Dengi Alfa Pellets and Grass Nuts

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Carrots&Mints

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Call me thick but are these the same thing? just that the bag of dengi is about £12 from my feed store and the grass nuts not so much!
 
They are not the same.

Alfa - is a legume, also known as leucerne

Grass is well grass!

Both are good fibre feed sources. I'd avoid grass pellets if you have a fatty/laminitic
 
No hes a section D who needs more weight on!

Does anyone know of any alternative to the dengi then? Friend gets somthing similar but for litrally half the price.
 
CBFan said:
As above... My horse LOVES grass nuts and does very well on them too. I prefer to soak them prior to feeding - Have you seen how much they swell?
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No not seen how much they swell. He gets a mix of conditioning cubes and alfa pellets, about 1 mug of each x2 feeds daily.
 
Its a pretty big mug, it was just short of having 500g of pellets when I weighed it, so probably about 1kg split into 2 feeds, hes been on this for a while now and i can see the difference. A big stubs scoob holds 1.8 kg and I bet the mug scoop fills over a quarter of that,.

Sorry dont think ive explained myself well in the above post - he gets 1 mug of conditioning cubes and 1 mug of pellets in each feed x 2 daily
 
Well I really want to increase the fibre not the cubes to be honest with you, and with the dengi cubes having a good amount of protein and not alot of starch, and the conditioning cubes have a lot of starch in them.
 
Really depends on what you are trying to achieve.

Increase fibre- I dont really see the point of a handful/ scoop of chaff- adlib hay or longer good turnout (if possible) would be best :)
 
Is he kept stabled?

So let me get this right, you want more fibre? and Weight?

I would up the conditioning mix and give more hay.

Spring grass is coming - I wouldn't be surprised if in 6 weeks you have the opposite problem :)
 
If you want mre fibre then the cheapest way to do that (and the best for the horse) is by feeding mre hay or increase turnout but if he won't eat more hay or you can't increase turnout then grass nuts are very useful. My pony lives on them as he can eat hay and does very well. If you want less protein, then speedi beet is a good alternative. Stick a mug full of micronised linseed in for good measure :)
 
_HP_ said:
If you want mre fibre then the cheapest way to do that (and the best for the horse) is by feeding mre hay or increase turnout but if he won't eat more hay or you can't increase turnout then grass nuts are very useful. My pony lives on them as he can eat hay and does very well. If you want less protein, then speedi beet is a good alternative. Stick a mug full of micronised linseed in for good measure :)
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Hes on Haylage at the moment and thats the only option we have at our yard, we dont get hay :( unfortunatly, hence why i like the dengi pellets. Plus hes stabled and he will only be going out max 4 hours a day once fields are ready (this week hopefully) Tried speedy beet and he got a big pot belly last time - not what i need when Im trying to show him :)
 
I've also looked for cheap Alfalfa pellets which are available in my area (as in 100% alfalfa pellets), and my options was limited to either Dengie or Simple Systems. Emerald Green Feeds do them too, for much less, but their delivery by the pallet made it impractical to buy as a single horse owner like me. If they are within driving distance from you, they may be option for you. http://www.emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk/products-page/

Just a question - are you sure it wasn't the haylage or feed at the time that gave your horse a pot belly, and not the speedibeet? It is a shame if you can't feed speedibeet as it's such a great feed. And I was going to suggest Fibrebeet with a balancer, but again if you don't want to give him anything containing speedibeet, then this isn't an option.

Another option is to maybe use one of the chops, e.g. Alfa A Molasses Free, instead of Alfalfa pellets, to see if works out more economical for you, but you'll probably get further with the alfalfa pellets when feeding it soaked. If I was you I'd stop feeding the conditioning cubes and feed him soaked alfalfa and lots of soaked grass pellets, a cup of micronised linseed a day plus a feed balancer.
 
After much deliberation over feed I've just started my lean ex racer on a mixture of Alfa beet (1kg) simple systems red bag grass pellets (500g) spillers original balancer (500g) and linseed (250g) split over 3 feeds a day. Been on it about a week and already looking better!
 
npage123 said:
I've also looked for cheap Alfalfa pellets which are available in my area (as in 100% alfalfa pellets), and my options was limited to either Dengie or Simple Systems. Emerald Green Feeds do them too, for much less, but their delivery by the pallet made it impractical to buy as a single horse owner like me. If they are within driving distance from you, they may be option for you. http://www.emeraldgreenfeeds.co.uk/products-page/

Just a question - are you sure it wasn't the haylage or feed at the time that gave your horse a pot belly, and not the speedibeet? It is a shame if you can't feed speedibeet as it's such a great feed. And I was going to suggest Fibrebeet with a balancer, but again if you don't want to give him anything containing speedibeet, then this isn't an option.

Another option is to maybe use one of the chops, e.g. Alfa A Molasses Free, instead of Alfalfa pellets, to see if works out more economical for you, but you'll probably get further with the alfalfa pellets when feeding it soaked. If I was you I'd stop feeding the conditioning cubes and feed him soaked alfalfa and lots of soaked grass pellets, a cup of micronised linseed a day plus a feed balancer.
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There is a shop about 12 miles away from me that sell the emerald green so im going to give them a ring today and see if they will deliver for cost, if not i could buy a load.

Well I dont know about teh haylae but its genrally good quality (made onsite) and hes never had a pot belly untill the speedi beet, unless I try it again and see how he goes?
 
I think what _HP_ was trying to say is that the cheapest form of extra fibre is forage (not necessarily hay, but also haylage/grazing). Unless you are already feeding ad-lib haylage, I would do that first. Remember that you need to feed more haylage than hay (by weight) for the same amount of calories as the haylage contains more water.
If your yard is not keen on letting you feed as much haylage as you want, you might still end up better off money-wise if you agree to pay a little extra to be allowed ad-lib haylage compared to buying more bagged feed.
 
supsup said:
I think what _HP_ was trying to say is that the cheapest form of extra fibre is forage (not necessarily hay, but also haylage/grazing). Unless you are already feeding ad-lib haylage, I would do that first. Remember that you need to feed more haylage than hay (by weight) for the same amount of calories as the haylage contains more water.
If your yard is not keen on letting you feed as much haylage as you want, you might still end up better off money-wise if you agree to pay a little extra to be allowed ad-lib haylage compared to buying more bagged feed.
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Hes having ad-lib haylage now but theres only so much hes eating.

I'm going to try him on the speedi beet again see if that will help.

Hes coming back into work now from an op so I dont want him losing more weight, its took me ages getting looking okayish as he went very lean back end of last year.
 
Oh you're so lucky that you're able to get hold of the Emerald Green Feeds! I've had a sample a few years ago from them and thought both their grass and alfalfa pellets were excellent quality, and the alfalfa was very cheap. Their grass pellets is more expensive than those that I can get from my closest feed shop (Northern Crop Driers Graze-on Pellets).

If you are going to try Speedibeet again, maybe you should try the Fibre-beet instead? From a convenience point of view for you, it would be quicker to prepare the Fibre-beet instead of Speedibeet with separate alfalfa pellets. The Fibre-beet should put on good condition if fed in large volumes, and that's the one feed you can certainly feed a lot of without worrying that you're overfeeding. (And then add a balancer or multivit/min supplement too, as British Horse Feeds suggests should be done when feeding their Fibre-Beet.)

There's so much feed to choose from, it can be hard to decide sometimes. You'll get there eventually! And I'm sure your horse will help you decide. He'll say no thanks to those he don't like to eat, and he'll enjoy others and look really good on it. Good luck!
 
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