works out cheaper for me - One has a full ration, the other has a half ration and equates to about £1.50 to feed both a day. The half ration pony then has half a scoop of Good Doer, which has lasted AGES, other one has 1 1/2 scoops of Alfa A.
 
If you still wish to feed a balancer look at bailey stud balancer, not used it for a few years but used to be half the price and the same stuff, baileys rep once told me its called that cos studs won' pay the same price as normal riders
 
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