D&H High Fibre Nuts or Mix?

cblover

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I'm doing a bit of research as I'm looking to buy either mix or nuts to encourage a fussy eater to take her minerals from a Forage plus. Sarah Brathwaite (great help by the way!) suggested a mix to help but after doing some reading through the archives on here, most people seem to feed nuts.

Which does your horse prefer? Cheers.
 

FfionWinnie

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Wouldn't touch them with a ten foot pole.

Ingredients for the mix:

Oatfeed, Nutritionally Improved Straw, Alfalfa, Wheatfeed, Cane Molasses, Wheat, Barley, Extracted Sunflower, Maize, Vegetable Oil, Calcium Carbonate, Distiller's Wheat Grains, Full Fat Soya, Salt, Vitamin/Trace Mineral Premix, Peas, Unmolassed Sugar Beet, Magnesium Oxide, Dicalcium Phosphate, Prairie Meal, Methionine, L-Lysine, Fructose, Mint.



It's junk! Feed straights and know what you're feeding. Micronised linseed is very palatable, alfalfa pellets another consideration. So too is adding fenugreek or mint.
 

Holzdweaver

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I wouldnt feed either of those, but to be fair i wouldnt feed any mix or 'cube' anyway. have you tried dried mint? my boy has to have a sprinking of spearmint powder if i add anything to his feed, then i wean him off it. Very cheaply available and lasts a long time.

if it was just a choice of those two, when i had my old mare she preferred mix over nuts if it helps
 

be positive

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My fussy ISH is happy on plain soaked grass nuts, he will not eat alfalfa pellets, he would probably eat a mix but is not getting that option as he is barefoot and it is not worth the risk.
 

cblover

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Thanks, much appreciated. I know she loves extra strong mints so mint could be very useful here.

Where could I buy it from? I've not had my new horse long but she has a raging abscess in her hind hoof and once we're over this Id like to do the job right by giving her forage plus minerals. I've used them before with superb results so I know they work.

My intention is to feed fast fibre, micronised linseed, minerals and some appetiser to get her to eat it. She's not too bad with the linseed but not too good with FF.

She's hyper sensitive to anything new in there though....clever girl!! Lol

Any other suggestions would be good.
 

Holzdweaver

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Mine didnt like FF, took him off it and now hes on Soaked grass nuts and speedibeet instead, these meet his approval haha! I feed the Spearmint powder by Equimins, its very strong and i only need a tiny scoop. He refuses to touch his feed when i introduce magnesium powder in the spring and yet with this stuff added he licks the bucket clean. think its about a tenner for a kilogram, you can also get dried mint leaf from most feed places, but also from most supermarkets. As a stop gap i found 100g tubs in a local health food shop :)
 

supsup

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Mixes tend to be higher in sugar than cubes, even for the same type of feed (D&H high fibre, in this case), because they often have a light molasses coating to prevent any dust. I think that's why some horses prefer a mix, it's simply sweeter. If you're trying to disguise powders, a mix might also work a bit better because the powder may stick better to the molassed mix than it would to cubes.
Depends of course whether your horse has any particular issues feed-wise, whether you need to minimize sugars.
I think a lot of people prefer cubes over mixes because they are trying to avoid the molasses. But if you're really struggling to get the supplement in, and a bit of molasses doesn't bother you, then I think the mix will probably be the tastier option.
 
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